"It's a helluva thing killing a man. You take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have."
I've probably seen the film Unforgiven a half dozen times since it's release in 1992 and every time I see it I think I come to understand a little more and, in turn, love and appreciate it a little bit more. the first time I saw it, at the ripe and wise age of 17 years, I was disappointed in it. I wasn't expecting a western with any type of depth to it at all, just badass Clint Eastwood going to work on the bad guys. But the more times I viewed it, the more I came to understand that this is a complex movie about the reality of who these characters really are, as opposed to what they pretend to be, either by pretending to be something different now, or pretending they were something different in their past. This is a movie about legend and reputation and how that compares to the reality of things.
The reputation of William Munny brings about all of the events of this film by having the "Schofield Kid" tracking him down to partner with him on a contract job. Even though he initially refuses the offer, he looks around him at his life as a dirt poor pig farmer with a yard full of sick hogs and decides to take the job after all. It's a theme that has been used in movies for years. Superman II and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies dealt with this question as well by wondering if someone like this can ever really leave who they really are behind them and live a "normal" existence or whether it will follow them always.
The Kid is one of two characters in this movie who initially seem unnecessary and wasted. The other one is W.W. Beauchamp, the biographer for the notorious English Bob. Both of these characters seem to be throwaway one-dimensional caricatures as opposed to being fully realized flushed out characters. They both start out as obnoxious, cocky shit-talkers who are riding the coattails of the legends they're keeping company with. As the reality of the world catches up to them though, the characters undergo an organic development and have a lot of depth by the end of the movie.
Beauchamp follows English Bob like a lapdog, as he is his meal ticket, writing dime-novels about his adventures as a quick-draw hero known as "The Duke of Death". As his legend is debunked and mocked by Gene Hackman's character of Sheriff "Little" Bill Dagget, Beauchamp jumps ship and takes up company with the Sheriff. That's when we see that each man, when they have a willing biographer, becomes a boastful narcissist, embellishing stories about their exploits for the sake of their own egos.
When Beauchamp starts to see the reality of his new hero, he becomes disgusted by the harsh reality of what Little Bill really is. He's little more than a brutal mob boss who rules the town of Big Whiskey by intimidation, beating and whipping anyone who threatens to cause trouble. Beauchamp stays on board with him, but can never really bear to look at the reality of what's going on. When Bill beats Will Munny, Beauchamp closes his eyes and recoils in fear and disgust.
On the reverse side of that same coin, Will Munny spends the movie downplaying his legend. He claims to not remember his exploits and tends to blame all his notorious brutality on his being drunk and credits his late wife for curing him of that. The Schofield Kid idolizes him for his infamy and is constantly pestering Will for stories of the old days and trying to impress him with what a badass he is. By the end of the film, when the kid actually kills a man and sees it up close, he realizes the ugliness of this world and how much he doesn't belong in it. It's a great scene when he realizes how wrong he was to idolize William Munny and to try and be like him and gives the character the depth he deserves.
I've probably seen the film Unforgiven a half dozen times since it's release in 1992 and every time I see it I think I come to understand a little more and, in turn, love and appreciate it a little bit more. the first time I saw it, at the ripe and wise age of 17 years, I was disappointed in it. I wasn't expecting a western with any type of depth to it at all, just badass Clint Eastwood going to work on the bad guys. But the more times I viewed it, the more I came to understand that this is a complex movie about the reality of who these characters really are, as opposed to what they pretend to be, either by pretending to be something different now, or pretending they were something different in their past. This is a movie about legend and reputation and how that compares to the reality of things.
The reputation of William Munny brings about all of the events of this film by having the "Schofield Kid" tracking him down to partner with him on a contract job. Even though he initially refuses the offer, he looks around him at his life as a dirt poor pig farmer with a yard full of sick hogs and decides to take the job after all. It's a theme that has been used in movies for years. Superman II and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies dealt with this question as well by wondering if someone like this can ever really leave who they really are behind them and live a "normal" existence or whether it will follow them always.
The Kid is one of two characters in this movie who initially seem unnecessary and wasted. The other one is W.W. Beauchamp, the biographer for the notorious English Bob. Both of these characters seem to be throwaway one-dimensional caricatures as opposed to being fully realized flushed out characters. They both start out as obnoxious, cocky shit-talkers who are riding the coattails of the legends they're keeping company with. As the reality of the world catches up to them though, the characters undergo an organic development and have a lot of depth by the end of the movie.
Beauchamp follows English Bob like a lapdog, as he is his meal ticket, writing dime-novels about his adventures as a quick-draw hero known as "The Duke of Death". As his legend is debunked and mocked by Gene Hackman's character of Sheriff "Little" Bill Dagget, Beauchamp jumps ship and takes up company with the Sheriff. That's when we see that each man, when they have a willing biographer, becomes a boastful narcissist, embellishing stories about their exploits for the sake of their own egos.
When Beauchamp starts to see the reality of his new hero, he becomes disgusted by the harsh reality of what Little Bill really is. He's little more than a brutal mob boss who rules the town of Big Whiskey by intimidation, beating and whipping anyone who threatens to cause trouble. Beauchamp stays on board with him, but can never really bear to look at the reality of what's going on. When Bill beats Will Munny, Beauchamp closes his eyes and recoils in fear and disgust.
On the reverse side of that same coin, Will Munny spends the movie downplaying his legend. He claims to not remember his exploits and tends to blame all his notorious brutality on his being drunk and credits his late wife for curing him of that. The Schofield Kid idolizes him for his infamy and is constantly pestering Will for stories of the old days and trying to impress him with what a badass he is. By the end of the film, when the kid actually kills a man and sees it up close, he realizes the ugliness of this world and how much he doesn't belong in it. It's a great scene when he realizes how wrong he was to idolize William Munny and to try and be like him and gives the character the depth he deserves.
On another note, I think Unforgiven marks some of Clint Eastwood's best work as a director. The wide shots of the three assassins riding through the big sky country of the American West is amazing. Not only the scenery and how massive and open it is, but the color palattes of these shots due to lighting and timing being just right as they shot.
I also think Eastwood paces this movie brilliantly. He builds suspense slowly in just the right places in this film. In the clip I linked above, there's the way he cuts back and forth between the Kid having his drunken breakdown under the tree and the rider coming out from the town. Eastwood's Munny is in the middle of it taking it all in and offering up the morals of the story, miraculously without clubbing the audience over the head with them. This is a scene in which we get suspense, and character development all at once.
Likewise with the scene in the jail and the showdown between Little Bill and English Bob. Little Bill offers Bob a pistol and we wait to see if English Bob will actually take it, and if he does whether or not he's acutally fast enough to live up to his legend and gun down Little Bill. It's an insanely well written scene with a twist on the end and Eastwood shot it and put it together just right to keep the audience on edge without any cheap punches.
A personal favorite shot of mine is when Morgan Freeman's character agrees to come along on the killing. This shot is filmed well, timed well and acted perfectly. You can actually see Morgan Freeman agreeing to it without him saying a word, just as he steps through a doorway and his Spencer rifle comes into frame. It's a shot that's completely priceless in my mind.
In summary, Unforgiven is basically unlike any other western, especially any other Clint Eastwood western you'll ever see. Instead of glorifying the lawlessness, and murderous ways of so many infamous men of Western Legend, it demonizes it. It makes it all seem like what it more likely was, a world of ugly horrible deeds carried out by men who had basically traded their souls for money and reputation.
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