I'm amazed at the many reviewers here who tried in vain to attach their nonsensical "liberals are bad" political views to this movie. Totally off-base. Likewise the various gun nuts who have chimed in and claimed that in the Wild West, "everybody carried guns" and would have dealt with the bad guy in "the right way" -- meaning, by murdering him any way they could. Again, no -- not even close.
America was built by hard work and perseverance, mostly by people who never saw, never needed, and never used, a gun as anything other than a necessary tool. The idea that what "made America great" was the willingness of Americans to shoot each other, is so profoundly stupid that it's mind-boggling that people still believe it--despite the obvious fact that no living person has ever seen or heard of "kill all the bad guys" ever being used anywhere on earth as a way of developing a society of peaceful, lawful citizens. No one ever created peace by being violent.
Such is the attempted message of this film -- if violence is used as a tool, it will be applied equally to both the "bad guys" and the "good guys" and you'll be no better off in the long run. It's a good message; too bad the "story" is told in such a clumsy, slow-paced and confusing way.
Keeping in mind that the film was made in 1967, when SO many acts of senseless violence were occurring in America's cities and in the jungles of Southeast Asia, it makes sense that movies of the time would try to make the point that nothing ever comes from the use of violence except the escalation of violence. Henry Fonda's character represents all of us who look at the world's problems and simply don't know what to do -- we just know that in order to create a peaceful world, using violence has never worked yet. This movie tries to get us to think about that -- too bad its comically bad elements are such a distraction.
America was built by hard work and perseverance, mostly by people who never saw, never needed, and never used, a gun as anything other than a necessary tool. The idea that what "made America great" was the willingness of Americans to shoot each other, is so profoundly stupid that it's mind-boggling that people still believe it--despite the obvious fact that no living person has ever seen or heard of "kill all the bad guys" ever being used anywhere on earth as a way of developing a society of peaceful, lawful citizens. No one ever created peace by being violent.
Such is the attempted message of this film -- if violence is used as a tool, it will be applied equally to both the "bad guys" and the "good guys" and you'll be no better off in the long run. It's a good message; too bad the "story" is told in such a clumsy, slow-paced and confusing way.
Keeping in mind that the film was made in 1967, when SO many acts of senseless violence were occurring in America's cities and in the jungles of Southeast Asia, it makes sense that movies of the time would try to make the point that nothing ever comes from the use of violence except the escalation of violence. Henry Fonda's character represents all of us who look at the world's problems and simply don't know what to do -- we just know that in order to create a peaceful world, using violence has never worked yet. This movie tries to get us to think about that -- too bad its comically bad elements are such a distraction.