Long, long post...
In a world where apathy and moral distancing has become the status quo, it is easy to label an action right or wrong, good or evil. This is an outgrowth of what I term the politics of the other (whereyby one defines ones view in opposition to something else.) Everyone has this mechanic of thinking ingrained in them from birth. It is how most of human civilisation, as it currently stands, thinks. It iss more of a generalized Them and Us. (Despite protestations that the world is actually gray, common patterns of thought will fall back on this.)
In his address to the congregation, the priest speaks of the evil of good people doing nothing. This then sets the tone of the rest of the movie.
I would argue the point that the Brothers McManus are not fanatics. They are not going out to right every wrong, and stuff the notion of their God down the throats of heretics and pagans.
What they are doing (in so far as we can glean of their motives) is enforcing a code of behaviour, which can be morally and ethically (and moral/ethical values themselves are something which people are not naturally born, it is a learned thing) followed by the majority of the civilised world. Murder, rape and theft are terms that are not given positive values in most civilisations on this world. Indeed, each is punishable to one degree or another under statute law. Rape is also morally repugnant to most people.
But the values attached to each of those terms is relative to the culture/civilisation applying them. And those civilisations and cultures which in eons past thrived on murder and rape are vilified in hindsight. (Looking at Norse history whose, although popularised through myth, main activity to gain wealth and status was reaving, and institutionalised slavery for some part of their rise.)
And this is not even touching on the concept of double standards.
What does this have to do with the topic? Our reliance on other people to determine right and wrong has removed us from the messiness of the world at large. We have become cerebrally removed from the actions, but are encouraged to pass judgement on them, by a set of values to which we have been indoctrinated.
I am not saying that all of our values are faulty, but we (as a whole) have ceased to question the validity of actions taken on our behalf.
So, are the brothers McManus and their father, acting with the right intent?
Yes. Absolutely. They have assumed the stance of acting for the values to which each and everyone one of us has agreed, but is doing nothing about. (I mean this in the greater sense - how many people on the street would raise a hand to stop a pursesnatcher, how many people would keep on walking after they had heard a cry for help. Quite a few. The majority of people, I would say. Including (sad to say) myself in most instances. I once did interfere with the rape of a girl, because it was repugnant that this would occur, but I did not do a blessed thing to stop a thief after he had snatched a purse.)
Are the brothers McManus and their father doing something illegal?
From a statute law perspective, yes. Violent vigilantism is a punishable crime, because people are not allowed to enact correctional actions on their value system - that right was given up and passed to those people put into authority.
Phew - I rambled on a bit, didn't I? Some (perhaps even many) people will disagree with the opinions and statements I have made above. But rememeber that I was not talking about individuals. I was talking about the human race as a whole.
