Unforgiven

                                                            

Prior to discussing Unforgiven, allow me to explain my (lack of) credentials of my familiarity with some of Eastwood’s work.

Unforgiven came out when I was about 20, and I watched it on video and thought it was a very good morality tale with incredible performances  but there were some factors that affected my enjoyment of it.

For starters I was largely unfamiliar with Eastwood’s work as a director or actor, having only seen The Rookie, (his largely forgettable attempt at a Lethal Weapon type buddy film) and a few scenes that my dad (who was a big Eastwood fan) had shown to me when they popped up on TV (“Make my day” from Sudden Impact and the climactic bare knuckle fight from Any Which Way You Can) so the aspect of the film which relies on audience familiarity with the Eastwood cowboy myth was a little lost on me.   Additionally, at that age I could not relate to William Munny’s demons at all though I thought the character was intriguing and much more vulnerable than I expected.  I also could not see why the Richard Harris character subplot had been included since it took up a lot of time and had served only to introduce the writer character who to me was not interesting.  And lastly, I could not understand all the subtleties of the Gene Hackman character, Little Bill.  


However the film was so acclaimed and I admired its strong points enough that I began to both follow Eastwood’s career from that point forward (as of 2015 he has directed 18 films since Unforgiven, of which I have seen and mostly enjoyed, 14, in addition to the two he has only acted in – In the Line of Fire and Trouble with the Curve) and I began to seek out some of his older work.  Within a few years I saw the five Dirty Harry movies, A Fistful of Dollars, The Beguiled, Play Misty for Me and The Outlaw Josey Wales.  I am very impressed that Eastwood continues to be so prolific and of his films my personal favorite is Million Dollar Baby.

Recently I re-watched Unforgiven.  I remembered the broad strokes of the plot pretty well but this time I took extra pleasure in absorbing its details.  It is a magnificent film.  Below are my thoughts on it, in no particular order.  As always I will discuss spoilers and assume the reader has seen the film.

