Rancher character gay?

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Could be gay, but it could be that Vern had no one, no family, etc, and Braxton was literally all he had. What's an old coot to do with no employer and no family? Imagine Alfred sans Batman/Bruce Wayne...what would old Alfred do?

Clayton's comments about ranchers, sheriffs and such can never keep their women. Of course, does that means Clayton thinks they are all gay...I doubt it. He was trying to get under Braxton's skin, though. Whether that was to imply Braxton was inadequate as a husband or that he was gay...I don't know.

not at all.

Vern was just a simple minded pauper. if Braxton died he had nowhere to go, nothing to do.

Vern most likely spent most of his life in service to Braxton and felt the attachement as a devoted family member.

Just like in the Civil War. you'd think the slaves would leave at the first chance, but when the Union attacked, instead of escaping to freedom, alot of slaves stayed with their southern families, or "masters". They might have been slaves, but after spending a lifetime in devoted servitude, they simply could not leave and felt an attachement, which today seems bizarre to us, but makes sense in context.

Vern was the same.

There is no homo subtext here to be found. Thats just silly.

You are totally wrong.He was a dedicated servant.

Wow. You must have seen a different film. It's fairly clear that Vern is mentally handicapped and has all the social skills of a four year old child and acted like a 4 year old child defending his father figure.

I can't say for sure if Braxton and Vern were gay lovers. Perhaps Vern was just a devoted servent and "loved" Braxton for the home and purpose he gave him. When Logan came to kill Braxton, Vern tried to persuade him not to. But his true motivation? Who knows? It seemed more likely to me that Braxton had a sick attachment to his daughter Jane. The fact that Logan was a criminal didn't do him any good in Braxton's eyes, but Braxton would have strongly objected to Jane becoming attached to ANY other man but him. He was a control freak who wanted to keep her there for himself forever, in whatever context he could. Besides that he seemed to be asexual. The type that's highly moralistic, because they themselves are incapable of sexual passion and therefore don't want anyone else to. All the characters are deeply ambigous and conflicted, just as real people are. And the story itself is also conflicted, just like the real world. There are no real heroes here, but how often is life that black and white? Not very. But it is great story telling, because it forces everyone who sees it to interpret it through the lens of their own moraliy, and draw their own conclusions about what it all means. Even Clayton, as sick and homicidal was he was, was not completely devoid of values. His values didn't really redeem him in any sense, but he did have a strong, if misguided, sense of "justice". He did only kill criminals after all. But again, what was his true motivation? We must all draw our own conclusions. Me personally, I think he hated criminals and felt it was his duty to punish them. And oh, by the way, his greatest pleasure in life was the thrill of killing itself. The classic definition of a psychopath. He too seemed to be asexual, because he was incapable of relating to any other human being except in a completely negative way. And notice even when he was taunting someone, he did it with a venire of politeness. In other words he was patronizing and condecending to everyone. Truly a man that wanted and needed no one else. At least he acted that way.

Verne was calling him Mr Braxton when he was basically already Jelly at the end. No, this sounded more like a devoted simple minded servant, who does not know what to do, when his master is gone. If he would be his gay lover, he had unlikely called him still then just Mr Braxton.