I’m not a big Western fan. In fact the only Western I love is Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. I’ve been trying to watch Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns as a lesson of movie history but now I see I don’t have to. Unforgiven distills the essence of all westerns and imbues it into a piece of amazing simplicity and beauty.
The story itself reflects the dying genre, both Sergio Leone and Don Siegel died a few years before the movie was made. William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a vicious killer and thief who changed his evil ways 11 years ago. His wife gets credit for that but she’s been dead for 3 years and Bill has to take care of his two kids and his hog farm. Things are not going well for him.
The Schofield kid comes up to his farm looking for a partner. A cowboy has cut a prostitute’s face and the girls who share her profession gather enough money to put a contract on his and his buddy’s heads. In true Western tradition, Munny refuses but later succumbs to the lure of easy money. Munny can’t do it alone, he’s barely able to ride so he goes on to recruit his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). The thousand dollar award split three ways does all the talking he needs.
They go after the cowboys but are faced with another Western archetype – the corrupt, sadistic sheriff – “Little” Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman). Little Bill beats “big” Bill Munny for basically showing up in town.
Once trio manages to kill the first cowboy in a memorable scene, the sheriff and his men go after then. Ned decides to quit but is caught and tortured by the sheriff. The final act of the movie focuses exclusively on Bill Munny and his revenge.
After the showdown, Munny rides slowly on his white horse. He’s given death and he’s taken death. If the pale horseman of the Apocalypse had a face and a voice and posture, it would be his. (Btw, Clint Eastwood did a movie called Pale Rider in 1985.)
This is probably the last and greatest of Westerns. Clint Eastwood does an amazing job as a director to capture perfectly an era gone by. A must-see.
I beleive that you can do better.
(work on your stills)