Unforgiven

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For the 1960 Western directed by John Huston and starring Audrey Hepburn, see The Unforgiven (1960 film). For the song, see The Unforgiven (song). For the WWE pay-per-view event, see WWE Unforgiven.

Unforgiven is a 1992 revisionist Western film which tells the story of a retired gunslinger who takes on one more job for the money. It stars Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek and Frances Fisher.

The movie was written by David Webb Peoples and directed by Eastwood.

It won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Clint Eastwood), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

It was inducted into the United States National Film Registry in 2004.

Eastwood dedicated the movie to former directors and mentors Don Siegel and Sergio Leone.

Plot

The movie opens in a Wyoming brothel in 1880, as a cowboy slashes a prostitute's face for laughing at him. The sheriff fines the cowboy and his friend (who tried to hold down the prostitute) seven ponies - payable to the saloon owner (and defacto pimp), Skinny. The prostitute's co-workers are furious that the two cowboys got off so easy and offer a $1000 reward to anyone who kills them. A would-be assassin calling himself the Schofield Kid (Woolvett), in his search for partners, recruits William Munny (Eastwood) - an infamous retired gunfighter who is now both a widowed parent of two children, and a pig farmer whose stock is dying of swine fever. Munny recruits a former associate, Ned Logan (Freeman), to help them hunt down the two men responsible for the attack on the prostitute.

Meanwhile, another gunman, "English Bob" (Harris), is also on his way to collect the bounty. Bob arrives in town and claims that he is carrying no firearms, even though his revolver is in plain sight. Bob has also enlisted a writer to chronicle his experiences, in a book called "The Duke of Death." Little Bill Daggett (Hackman), the venomous local sheriff and a former gunfighter, corners Bob and his biographer, and disarms him. Little Bill then ruthlessly beats Bob, to serve as an example to all those who are trying to collect the prostitutes' bounty.

As Little Bill ridicules and insults the jailed English Bob for the benefit of his biographer, Ned and Munny catch up to the Kid. After reaching town on a cold, rainy night, they enter a saloon for a drink and inquire about the reward. Munny remains at a table while Logan and the Kid go upstairs for some bedroom fun with the ladies. While waiting for his friends to return, Little Bill discovers Munny is wearing a gun. A town ordinance prohibits guns — upon entering town that stormy night, Munny failed to (or chose not to) see the sign alongside the road stating this. Weak and feverish, Munny is in no condition to fight back as Little Bill brutally beats him in full view of the patrons. Munny manages to drag himself out of the saloon as Ned Logan and the Kid jump out a second-story window. Logan and the Kid then get Munny to high country above the town.

Once Munny has recovered sufficiently from his injuries, the three men ambush and kill one of the two cowboys in a canyon. It is at that point that Logan realizes he can no longer stomach murder, and decides to head home. Munny and the Kid find and kill the other cowboy in an outhouse outside the isolated cabin where he had been holed up, guarded by several associates.

Meanwhile, Logan is captured and brought back to Little Bill, who beats all the information he can out of him, killing him in the process. Logan's corpse is put on display in an open coffin outside the saloon. Outside town, the Kid is shaken by the murder he has just committed and admits that it was his first murder; he renounces his planned gunfighting career. One of the prostitutes brings the reward money to Munny and tells him of the death of Logan. This angers Munny, who drinks an entire bottle of whisky and rides into town to confront the sheriff.

Munny walks into Greely's Saloon, where Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid. Munny demands to see the saloon's owner; when Skinny, the owner, identifies himself, Munny shoots him with a shotgun at point blank range. Little Bill curses Munny and tells him that he has killed an unarmed man; Munny replies, "Well, he should have armed himself before decorating his saloon with my friend". A gun battle ensues where Munny kills five men and seriously wounds Little Bill. While Munny is reloading Ned's rifle, he hears Little Bill try to cock his gun; Munny steps on Little Bill's hand and points Ned's rifle directly into his face. Little Bill realizes what is to follow and says "I'll see you in Hell, William Munny", to which Munny replies "yeah" and shoots Little Bill in the face. Munny leaves the saloon, warning away anyone who would attack him with threats of great violence, and rides away.

