Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in the pilot episode (“Fire in the Hole”) of Justified.
(Photo by: Prashant Gupta, FX)
Vitals
Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, proudly old-fashioned Deputy U.S. Marshal
Harlan County, Kentucky, March 2010
Series: Justified
Episode: “Fire in the Hole” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: March 16, 2010
Director: Michael Dinner
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designer: Ane Crabtree
Background
BAMF Style concludes this weeklong focus on first episodes with an outfit from the pilot of Justified, one of my favorite modern crime shows.
Justified‘s pilot has a special place in my heart for being filmed in southwestern Pennsylvania, just outside my hometown of Pittsburgh. According to a June 2009 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the region was chosen for both aesthetic and practical reasons as a viable double for the South but with a tax rebate for film and TV productions that Kentucky doesn’t offer (or at least didn’t offer at the time.)
The pilot mostly follows the plot of Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole”, named for the signature catchphrase of criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is recalled to his home region of eastern Kentucky, an area proud of its coal-mining roots. In fact, Raylan had once dug coal with Boyd, who has used white supremacy as his ticket to attracting a gang of hoodlums that support his lifelong ambition of blowing shit up.
As tensions escalate throughout the episode, the trigger-happy Raylan finds himself sitting across the dinner table from the wild-eyed Boyd… each man armed with a .45 as Boyd’s fiery sister-in-law Ava (Joelle Carter) stands over the scene with a shotgun.
What’d He Wear?
After making his move to Kentucky, Raylan Givens re-purposes the jacket from the tan lightweight wool suit that he wore in the opening of the episode while serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Miami.
The single-breasted suit jacket has slim notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets with pick stitching throughout.
The tan suit jacket has two brown horn buttons that he wears open as well as four smaller brown horn buttons on each cuff. A brief shot of Raylan performing a one-handed brass check on his 1911-style pistol (see “The Gun” section below) gives a glimpse of the suit’s white-and-blue striped lining, a lining that I’ve seen on suits from Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger although Raylan has also been known to be dressed in Banana Republic suits.
The jacket’s straight padded shoulders and suppressed waist develop the silhouette of the strong Western lawman, though the slight bunching over his holster on his right hip may explain why Raylan switches to darker suits and sport jackets through the rest of the series’ run.
Raylan defines cool, calm, and collected as he stands before a .45-waving Boyd Crowder.
Raylan wears a black cotton long-sleeve shirt with a spread collar, front placket, and patch pocket on the left breast. The rounded cuffs are fastened with a single button.
Raylan opts for jeans even with his business suit jackets, so this dressed-down occasion is no exception. His jeans are a rich dark blue denim with a low rise and straight fit through the legs. They are likely Levi’s due to his known preference for the Levi’s 501™ Original Fit jeans through the rest of the series as well as the signature “Arcuate Design” stitching on the back pockets. (Levi Strauss includes “arcuate” among the many helpful terms in its online Denim Dictionary.)
Raylan prepares for a dangerous evening encounter.
Raylan would also wear Levi’s belts later in the series, but a reader commented on an earlier Raylan post that he was wearing belts from Chambers in the first few episodes. The belt isn’t seen closely enough to discern exact detail in this episode, but it’s dark brown tooled leather with a large steel single-prong buckle. Fastened to the right side of his belt is a tan-finished full-grain leather holster for his sidearm, in this case a compact 1911-variant Colt pistol. In subsequent episodes, he would carry his USMS-issued full-size Glock in a Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent® thumb break paddle holster.
Raylan’s tooled brown leather belt coordinates nicely with the rugged textured of his custom Lucchese anteater cowboy boots, which would be replaced by ostrich leg boots from the second season onward.
The “Harlan County” courthouse on screen is actually the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, built in Washington, Pennsylvania, at the turn of the century at the then-extravagant cost of $1 million.
Reportedly, Timothy Olyphant had approached Hollywood hatmaker Baron Hats to create Raylan’s signature headgear, a sahara tan cattleman’s hat in 200XXX beaver that Baron Hats now markets as “The RG”, in an obvious nod to our protagonist. However, some readers have commented that Raylan’s hat is clearly a Stetson “Carson” hat (which would be re-branded and re-banded for sale as the “Marshall” due to its association with Justified.)
Either way, the hat is truly the stuff of classic Western heroes with its tall 4.25″ crown, 3.25″ brim, and the slim tooled brown leather hat band with a three-piece buckle set.
Though the interior of the courthouse was in Washington, Pennsylvania, Raylan and Ava find themselves on the balcony of the Armstrong County Courthouse in Kittanning, 70 miles northeast, with the city’s famous Citizens Bridge in the background between them. This bridge would also famously be featured in The Mothman Prophecies (2002).
The first episode establishes Raylan’s single piece of jewelry, a sterling silver horseshoe-shaped ring that he would wear on the third finger of his right hand for the duration of the series.
Dirty phone.
Before his sportier TAG Heuer would become Raylan’s watch of choice, Timothy Olyphant wore a stainless steel Rolex Submariner in several scenes of the pilot with the distinctive “Oyster”-style link bracelet prominently seen as he lights Ava’s cigarette for her.
Only the Oyster bracelet is visible here, but other scenes (featuring other outfits) plainly show Raylan wearing a Rolex Submariner.
“Fire in the Hole” marks the one and only appearance of Raylan’s tan suit jacket. The only other time he would wear a tan jacket is his more casual suede coat seen in a few following episodes in the first season.
How to Get the Look
Raylan Givens re-purposes an orphaned tan suit jacket with a black shirt and dark jeans as he finds his new look in his old hometown.
- Tan lightweight wool single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and single back vent
- Black cotton long-sleeve shirt with spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
- Dark blue denim Levi’s 501™ Original Fit jeans
- Light tan 200XXX beaver cattleman’s hat with a thin tooled leather band
- Lucchese brown anteater cowboy boots
- Dark brown tooled leather belt with steel single-prong buckle
- Tan full grain leather Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent® paddle holster for a SIG-Sauer P226
- Rolex Submariner stainless steel dive watch with black bezel and dial and “Oyster” link bracelet
- Sterling silver horseshoe ring with braided side detail
The Gun
A classic 1911 is a fitting choice for a tough, old school lawman like Raylan Givens, though it’s only seen as his sidearm of choice in the pilot episode before switching to his Marshal-issued Glock 17.
Having presumably had his SIG-Sauer P226 used in the Miami shooting suspended, Raylan arms himself with a compact 1911-series pistol for the final act of “Fire in the Hole”. The experts at IMFDB identified the firearm specifically as a custom Colt Officer’s Enhanced Mark IV.
Raylan performs a one-handed brass check on his subcompact Colt. Don’t try this at home.
The Colt Officer’s Enhanced Mark IV is a variant of the 3.5″-barreled subcompact Colt Officer’s ACP pistol introduced by Colt in 1985 as a response to the many downsized 1911 pistols being produced by competitors like Detonics and Rock Island Arsenal. The Colt Officer’s ACP would make its first prominent screen appearance in the hands and holster of Al Pacino’s character Lieutenant Vincent Hanna in Heat.
According to IMFDB, Raylan’s custom pistol is differentiated by its “added beveled mag well, 3 hole combat trigger, and Novak sights.”
Raylan keeps his pistol trained on Boyd after firing a shot over Ava’s dining room table. Based on the position of the slide, it appears to have jammed.
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the first season but watch the whole show.
The source material, Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole”, is also excellent reading.
The Quote
You make me pull, I’ll put you down.
Gallery
