What is the theme?

I have not seen this film, but have read the short story. From the story, we know that Farquhar is being hung for trespassing and interfering with the repair of the railroad or bridge, we don't know which one. I think the more general theme is illusion vs reality. A majority of the story deals with the moments leading up to his hanging and what he is thinking. We don't find out that this is all in his head and that he is really dead until the end although the author alludes to it.

By the way, funny quote from Late Night, that was soooo funny.

I think most people read too much into it. The man is being hung for treason, and the audience is seeing and feeling thru his eyes and brain what he is going thru while he is about to and while he is being hung. I was a student filmaker in college, and I used this film as a blueprint for mine. I found a large tree with a substantial population of ants.(our assignment was to pick a theme). I then proceeded to hang my best friend from the tree. First we let hundreds of ants crawl onto the rope. My first shot was a close-up of the rope with ants on it. I then cut to his face; then to a shot of his feet hanging and then to a full shot of his body and finally to a long shot of him hanging from the tree with his horse standing next to him. By the way, he was hanging there the whole time while I kept moving the camera; for a total of at least 3 minutes. We used a false knoose in front tied to the rope while he was being dangled around from the back around his mid-section. No one who saw the footage knew how it was done! He had large western clothes on to hide everything. I'm sure someone will read this and try to duplicate it. Just make sure the knoose is not the weight bearing part OK.