Hand Of God, a thought

[Drayton Calhoun]

Saw another thread, but cannot find it now, about the Hand of God in 3:10 to Yuma. There were comments about how odd it was that there would be a crucifix inlet in the butt of the pistol. Folks need to remember that before annexation by the U.S., the whole Southwest was essentially Catholic. Not that odd, really. Also, Ben Wade was paradox in himself. His line, 'Don't play with that, that pistol's got a curse on it' I think makes reference to it.

[Bob R.]

Yes, with a but -

The original Spanish colonists were Catholics, and the Indian Conversio's, but the vast majority of the original wave of Anglo's were very Protestant. Would a guy named Ben Wade in 1880 likely have been Catholic? I think the odds are agin it.

What drives me nutty in recent moivies is most images of what would be Preachers are depicted as Priests, down to the crossing of oneself, as if the only religious denomination in America were Catholic, at the time when they were still a minority, albeit a steadily growing one.

[Drayton Calhoun]

A good point, but what I was getting at was that the Ben Wade character was an enigma. We have no background on him, after all, it's a work of fiction. Who knows, really, what the whole story behind the crucifix and the name 'Hand of God'? Mr. Prince, though was pretty straightforward...total psychopath, he was easy to understand! Elmore Leonard's characters are mostly enigmas. John Russel "Hombre" Bob Valdez and several others. Each one had a side that we never see, but it is implied. They are nearly two dimensional, yet, towards the end we see the depth of them. That is what always drew me to his books. There seems to be a disconnection between his characters past and what we are seeing.
  As to how religion is portrayed in film now, I must agree with you. It has gotten to the point where I half way expect to see a Buddist monk in a convent preaching about Mohammed to a group of Amish nuns, if you get my point.

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[kcub]

Ben Wade could have killed some Catolico and taken a fancy to the purty gun, not so out of character.

Besides, we know the gun has a history but not what it is which is kind of cool.  Kind of like in the movie Wild Bill when the poker game gets broken up and Jeff Bridges looks at everyone's cards and mentions that one of them "had a mighty interesting hand", but we are left to wonder what it was.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Yeah, mebbe better not knowing the whole story behind it. Makes it kinda cool. Keep the mystery there, what exactly made Ben Wade tick...

[kcub]

Ben Wade was an interesting character.  Complex.  A somewhat likeable bad guy kind of like Lee Marvin in "Seven Men from Now". 
Worthy of a sequel.  And/or a prequel.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Absolutely. Russel Crowe has a way of getting inside a character, much like Val Kilmer. A prequel would be cool.