Why burn it down?

I agree and have already posted that I found it heinously excessive.
Also that if he were one to indulge in such prideful macho revenge, he'd have to torch the gambling saloon too, for also kicking him out.

It was beyond ugly and brutal to burn people alive and eclipsed whatever goodness prompted him to escort the crazy ladies all the way East.

And what about that poor servant whom he shooed away before setting the fire? Where the heck was she supposed to go?

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The hotel had to burn due to inhospitably, which contrary to popular belief was the reason Sodom and Gomorra was destroyed in an inferno. This movie had deep religious overtones. In Hebrew and Muslim traditions communities showing inhospitably is a huge no-no! Remember the village protecting the Lone Survivor fought the Taliban just to protect a guest in need.

He was stealing from some wealthy, powerful men with resources, that may just be petty enough to track him down soon or sometime after, ...especially after ruining the preparations for the big players they had coming.

He already had a group of men trying to hang him just for squatting on temporarily vacant property, so it isn't that far-fetched that the hotel owners would track him down for stealing and ruining their business deals.

Plus I doubt he gave a da*n about the type of men that would let him and the women starve.

And besides, the worst that should have happened to the men was a few broken legs/bones from jumping out the windows. It was just lame writing to have them burn alive.

He did exactly what I would have expected him to do. In fact, when they were leaving the hotel I said, "He will be back and burn that hotel down, just wait and watch". Those well fed pretentious arse holes didn't care that there were 4 starving people that had not eaten for 3 days and they had tons of food. I don't think they really should have died in the fire, just the hotel burned was good enough. But you know that's how karma works.

why not burn it down? who's gonna know he did it? who's gonna come after him? they all presumably died in that hotel and no one else was there to see anything. maybe his character was a little wrong in the head. maybe he just felt like it was revenge for turning down starving women. besides that, did you expect him to burn the place down? probably not, so perhaps the film was unpredictable, just like it was when Swank's character was killed off or when the guy at the end kicked her tombstone off the boat. again, you probably never saw any of that coming. maybe TLJ wanted to break a couple of cliches by making a movie that, regardless of quality, at least gave you a couple of surprises. surely you can appreciate that.

This is not something that is out of character, quite the opposite. We are given hints to Jones' character, and his rather selfish and cowardly past. He is by no means the cliched` good guy that a lot of people are comfortable with seeing on the silver screen.

He is instead a complex character that is capable of all the different types of actions and emotions of any real human, including cruelty and harshness. Burning down the hotel would be excessive and out of place for Swank's character, not Jones'. That scene intentionally shows us that he is nothing more than a human being, who is capable of mercilessly killing people in the name of saving his own, even killing them when there really is no reason to.

There would be no point to purposely give the audience an insight to a character's questionable past, if all the current actions of said character contradict such a personality. What he did was perfectly logical for his rationale. He saw it as justice, plain and simple.

Please keep in mind that this is not my favorite movie, far from it. I actually watched it to its conclusion because I'm a huge fan of Tommy Lee Jones. I will agree that this movie is very bleak, slow paced, and depressing. However, sometimes movies like this are a good change of pace compared to the usual rubbish that we see in theaters.

Cheers
Rob

Besides the hotel-owners being dicks and Lee-Jones character having been hinted as more than a little lawless, the reason also lie in the fact that this is a Western. You need to have a look at the mythology of the western, the fact that these developers who were going to build into the West were going to end the way of life of people like Lee Jones character. I saw him burning it down as the last vengeful but futile act of the cowboy/law-breaker against encroaching civilization.
Its a hard empty cruel plains but it was what they called home, and any other place didn't want people like him.

Also if you see the man keeps getting pushed out of places for not being good enough. We are literally introduced to him with him being blown out of a home he wants to claim as his own. Its a running theme, the burning down was him finally not wanting to take it anymore.