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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hijinks" data-source="post: 3823108" data-attributes="member: 31094">I liked it.  And I'm a girl and I'm not that big on westerns - I went so that my husband got to see a western on the big screen, which is rare these days.I thought that a lot of the "stupidity" was actually reference to the fatal flaws of the primary characters.  Dan Evans's fatal flaw was naivete.  He didn't trust Ben Wade, but he was still naive and didn't know how lawmen are supposed to act, and he didn't have experience with escorting a fugitive.  Making stupid mistakes is part of that.As for Ben Wade, one of the movie's themes is good vs. evil warring within a man's soul.  It's made pretty obvious by Evans's son being enamored of Ben, and Ben continually doing things that are evil, then turning around and doing something that seems kind (but actually has an ulterior motive).  For example, the son sees Ben being nice and friendly to his mom, but Ben is actually trying to scare and unseat her.  Maybe as a woman, I paid more attention to the characters' relationships with the two women in the film, than a man would?  I dunno.At the same time, Ben's capable of warmth, as evidenced in his bedroom scene with the barmaid.  He professes to be 100% bad, but he's not.  So part of the appeal of the movie is that the whole time, you're thinking he's going to redeem himself at the end, because you can see bits and pieces of what was once a good man.  He does redeem himself, but too late for Dan Evans.I thought it was good and I didn't think the actions of the characters were stupid.  They were good men who weren't used to dealing with evil men, and were out of their league.  Those kinds of men are bound to make mistakes.</blockquote>

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