• ·         The title is quite bleak.
• ·         Every act of violence has consequences for both the infiltrator and the victim.  Although Little Bill never openly regrets his actions he goes to great lengths to justify them suggesting that they bother him.
• ·         Although the film is very dark there is a fair amount of humor.
• ·         The presence of the writer, Beauchamp, played by Saul Rubienk, with his glasses and short stature stands out in the room full of tough guys, is the way of commentating on the West.  When Little Bill reads Beauchamp's story of English Bob’s kill and then explains the reality of the situation it is one of the film’s way of dispelling the romanticism of the West.  Beauchamp interacts with each of the three killers but only the most ruthless of them, yet the most principled, has no interest in the fame.
• ·         All of the killers (Munny, Little Bill, English Bob) are older men (played by actors who were all 61 during filming) but the Kid who is in his early twenties, like most people who brag a lot, is very “unaccomplished”.
• ·         Little Bill is by far the most fascinating character in the film.  Like Munny, Little Bill has a past and is probably trying to compensate by presiding over a “moral” town.  However his violent nature precludes this since he viciously and publicly beats anyone who he feels poses a threat to this town.  Little Bill is also building a house, perhaps trying to make something instead of destroy it (the house means enough to him that it is in his last words) but like his attempts to remake himself, the house is askew.  One of the best small moments is when Beauchamp asks Little Bill who had built the leaky roof on the jailhouse.  It is clear by Little Bill’s reaction that he himself had and his anger reflects his insecurity.  The moment contains suspense, (the audience fears for Beauchamp’s life) a little comedy (it is a little funny) and sad (as much as one can feel that way) for Little Bill. 
• ·         Although Munny takes the job of for his kids, they are pretty young and he leaves them alone for at least a couple of weeks while he goes on the job (for which he may not come back) which suggests irresponsible parenting.
• ·         Would Munny have pursued the bounty if his wife was still alive?  He continues to claim that his wife cured him yet he is out for a killing, even if he is pursuing it with less bloodlust than presumably he has in the past.
• ·         One of the film’s best moments is pain Morgan Freeman conveys when Ned cannot kill the wounded cowboy in cold blood.
• ·         Francis Fischer’s character, Strawberry Alice, acts very maternal to her group, all of whom are portrayed as women who have little other choice in life.  The one who is attacked, Delilah, played by Anna Levine, is the most sympathetic character in the film.
• ·         I think the reason Bill does not punish the two cowboys more severely is his desire for a righteous community.  Although in this time prostitution is legal Bill probably does not approve of the lack of morality of their profession.
• ·         No one refers to Ned by his color, despite the time period (1881) and the nature of many of the main characters, even the Kid who shoots off at the mouth constantly.   However the whipping he endures by Little Bill has slavery overtones. 
• ·         Although Ned is a more personable character than Munny (Freeman suggests in the Blu-Ray bonus materials that he probably was more of a backup character to Munny, who did the bulk of the killings), he is flawed in that first, he is unkind to his wife, and then he cheats on her at the first opportunity with the prostitutes.   When Ned asks Munny about his sex life perhaps that is Ned’s way of expressing the lack of same with his wife.
• ·         The scene in which Little Bill gives the gun to Beauchamp I think, apart from showing off, comes from a desire to feel the tension of a stand-off, which as a former gunfighter himself, Bill probably longs for.
• ·         When Bill and Munny (who of course are linked by having the same first name) first meet if the expected faceoff turns out to be a humiliating beating when Munny is already in a weakened state, which ultimately leads to a figurative death (Munny after the beating hallucinates an Angel of Death) and then after three days of recovery a resurrection of sorts.  Munny then gradually becomes the old killer completing the journey when he drinks the whiskey, after learning of Ned’s death.   The beating Munny suffers is not like other savage beatings Eastwood has taken in films like A Fistful of Dollars or Sudden Impact, which are only temporary moments that slow his characters down, kind of like tranquilizing a tiger. 
• ·         The ugliness of death is perhaps most felt in the scene in which Davey is shot.  Davey gets an extended painful death and he is guilty more by association, and had tried to atone for his role in the crime.  Quick Mike, who had actually hurt Delilah, has a more embarrassing death but it is much faster. 
• ·         Interestingly Mike’s death is edited so Munny and the Kid see him in the outhouse first and then the film cuts to Ned’s whipping, and then the film goes back in time and shows the cowboy first go  the outhouse and explains why he is not being guarded.
• ·         Many people have written about the long scene between Munny and the Kid after the outhouse killing.  All I will add is that William seems accepting of what has happened, if not content.  The Kid’s “innocence” is gone and he seems to be longing for it, but Munny is “unforgiving”, saying “well, you sure killed the hell out of that guy today.”
• ·         Thunder accompanies the shot in which Munnyappears in the saloon. Little Bill, who that day tortured a man to death and then placed his body in an open coffin with a warning sign, dares to claim the moral high ground with Munny.
• ·         In the gunfight, from a staging point of view it might seem unrealistic that Munny would out-battle a saloon full of armed men (though only five are actually shot) but the film has already established that only a gunfighter can shoot straight while being shot at, so even though others fire first, Munny has the advantage because he keeps his focus (and also drops low, making himself a smaller target).
• ·         When Munny finally does kill Little Bill Munny makes him wait, knowing it is coming.  The question is Munny trying to find the courage to pull the trigger or does he draw it out to torture Little Bill?
• ·         The final title reveals that Munny goes off with the children, seemingly for a happier existence to sell dry goods.  It certainly makes sense that Munny would disappear but it had seemed that he had given into his fate as a killer and would just resume that lifestyle but apparently not.
• The main theme is a lovely string melody.
• The only fault for me The Kid becomes quite annoying as a character as the film goes on.  He is named The Schofield Kid, which to me sounds like his attempt to have a name similar to The Sundance Kid though in 1881 The Sundance Kid would only have been a teenager himself (he made his name in the 1890s), but any fan of westerns would know it.  Whether or not that is the case I think a lot of his bragging scenes could have been trimmed down without hurting the narrative.

In conclusion, Unforgiven is a powerful film that, to date, closed out Eastwood’s western career and started a new phase of his career, which continues to generate fascinating work. ****