...continued from here
This movie plays on two levels, one that is superficial and easy to understand (shoot 'em up) and one that is much deeper. If you are interested in what the story was about, you will need to look deeper. They could have put a "Hollywood ending" on this movie, and I'm kind of surprised (and pleased) that they didn't.
The important thing to understand about this story is what it is NOT about. It is not about a man who finds lives in Texas and finds some money, etc. This is a story that symbolizes good and evil and how it weaves endlessly in the lives of humans. If you are unsatisfied with the ending of the story, you were watching the wrong story. If you watch it again and ignore the "plot", you will see it. The plot in this story is just the excuse to examine the weightier themes of the human condition. If I sound like your high school English teacher, it's because literature always deals with these themes. This is a story of the generations of sheriffs and how evil weaves into their lives. It's explained at the end of the movie by the dream.
If you're interested in the theme of persistent evil in the human condition for many generations, read John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", the classic of the genre.
