Simple but detailed explanation for those confused

For some reason some seem confused by the plot. While it isn't directly handed over, it is explained in close enough detail. Firstly, it's important to understand what religious repent entails. The entire beginning speech serves as a statement that the events told by Dutch are a late life religious experience followed by repenting of his sins. This alleviates supposition by implying that his repents are honest and represent the story unable to be told by a character due to that character being dead. The importance lies on the responses and actions of the living characters and not the murder victim as he only serves to set up the slowly revealed backstory.

John's sister/Ben's mom is having an affair with Dutch. The affair breaks at some point since she separates from her husband and Ben goes to live with John. Dutch and Dee Dee are drinking on a cliff, she asks Dutch to run away with her and he says no. and she kills herself. The father decides to abandon his life and son after that, leaving John to raise Ben.

John stops speaking to Dutch, Dutch begins religious repent years later. Shows up and tells John that the night she killed herself, he was there. As stated by Danny when he talks to John and refers to Dutch repenting for that "last night with Dee Dee". It's safe to assume that it was new information that Dutch was present and chose not to save her or could not save her, hence John snapping. It is strongly suggested that John did not have the intent to kill Dutch, given the beginning of the murder scene involves him hesitantly and slowly walking up behind Dutch who's still walking upright. It's only after he dies that John goes into panic mode and burns the body and arranges it to look like a disappearance.

Similarly, when John kills Danny, he watches from the shadows for a good long while before taking action and hesitantly approaches just like before. Despite Danny having a gas can and a revolver, he doesn't act until he begins to approach the house, gun in hand. John is not a vicious killer, he's an old man protective of his life and his nephew who snaps as anyone could in light of new long scarred information, and then accidentally goes too far but it is too late.. Even after hitting Danny with the rifle, he doesn't strangle him for a short while after that. Similar to the beginning, it's not until he's deep into a moment that he reaches that point of no return epiphany. In this case being that Danny, much like Dutch, was a sketchy drunk who had John targeted. At that point it was a kill or be killed situation.


There's certainly a deeper religious context to the film, but for the sake of plot summary, there it is.