The subject: What is moral? What is right?

I don't understand why people can't look at this movie as a starting-off-point for discussion.

It's just a movie.

It's a pretty darned interesting movie in terms of morality: Robert Mitchum has shot a man in the back and has served prison time; Rory Calhoun has stolen a horse and a rifle to claim a stake in gold, even though he's promised to make it up to Mitchum; Marilyn Monroe's morals and allegiances are all over the map. And we're in the American West, where ideas of morality were vastly different from those we have in 2014.

As for the attempted rape scene: Why not use it as a springboard for discussion instead of passing moral judgments on it?

In REAL LIFE, such situations happen, and couples end up happy. I'm not saying it's not sick, but I'm saying it happens. Can we just use this movie to help us understand the world?

If 61 years after this movie was made, people still get their ideas of morality from it, I think that's sick. But it's 2014. Let's look at this movie as a fascinating relic of its era and use it to understand the world a bit better.

I think it's a good and fascinating movie. I don't condone the attempted rape, but it makes me think, and that's what works of art do -- make a person think.

That's all. Feel free to disagree.