I never knew what that meant? What was it supposed to show?
shareI think it kind of shows that little bill, like munny, is best at gunfighting more than anything else.
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He's building a house to "sit on the porch, smoke a pipe and watch the sunset" in his own words.
He's a lawman, hoping for a peaceful retirement, and trying to keep the peace in his town. Yet he unjustly beats and kills people during the process.
The house is just there to give a clue about his character. His incompetence in building it is also symbolic.
Never be complete.
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It shows that he's a fake. At core, he's a "bad" man, like Munny. But he fashions himself as a community leader and upstanding sort. Except, note that his house is broken and leaky; he can't really be a successful builder because he is, at core, a sadistic bully and murderer and destroyer. Somewhat like Munny, who parallelly can't run a farm worth a damn.
Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.share
Exactly! No matter how badly they want to be better men, they just don't know how.
sharegood points.
it also needed a hot tub.
Key to winning baseball games? Pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.-Earl Weaver
He's not only a fake, but he's unwilling to face evidence that contradicts the reality he's built up. When he's confronted with the fact that he made the roof himself, and the house is a poorly built mess, he gets an angry look in his eye. He looks ready to do violence just for the suggestion that he's not really a carpenter.
He takes shortcuts with justice the same way he takes shortcuts in construction. His failed house is representative of his failure to keep law and order. He thought he was being just by keeping the courts of the mess with the ranchers, but his failure to actually mete out justice caused the whole mess-the call for revenge, the death of Ned, and then Munny's spree of vengeance.
Ad-hoc justice usually isn't just. A house built by a novice is a poor house.
I think that's about right. He sees himself as just a regular guy, trying to do his job. He's not really much different than Munny though. In fact, they both used to run with the outlaw crowd, IIRC.
shareThe whole movie has scenes of what killing really does. It takes away everything you had and everything you're going to be. I think it was suppose to be a message to viewers that look at killing as a quick way of winning with no regards to what you just did....regardless if they had it coming or not.
shareAlso, if I might add, everyone is gonna die but not everyone knows the time, place and method. Most people are/were 'in the middle of doing something' when they die, even if they die in bed, in their sleep, they probably had plans for the next day even if only to water the plants whatever. Little Bills was completing the home of his retirement. If you were suddenly 'aware' that you were about to die, as in 'this is it, right now - not next week or next month', don't you think the first thought to go through your head would be something like 'but I'm not ready to go yet.. I still have to do x,y,z' ? Bill knew this was it, right here, right now, no do-overs or 2nd chances as Will was a known vicious killer of about anything that moves. The house was symbolic of course but his line was very well thought out - what would a man think/say when he knows hes about to die... all those things left unsaid, left undone - right ?
sharePersonally I see two things in the house thing.
Firstly, much like William's life as a farmer, it goes horribly and they struggle building and maintaining a 'normal' life with a roof above their heads.. they're just born killers, hard men who fight their entire lifes.
Secondly.. I think it showed a bit of his character. He struggled building that house, obviously he's clumsy and not at all creative or skilled in such works, yet he keeps going and keeps building it; he won't give up and does what he wants even if it's hard or impossible.
I always saw that line as Bill suddenly feeling cheated there at the end, that he didn't "deserve this". Sure he knew that he did some terrible things ("I'll see you in hell"), but that he did them in service of his community, at least recently, anyway.
I think he felt he had turned the corner, morality-wise, that he was as a good man now. And I think that is why he insisted on building a house himself, instead of getting someone competent to do it. In his mind, this cemented his being a part of the community of good people.
It's just not FAIR.
"How can you shoot me down like a dog, like a criminal, when I was building a HOUSE?"
Everyone has already made some very perceptive points, partifularly the parallel between Little Bill's leaky house and his leaky nature.
The tragedy of Little Bill was that he really did believe he was a decent, upstanding citizen seeking to do the right thing, and that he thus deserved a decent, quiet life. He'd deluded himself into thinking he was a moral character, and in many ways is an illustration of how the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. I'm far from anti-religious but his attitude reminded me a lot of some zealous Christians, Muslims and other religious followers who enforce their views and way of life on others in the most unbending and forceful manner possible.
By contrast, William Munny was a bad man, a gunslinger-for-hire, but unlike Little Bill he knew what he was, which makes him the film's hero by default.
> I think he felt he had turned the corner, morality-wise, that he was as a good man now.
Exactly that while at the same time Munny also saw himself as a reformed man, "cured of whisky" and now a "different man" but if you look at the title of this movie you'll notice none of these things really matter: you can't undo killing someone through good behavior.
I always thought that he meant "hey, I'm a normal person now! Normal law abiding people that have a good sense of right and wrong build houses and try to conform to their community. I'm not like you William Munney, killer of women and children."
My opinion is that Little Bill really thought that he was a good guy doing a tough job and that he should be rewarded for that. Or at least, not shot to death on a bar room floor. To me, he looked like a hypocrite, after his indifference to what happened to the goodtime girl, his brutal treatment of Bob and Ned, killers may they be, a lawman should have made sure they went to trial for their crimes. The "I don't deserve this! I'm building a house!" comment demonstrates his narcissism and begs Clints response - "Deserves got nothin' to do with it."