Themes

Violence

Its major theme appears to be the nature of violence, and the discrepancies between actual and fictional violence. While most Westerns glorify violence as a justifiable means to an end, Unforgiven self-consciously depicts violence more realistically, and shows how it harms everyone around it. Certainly Munny does not glorify his incredibly vicious and violent past - indeed, when asked by the Sheriff if he is the William Munny who killed women and children, he replies, "I've killed just about anything that walked or crawled at one time or another, and I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned." There is no glamour in the representation of Munny as a dangerous and vicious killer. Yet the film ends on a contradiction, as William Munny becomes at the climax a classic Western hero, and defeats the villains in a conventional shootout scene. Thus, although many critics and viewers consider the film emphatically anti-violence, David Webb Peoples has stated in interviews that this was not his intention: he wished to present violence as morally complex, as opposed to simply "wrong". Further, although it appears that Munny "wins" a classic showdown with the villains, he certainly does not depart on any classic note. As he prepares to exit the saloon, Munny shouts out, "Any man I see out there I'm gonna kill him! Any son of a bitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only going to kill him, I'm going to kill his wife - all his friends - burn his damn house down!" As even the prostitutes who brought him look on in horror, Munny then turns on his horse and shouts if anyone harms any whores he will return "and kill every one of you sons of bitches." This is unquestionably no classic western departure, as in a teary eyed Shane; it is far more brutally realistic.

Masculinity

Another, related, theme appears to be the connection between violence and masculinity. Twice in the film, violence is linked to the male organ; the film begins with a prostitute having her face slashed for mocking a man's under-endowment. Secondly, Little Bill equates the penis with a gun, when explaining a nickname. Moreover, the film further links violence with masculinity in the Schofield Kid's attempts to prove himself, especially when his visual deficiency is exposed. In Unforgiven, violence is not glorious or heroic, but rather is stereotyped as a painful expression of insecure masculinity. We also see the influence of women on this, generally stereotyped as a civilizing presence. The most obvious example of this is William Munny's mentioning of how his late wife helped him to become a more stable and gentler character. Another example is Munny's meeting with the prostitute who was attacked and we see his gentler side. The caring and gentle sensibilities of women contrast strongly with the vengeful and violent nature of men, to which William Munny ultimately succumbs. However, as with many of the themes in the film, the influence of women is not clear cut and absolutely good or evil. While in some instances they act as a "civilizing" force, it is the prostitutes who offer the bounty and demand blood despite the victim's willingness to forgive her attackers. While Clint Eastwood's earlier roles often featured a "Man with No Name", an anonymous stranger who wanders in to town to set things right, William Munny can be seen as a man who is trying to escape his past identity as the Man With No Name. As other characters relate the horrors of his life in the various atrocities he has committed early in the movie, he continually refers to that being the past, before his wife helped him to stop drinking.

Alcohol and Violence

Alcohol and its relation to violence is another theme explored in this movie. Munny stresses throughout the movie he was a different person before his wife helped him stop drinking, and he repeatedly says he does not remember much of his early violent life, because he was drunk. The viewer sees in the end the demon that alcohol fully unleashes in Munny.

Response

Critical response was generally very positive. The film makes appearances in both the IMDB top 250, and the American Film Institute's 100 years, 100 movies. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years. Many critics acclaimed the film for its noir-ish moral ambiguity and atmosphere.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} They also acclaimed it as a fitting elegy to the western genre. It was also admitted to the National Film Registry, and is one of the few westerns in the registry.

Academy Awards

Award	Person
Best Picture	Clint Eastwood
Best Director	Clint Eastwood
Best Editing	Joel Cox
Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Gene Hackman
Nominated:
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration	Henry Bumstead Janice Blackie-Goodine
Best Actor	Clint Eastwood
Best Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Best Sound	Les Fresholtz Vern Poore Rick Alexander (as Dick Alexander) Rob Young
Best Original Screenplay	David Webb Peoples

Trivia

• Eastwood told Gene Hackman to model his character on the then LA Police Chief Daryl Gates.
• Most of the rain in the film was artificially created, because Calgary was experiencing a dry spell. However, the snowfall when William Munny was recovering was both unexpected and unscripted.
• When Eastwood phoned him about the film, Richard Harris was watching High Plains Drifter on TV.
• The film has several allusions to earlier Westerns. The opening scene, where Eastwood stands at the grave of his dead wife, is an allusion to John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. The scene in which Eastwood tells Rubinek to pick up the rifle in the bar is an allusion to Once Upon a Time in the West, which has a similar scene in a bar. Also, Rubinek asks Eastwood how he chose the order in which to kill six men, stating that Little Bill had explained to him that an experienced gunfighter always aimed for the best shot in his opponents first, when facing multiple opponents. Eastwood responds that he "is that right, I reckon I just got lucky in the draw." (he then states, "but I was always lucky at killing") This is an allusion to The Outlaw Josey Wales, in which Eastwood, in response to a similar question, gives a detailed response about their various holders and demeanors, similar to what Little Bill had told Rubinek an experienced fighter should do.
• At the end of the film, there is a post script which says that Munny moved to San Francisco to sell dry goods. San Francisco is the setting of a number of other Clint Eastwood movies, including the Dirty Harry series and Escape from Alcatraz.

External links

• [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
• [}}}] at Box Office Mojo
• [Unforgiven] at the [Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films] list

 

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