Film Review: Unforgiven (1992)

No other Hollywood icon, at least among those still with us, is associated with Western like Clint Eastwood. The genre propelled him to the stardom, first on television, then on big screen thanks to Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name Trilogy. Later, Eastwood chose the genre to gain skills behind the camera and, finally, it was 1992 western Unforgiven, Oscar-winning triumph, that finally confirmed him as one of the greatest Hollywood film makers of his time.

Plot begins in 1880 in small Wyoming town of Big Whiskey. Couple of drunk cowboys assault and disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald (played by Anna Thomson). Town’s sheriff “Little” Bill Tagget (played by Gene Hackman) settles the matter by ordering cowboys to recompensate brothel’s owner with horses, which enrages other prostitutes led by Strawberry Alice (played by Frances Fisher). She and her colleagues collect US$ 1,000 and offer the bounty to anyone who would kill the cowboys. Protagonist, played by Eastwood, is William Munny, widowed hog farmer in Kansas who long time ago used to be vicious drunk and notorious killer before turning his life around and becoming dedicated family man. Financial troubles make him, albeit very reluctantly, to take offer by young and aspiring gunslinger Schofield Kid (played by Jaimz Woolvett) to join him on his way to Big Whiskey where he should kill targets and take piece of bounty. Munny, who is struggling with age and doesn’t seem to have as much deadly skills as he used to have, insists that both of them are joined by his old friend and former gunslinger Ned Logan (played by Morgan Freeman). As they approach Big Whiskey, Little Bill is determined to prevent bloodshed and maintain his authority, even if that would require to engage in brutal violence himself.

The easiest way to describe Unforgiven is to say it is a revisionist Western. Yet, many great and very different film were made under such moniker, especially in 1970s. Somewhat unsurprisingly, it was exactly in that period when David Webb People wrote the script for Unforgiven, in many ways inspired by The Shootist, one of the last great titles of the genre. Script remained unproduced and in 1980s it was acquired by Eastwood who showed great interest, but, what was very wise decision in retrospect, awaited with production until reaching the proper age. When Unforgiven finally arrived, it enjoyed success at box office at the account of Eastwood’s iconic status, but what critics liked was older, wiser and more self-contemplative Clint Eastwood, willing to critically look back on genre and the very same tropes responsible for his stardom.

On surface, Unforgiven looks like a classic western. Characters have same weapons, costumes and inhabit the same and easily recognisable world of vast open spaces and small islands of usually corrupt civilisation. But Peoples’ script and Eastwood direction also give very realistic and unflattering depiction of the Old West. In this film women are viciously exploited and abused, men have to struggle with their physical limitations (whether due to age or poor eyesight) as well as their ignorance, while violent deaths are often slow, unpleasant and unglamorous. The most revisionist element of Unforgiven is that it turns the traditional Western moral alignment on its head. Sheriff, who wants to maintain “law and order” and who would in traditional Westerns work as noble protagonist is here portrayed as sadistic power-hungry villain. People willing to kill other people for money are, on the other hand, portrayed as protagonists.

But Eastwood doesn’t stop there. He tries to deconstruct Old West even by showing how its allegedly simple methods of acquiring justice came with too much baggage and that the price of violence was too big, even for notorious killers. The perfect example is Munny, portrayed by Eastwood as pathetic shadow of its alter ego in Leone’s films, haunted not only by increased frailty of his aged body, but also by ghosts of his past. In the beginning of the film, Munny has rejected violence and tries to live good, “normal” life that protagonists of Westerns were promised at the end of closing titles. But the opening title, when his character at the sunset digs grave for his beloved wife, indicates that such normal life is an illusion and that nobody can truly escape his past. For most of the running time, Munny is struggling to maintain this illusion by refusing to drink and tries to explain to young Schofield Kid and audience that most of his killings came due to alcohol which has awoken his demons. When the final showdown comes and Munny displays killing skills that had served previous Eastwood’s characters so well, it is hardly a triumph. Violence is ugly, brutal and it comes as result of Munny finally succumbing to violent dark impulses he had been resisting for so long.

Unforgiven is in the end very dark film, probably one of the darkest in Eastwood’s career and the first in which played character who could have been easy to characterise as villain. There are some elements that make it watchable, apart from end titles that suggest that Munny might have indeed found some sort of redemption in the end. It is mostly in short segments that feature humour, like the scenes during which protagonists openly discuss ways to fulfil their sexual needs when they are unwilling or unable to find proper female partner. Another is Little Bill shown to be both tyrannical ruler of the town and pathetically inept carpenter that can’t build or maintain his house to save his life. Character of Schofield Kid, played by relatively unknown Canadian actor Jaimz Woolvett, also serves as some kind of comic relief with huge contrast between his own claims of being efficient killer and actual abilities.

If there is a segment of Unforgiven that is slightly problematic, it could be found in subplot involving English Bob (played by Richard Harris), notorious gunslinger who comes to Big Whiskey in search of bounty, accompanied by semi-official biographer W. W. Beauchamp (played by Saul Rubinek). While it helps with deconstructing the Old West by showing how pathetic thugs and losers built legends around them through over-imaginative literary mythmakers, this effort represents something of an overkill and makes Unforgiven perhaps a bit longer that it could have been. On the other hand, Eastwood directed it very well, helped by his old associates like cinematographer Jack L. Green and composer Lennie Niehaus, whose main theme is one of the most recognisable among those in Eastwood’s filmography.

In the end, Unforgiven turned out to be triumph for Eastwood. It won four Oscars, including Best Pictures and Best Director for Eastwood and for many it became the ultimate Western, with many critics claiming that nothing new and interesting can be said of the Old West. The genre survived through 1990s, though, and there were still good examples of the genre, but in past three decades few reached such heights as Unforgiven.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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