Rooted for Butler all the way. Why not?
Not a single second did i root for Fox and never stopped rooting for Butler.
Don't know why people have a hard time with this. Yes, Butler ends up being a psycho, but i totally understand his motivations. Or better said, what caused him to become like that. Never understood this essential need people have for a likable character or a "sympathetic anti-hero" as some critic argued in order to be able to root for him.
If the story is centered on one character and the movie makes him appear charismatic, smart and bad4ss, then i'm more than likely to root for him. The only thing i can't condone is rape. Any character than commits such a thing no matter the reason doesn't get my support and is directly considered despicable in my book (Then again, in Watchmen, the Comedian is clearly a rapist, yet i loved the movie and his character... -_-' So yeah.)
Anyway, point is, i don't see any difference between rooting for a Tony Soprano or a Clyde Shelton. If i can root for the former, i can root for the latter.
Both kill innocents, torture who they see fit and act according to a crooked sense of justice and/or honor, but at least Clyde Shelton has pretty compelling reasons to have lost touch with reality and his humanity.
Illustrating this idea is the scene between Fox and Butler, when Butler threatens Fox's family and Fox says something like "If you even think about touching my family... If you even think...". Butler's and fox's look on their face at that moment showed that Butler proved at this very instant to Fox not only that Fox would have done the same, but also that any man with mean and opportunity would have done the same (not necessarily to same extent though). That it is only when one's family is effectively threatened that one knows to which extend one is willing to go in order to keep the loved ones safe. Or avenge them, i suppose.
Now all that being said, does that mean that i condone rape, murder and torture in real life? Do i believe that people guilty of gruesome crimes such as pedophiles, rapists, sadistic murderers and psychopaths should be put to death or deserve the worst tortures imaginable? Do i support revenge killings or the idea that people should take matters in their own hands? Nope. Quite the contrary actually.
Yet it doesn't prevent me from rooting for a psychopath killer who kills innocents in a movie. If i can root for Hannibal Lecter, i can root for Clyde.
It's all a matter of perspective, if the story is told POV style or centered on one character trying to achieve something and whose motivations have been explained, then i will root for him (not even necessarily since i don't give a damn as to why Lecter kills!).
Show me Adolf and Eva hand in hand on foot running away from Soviet soldiers and their dogs, i will root for them (I felt for him in "Der Untergang"!), but show me the same story from the soldier's perspective tracking them both relentlessly with his dog, i will root for him.
Spacey's Frank Underwood is a ruthless self-centered murderous prick, yet i love him! Where's this dilemma folks seem to have?
People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefsī²