Was alcohol/drinking meant to be the real villain in the story?

In the movie there seems to be a lot of people giving a lot of reasons why people like Munny or Ned or even Little Bill do their killings.

I’ve seen people seem to suggest that Munny went to kill Little Bill for revenge; or because Little Bill “Deserved it”, or because of the negative effects of greed and corruption found in the town. The one thing I don’t see much about is the issue of alcohol.

Little Bill made it a specific point to suggest to the writer that the main thing which makes a good gunfighter/killer is a cool hand and steady nerves – not speed or reflexes per se, but actually taking your time to do things slowly and intentionally.

This suggests to the audience (in the form of the writer) that the people in the story think that the thing that is most useful to being a killer is the “resolve” that is required. It’s a hard thing to kill a person; it’s not glamorous, or dramatic, or fun or cool – it’s the kind of thing that (even if the person deserved it) will give you nightmares about it later; it leads to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in many veterans and (in general) is something which is really hard for us to do to another human being, even if they do deserve it.

Being drunk eliminates those sensibilities (typically); it keeps us from panicking – because we’re too drunk to feel nervous. We’re too drunk to feel guilty for ending the life of a human being – we’re even too drunk to feel especially afraid when confronted with overwhelming odds like a room full of deputies when we’re all alone.

The movie makes a big point to suggest that Munny was able to reform better after his wife got him to give up drinking. Throughout the movie Munny refuses drinking in general and struggles with the real issues of what it’s like to kill human beings and live with himself later.

In the end of the movie before he decides to attack and kill Little Bill, he starts to drink – and he drinks a lot.

He drinks enough that at the end of the movie he seems to be somewhat confused and uncertain at what’s going on (based on his answers to the writer, and his reactions to the deputies, even his somewhat disoriented speech to the people who may be watching him on the street after he leaves; he may not be completely drunk, but he was drunk enough that his speech was not characteristic of how he had spoken up to that point).

Prior to his death, Little Bill reminds his men that Munny only has one shot left and that once Munny fires, the rest of the room should easily wipe Munny out – but when they try we see that most of the men shoot carelessly, or badly, and some not at all – they don’t act “cool under fire” and they are genuinely afraid of what Munny will do to them if they shoot and miss.

Of course, these men are sober at this point – Little Bill had just promised them drinks for helping out, but they hadn’t gotten to drink yet. They were sober; they were afraid, they were afraid that if they shot and misfired, they’d be killed; if they missed, they’d be killed; if they didn’t get out of the room, they’d be killed (most of them, some tried to fight, but they were panicked and nervous and made mistakes and Munny – in his own words – “was lucky in the killing”).

At the end of the movie I think that there has been a point throughout the story regarding the dangers of alcoholism and drinking in general – I think that being sober verse being a drunk is a thing that makes a big difference in the movie, and I think that the movie worked hard to demonstrate the dangers of drinking, and what being a drunk could do to “normal” people.

What does anyone else think about the issues of alcohol in the movie – I’m genuinely curious to know other people’s thoughts on this.