YMMV / The Sons of Katie Elder

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Was Dave Hastings trying to save Deputy Latta's life because he had been pleasant and helpful to Dave before, or was Dave simply worried that killing him would draw too much attention to him and his father's illegal activities?
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The movie ends before any personal character drama is actually resolved. Even though the Hastings are dead by the end of the movie and the Elders will presumably have their land back, there's also the problem with Tom being a wanted man. The Judge, however benevolent, still has to send him back to the town he shot the barkeep in order to fulfill the law. Given how Tom fled because he was an outsider and feared unfair treatment, it's unlikely he'll be treated any better now. The fact that he was recently just arrested for murder and was involved in a violent family feud also won't help his case.
• Ho Yay:
  • The film largely consists of 4 grown cowboys palling around with one another, even to the point they start wrestling in a muddy river while on a cattle drive. Another thing to notice is that the one woman who appears prominently is not much of a love interest, and is more or less ignored by John Elder. Though this trope is probably negated for most people since said cowboys are brothers.
  • At some points, Curley looks a bit too into fighting with John Elder. This could be just because he's a Psycho for Hire who enjoys violence, but his repeated interest in John Elder makes it feel like this trope at times.
• Moral Event Horizon: Hastings crosses it once he kills Sheriff Billy and frames the Elder brothers for it.
• Questionable Casting: John Wayne was felt to be too old for his role (being thirty-five years older than the actor playing his youngest brother), while the Italian-American Dean Martin was thought to be out-of-place playing Wayne's brother.
• Retroactive Recognition: The Big Bad is Inspector Luger, Barn.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Dave Hastings. While fully complicit in his father's lawbreaking, he doesn't play with the Villain Ball like his father does, avoiding extra conflict and even trying to spare Deputy Latta from being murdered, simply for being unrelated to the vendetta with the Elders. Being A Lighter Shade of Black earns him no pity from the Elders, who utilize the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on him and practically assist his own father in shooting him quiet.

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