The ending was not mystifying

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 2007)

For some reason many people are having a difficult time understanding the ending to this movie, so let me explain it for you.
The plot is allegorical. Dan Evans is 'the moral man' and Ben Wade is, quite simply, the devil. The devil can be charming to suit his needs, and he can get inside the heads of most men. But he can't be killed. He's a force of nature. And that's why he isn't executed in the course of the story, saving everyone a lot of time and tragedy. That and a respect for the rule of law by our protagonists.
But on rare occasions the devil can be swayed by a particularly excellent display of virtue. The devil was once an angel himself.
By the end, Wade wanted Evans to live because he had passed the devil's test. He was willing to put his life on the line, despite all temptation to the contrary, for no better reason than that it was the right thing to do. By the end of the story the money was completely unimportant because the drought had ended. He continued only to redeem himself in the eyes of his family, and also in his own eyes. Evans was setting an example for all men.
The devil, though evil, is also very prideful, and considers himself principled. Dan Evans beat the devil to as much of an extent as any man ever can. Evans was a righteous man and earned survival. So it was Charlie Prince that killed him. Charlie Prince, a demon who embodies wanton slaughter, whom even the devil cannot keep in check all the time. He kills his gang for disobeying his desires, out of a devil's measure of compassion for Evans, and because he has come to believe that it is wrong for him to spoil Dan's son, who has once declined to justly kill Wade and again declined to murder him in cold blood, in deference to the rule of law, and because his father had taught him better than that.
Wade does not go to prison. The purpose of getting on the train is part of maintaining the illusion of triumph for young William. I imagine that as soon as he got a few miles down the track, he would have broken out of the train and rode off. Any other action on his part would have resulted in William shooting him.
The main point of the allegory, therefore, is that although man cannot BEAT evil, he can still refuse to join it. And the hope comes in when you realize that eventually evil will always turn on itself. It is inherently self-destructive. Though the devil lives to fight another day, and the moral man dies, he dies a saint, and there is at least one family in Bisby that will not be corrupted by him.