Yeah, like it or not, Rooster becomes in a strange way Mattie's "dream come true". He avenges her father's death and saves her life.
I don't agree with the OP that the director wants us to see Rooster's methodology as an unmitigated good to be emulated, a throwback to a sadly-missed, nostalgically-mourned "better day" where the Law has all the rights and citizens - accused of crime or not - have none.
But I do think - along with the adaptation of author Portis' seemingly authentic attempt to authentically portray the old times and even the language - that the director wants to take us back to a time and a place where the only Law there was, was enforced by types like Rooster.
For example, I never cared much for the behavior of Whites or Indians in movies like Black Robe and Last of the Mohicans, but some of my moral approbriation was put on the back burner of "suspend your moral outrage". And that's because the film showed historical people doing - mostly - what they thought they had to in order to survive. Same deal with Rooster and his methods.
Yes, sometimes Rooster wants to be judge, jury and executioner, instead of being just what he's paid to be - a Marshall who needs to take prisoners to jail. Yes, he takes too much on himself - and that's always bad in a lawman, and worse when he perhaps too hastily executes his quarry even before he can get a chance to take them prisoner.
But other than this single horrific (lethal to others) character flaw, Rooster is portrayed as doing what he has to in order to get the job done AND to ensure his own survival.
I don't know anyone who admires Rooster - except for his courage and his offbeat "curmudgeonly" humor. Nobody I know who has watched the film took away a message that says "Yeah, that's the way it should be - let the marshalls and sheriffs and cops and detectives shoot 'em up and to hell with the legal system and civil rights." The director, Portis, and the screenplay all consciously portray Rooster as a man of the PAST - even in this film about the "Old" West, Rooster is already, quickly, becoming an anachronism. He's one of the last dinosaurs. We can admire his courage and cleverness, but not always his methods and philosophy. And most of us don't want to _BE_ Rooster Cogburn, or have him for our local law enforcement.
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