I am unusually happy lately. And I hate this part – the moment I become aware of this ‘unusual’ happiness. I hope I will evolve to someone who would not crib about being aware of happiness.

 

And I wish I would have the patience and wisdom of writing down the events that lead to the awareness. I guess I am just trying to protect my individuality – you know with each passing day, you lose a part of the original you and crap of such high caliber.

 

And I should also give up the idea of always writing original and meaningful. In short term, nothing is meaningful anyway.

Well, For what it's worth,...

To me the whole sense of this thread having a back and forth over who's the Bad Guy
or How Bad were the Good Guys compared to the *really* Bad Guys wuold give the Director
and Writers a lot of pleasure. Why? Because I think that this ambiguity is precisely
The Point of the whole movie.

Each man presents himself as a Liar. A Liar to themselves about thier own character:
The Kid lies from the get go about being a ruthless Killer.
The Sheriff lies about preserving Justice when all he practices is sadistic tyranny.
English Bob lies about being a Famous Desperado when he's just a Hired Thug & Braggart.
William Munny lies about being Decent & Reformed when Greed and Revenge reveal his
hypocritical slide to become a Muderous and Drunken Monster (at least briefly).
Even Ned - perhaps the most "true blue" -lies about his abilities as a Killer and tries
to run home. How ironic it is when he needs to make his own brand of "money shot" !
At least Ned dies for a friend though even there he talks after torture.

It is also ironic that the two perhaps most slimey characters, English Bob & Beauchamp
survive to basically go right back to what they did before and never express repentence
of any sort. Their Cowardice is revealed but never punished - English Bob's beating is
more disfiguring than crippling and serves to better show his miserable true self. Both
are Ugly Men. They are Scavengers and Bottom Feeders rather than the Predators they wish
to be.

But the central ambiguity of the movie has to be that between Little Bob & Munny.
Munny is clearly positioned in the film where the "Hero" ought to be but his actions
inevitably reveal his capacity for the monstrous. Little Bob ought to be the "Bad Guy"
for his sadism - especially of Ned. But he is the Sheriff and he constantly remarks
on things on a way that display understanding of the way the Real World works around him,
his crafty judgements of danger, and finally he seems to truely not fear Death when it
comes. None of this fits with the desperate, craven, or blind arrogance we expect from
our Bad Guys.

So what's *my* take on it all?
The ambiguity of all these characters revolves around each's own personal dance with EVIL.
The Kid flirts with it. English bob and Beauchamp hide from it in cowardice but support
or exploit others' fear of it nonetheless. Ned at first denies it by rationalizing the
Bounty Hunt but tries to flee from it and dies.

Only Munny and Little bob walk upright into thier destinies without fear or repentance of
any kind. Little Bob pays for his sadism with his life, the End of Munny is not quite made
clear. Supposedly he "settles down" to what his wife gave herself to bring him to at the
cost of her own life - Reform. But it is uncertain and unproven by film's end. The film
seems to side with Munny in that Vengence brings him to his Evil Deeds but Little Bob
accepts Evil as a Necessity of Life - a tool which he tries to wield for his own devices,
but one that he ultimately fails with just as he also proves himself to the "worst damn
carpenter." He is Destroyer, not Builder. He just kids himself otherwise.

FWIW,

Andrew
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/board/nest/154589055?p=2)