Clint Eastwood #3: Unforgiven

I first saw the pseudo-western Unforgiven a couple years ago, and though I liked parts of it, I sort of wrote the film off in my head without giving it much attention. When I watched it this time, though, I got a better impression of the film, possibly because I was already more accustomed to Clint Eastwood's style. He thrives on exploring the identity of his characters, and showing the audience bits and pieces of who they really are. This film is no different.

Eastwood plays William Munny, an aging ex-ruffian, living with his two children in a dingy and isolated house marked only by a tree and his dead wife's grave. She was the one who 'cured me of my evil ways', as Munny says. He departs from his peaceful though somewhat pathetic life raising pigs when a young, cocky gunslinger calling himself the Schofield Kid tells him that a brothel is offering a reward to anyone who kills two rowdy cowboys who slashed up the face of one of their girls. Munny decides to go, and the story covers what happens as he returns to the past that he had once sworn off.

What's remarkable about the story is that none of the characters involved can be called 'good'. Many characters work towards good in some senses, but they all have strong failings. Munny does try to get the town to leave the injured girl alone, but he degenerates into a cold-blooded killer once more along the way. The girls at the brothel, initially the victims, show another side as they push for the killing of the two cowboys. In fact, one of the two was clearly remorseful, and was killed even after he showed kindness to the girl who was injured and tried to repay her.

By far, the greatest moment in the film involves two characters who pop up along the way: an ex-gunslinging sheriff, Little Bill, and English Bob, a paid killer working for the railroad. Bob is ruthlessly beaten and aprehended by Bill, because of a no-firearms ordinance. Following this comes a scene in which a writer, W. W. Beauchamp, who was writing a dime-novel take on English Bob's life, is shown the reality of the West by Bill. The scene basically destroys the image of the western genre, as Bill, himself a ruthless scoundrel by any objective view, describes how a shootout that Bob had embellished to Beauchamp was actually a pathetic drunken disaster. It's a great scene, and it most likely won Gene Hackman (as Little Bill) his Oscar for best supporting actor.

Unforgiven is considered by many to be Clint Eastwood's best film. At least of the three that I have seen, I would agree. Much of the strength is in the script and in notable performances like Hackman's, but the film does play to Eastwood's strengths with character development, and he makes it work well.