Two Rode Together: The Cannon

The image that follows is one of my favourite shots from Two Rode Together, a late-career John Ford Western starring James Stewart and Richard Widmark as two hard men hired by the U.S. army to aid in the rescue of several white children captured by a group of Comanche. However, the rescue, its political machinations, and the re-integration of these now-adults back into white society proves far more complicated than anyone could have guessed.


Prior to this shot, Widmark's character, Jim Gray, has returned to the white settlement with one of the two "rescued" white youth; but, Running Wolf, as the boy now calls himself, is much older than when he was captured, has adopted the culture and look of the Comanche, and wants nothing to do with this past life. Furthermore, his actual identity within the town is in question as several parties make conflicting claims on him. Meanwhile, Stewart's character, Guthrie McCabe, waits in the wilderness, about to do battle with the Comanche husband of the captured white woman he's leading back to town.

Now, in the shot itself, townspeople meet with representatives of the Army to decide what to do with Running Wolf.

Notice the way in which Ford visualizes the potential for conflict, and even violent conflict, in this shot: the townspeople, on the left, oppose the Army men, on the right. They're face-to-face, as the saying goes; and they're squaring off over Running Wolf, who sits in between. Incidentally, Running Wolf's seated position, lower than the other characters, and in the background, suggests his own impotence with regard to his own future. It will be decided by others: the winners of this brewing conflict.

At first glance, it would appear that, in this squaring-off, the townspeople have the upper hand, and it is they who will dictate the fate of Running Wolf. After all, they occupy more screen space than the soldiers. However, this is an illusion! For, notice the cannon—that crucial and carefully positioned piece of Ford's mise-en-scene. It is an extension of the soldiers, and carves out a nice chunk of space in the townspeople's area of the screen. Call it a large and secure beachhead, an established base deep in enemy territory. Even more important, though, is where the cannon is pointing: right at the people!

The townspeople have the numerical advantage, but the Army has the weapons. Or, as Jim Morrison sang for The Doors:

They got the guns,
But we got the numbers.

Except, it's the guns that are key this time.

Two Rode Together is a middling John Ford film (in terms of artistic and technical value, as well as ideology), but this is one of several moments of genius sparkled throughout.