The ending

Why don't you try writing a coherent sentence? Maybe you'll get an answer then...

The ending is just what it should have been. The entire movie was about taking responsibility for your actions. Myrl (Cusack) took the law into his own hands when Ballard (Jones), Judge Wilkins (Pogue) and others would not take responsibility for their actions. He forced them to take responsiblity, but by doing so lead to the death of two people. If he had not taken his sentence and run from the law he would then have been no better than Ballard and Wilkins.

While I admit it was not a 'Happy Ending' by any means, it was the right and proper ending.

I would have thought by now people realized that not all movies had happy endings. This movie ended just how it should have, sad yes, heart breaking for the kid most definatly, but thats the type of man that Myrl Redding was, he was decent and just and he wasn't going to let anyone cheat him or do wrong to him or his.
Just like he said, "I didn't her, but I caused it (refeering to the farmers wife)
He knew that it was his actions that indirectly caused her death.
He didn't want to die, but he said in court he would give his life to see justice done, and justice, true justice is blind. It doesn't take into consideration the circumstances leading up to an event, what was dealt with here is the law, Redding both got what he wanted and what he deserved all in the same breath and he accepted that. I was praying that some how someone would step up and save him at the end, but then again that wouldn't have been a proper ending to this movie.
Yes the boy stayed and watched his father hang, it was a different time and place thne the world we live in today, it was alot harder and more brutal back then because that's how life was. I would like to think Reddings son grew up to be a decent and just man as Redding had been and that he learned from the mistakes his father had made

Haven't you ever seen a movie (or read a book) about hangings and other horrid barbaric forms of execution (including the friggin electric chair) where people actually gather to watch? It was totally in keeping with the times. Things were rough then, they were rough in witch trial time (try watching The Crucible) and they were rough in medieval times (hell, they still are - The Green Mile, Return to Sender/The Convicted, Dead Man Walking). People saw it as entertainment. However, the son seeing it was fitting in other ways, as the other people who have commented have outlined thoroughly. My point is that is was normal to watch, even to have the son watch.

Gee.
Thanks for tellin us :)


LovenPeace
xHolliex

I just caught this AWESOME movie last night on HBO for the first time and I know this thread is very old, but I had to respond. IMO (and everyone is entitled to theirs, so I'm not trying to change anyone's), it couldn't end any differently. Redding's actions indirectly caused the death of 2 people along with a whole slew of other laws he broke. He was a good man who took justice into his own hands fully knowing he would have to pay the consequences. Although I believe he was a bit selfish by not letting this drop and therefore orphaning his son Cage, he showed Cage (and everyone else) that he's a man of conviction and taught him to stand up for himself and what you believe in. Cage has nothing to be ashamed of and should be proud of his Father.

I didn't want to see Redding die either and kept hoping that something would save him...perhaps the judge (Goodman) would step in at the last second and grant some kind of reprieve or whatever. That would have severely cheapened the ending though, and everything Redding believed in. For the same reason, Cage couldn't 'bust him out' and even if he tried, no way would Redding allow him. He was prepared to pay the ultimate price, and as scared as he looked, he wanted to too. Most people, myself included, don't have a strong enough belief in anything nowadays to make a stand like this, even if it means paying the ultimate price. First off, I'd never have let things get that far if this had been me, but at the execution I'd be crying like a little girl begging for leniency and/or asking my son to round up our 'posse' to try and bust me out, lol!

This was just an awesome movie. I'm surprised I never heard of it before and both my wife and I were 'glued' to it from beginning to end. It also sparked a lot of debate between my wife and I about different things afterwards, which was very cool. I can't remember another movie doing that in a long time.

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