Boondock Saints?

For my paper I watched the movie Hang 'Em High. I liked it the first time I watched it, but after writing my paper on it, I've come to appreciate it even more. I liked the messages it addressed on the ambiguous and arbitrary nature of law in the west. In the beginning of the film Clint Eastwood's character, Jed Cooper, is hellbent on finding and killing the guys who tried killing him. After being deputized as a Marshall by judge Fenton he is warned about not taking the law into his own hands and is asked to find the men, but to bring them back alive so that they can by tried and then hung. Jed Cooper makes a statement about there not being a difference between killing them out on the plains or "in front of the American flag", they'll be dead either way and justice will be served. The movie The Boondock Saints is another example of individual people taking the law into their own hands for the greater good of society. In The Boondock Saints the main characters murder mobsters, mafia members, and other murders. So what's so wrong about killing off all the bad guys? After watching movies like Hang 'Em High and The Boondock Saints, I'm almost lead to believe an eye for an eye is a justified theory. Almost. In reality everyone has their own opinion of good and evil and why should one person get to play judge and jury? Though set in different times and in completely different contexts Hang 'Em High and The Boondock Saints share some interesting points about law and the judicial system.