A neighboring, elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) inquires: "Are-are you going to eat that?" With everyone expecting hat Brooks will eat the wiggling creature, he instead offers the "nice and ripe" maggot to a baby crow (named Jake) nestled in the inside pocket of his droopy blue sweater - he is its caretaker (in its prison cage) until it matures and flies away to freedom: "Fell out of his nest over by the plate shop.To accentuate the claustrophobic, narrow corridor of the home""s staircase, the camera is placed in a fixed position at the top of the stairs for the sustained shot.The film, shot on location in Arizona (near Elgin) and Mexico, authentically chronicles an epic, bleak and tough journey, similar to the ones inThe Odysseyor inExodus(in he Old Testament), that is fraught with external dangers, threats, ests of strength, and internal contentious tensions between its wo strong-willed, conflicting leaders: a hard-nosed, bitter, ruthless and tough commanding father (John Wayne in one of his best performances and his first film, of five, for Hawks) and his men, defiantly led by his less harsh, surrogate, adopted son (Montgomery Clift, in his first film, after being noticed acting in the Broadway stage production of Lillian Hellman""sThe Searching Wind).During the long camera movement, ""Curly"" apologized for his rude treatment in the bar earlier - he placed all the blame squarely on the blonde lush, invited by Mr.