Uhm, because they are the bad guys? John Wayne films are pretty clear on why the bad guys are considered bad. I realize that these films are not high brow entertainment, but factual honesty is always a bonus. Witty false statements playing on a cliche kind of irritate me.
Yes, that's understood. But what are the gunslinger character's motivations behind wanting to kill the bad guys? After all, we encounter really bad guys all the time in our lives, e.g. Jared Lee Loughner. If he were out in the wild, would you be willing to seek out and kill him. It takes a certain kind of person to be motivated to do this. What are those motivations? For being a Western that delves into some of these issues, I love The Unforgiven.
In many periods of history (including a chunk of the 20 years of the Old West), it was up to individual members of the community to deal with the really bad guys. Killing them was the method. Holding people from historical eras (even the fiction of that era) to modern conventions / beliefs kinda defeats the purpose.
Have you actually watched any of the John Wayne flicks? The motivation is pretty self explanatory. Its like asking why the military in ID4 wants to kill the aliens. Getting shot at first is generally considered a basic reason.
You miss my point. I understand what the obvious motivation is. But actually killing a man is emotionally quite hard, especially when he's shooting back at you (this is why even some good hunters fail in these situations, there's a classic scene in The Last Samurai about this). One of my favorite gunslinger quotes is "You don't have to be fast, you just have to be willing."
Even in those times you mention, not everyone was up to the task, and not just because they weren't sharp shooters; they just weren't willing in the above sense. Think about it: Would you be able to ruthlessly kill a "bad guy", when if he shot at you first.
No, I really don't think I miss your point. I should point out every film is not a deep drama with a message. The basic plot line for a Western has many people who don't deal with the villains for various reason, thus the need for our heroes. It would be a very short movie if the whole town took up arms against the bad guys.
To the second point, if someone is shooting at me, I take a little exception at my response being called "ruthless", I would say it is more in the justified range. Given everything, yeah, I would feel bad about it, but I would defend my family / friends.
