Unforgiven
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- For the 1960 Western directed by John Huston and starring Audrey Hepburn, see The Unforgiven (1960 film).
Template:Infobox Movie Unforgiven is a 1992 Western film which tells the story of a retired gunslinger who takes on one more job for the money. It stars Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek and Frances Fisher.
The movie was written by David Webb Peoples and directed by Eastwood.
It won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Clint Eastwood), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
It was dedicated to Eastwood's former directors and mentors, Don Siegel and Sergio Leone.
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Plot
After a prostitute is brutally slashed in the face by two customers, her co-workers offer a $1000 reward to anyone who kills them. William Munny (Eastwood), a retired gunfighter and now a widowed pig farmer with children whose stock is dying of swine fever and whose prospects are bleak, recruits a former associate Ned Logan (Freeman) to hunt down the two men responsible for the attack on the prostitute.
On their way, they pick up the Schofield Kid (Woolvett), who had told Munny about the reward and had boasted of his own trigger-happiness. After reaching town on a cold, rainy night, they enter a saloon for a drink and inquire about the reward. Munny remains at a table while Logan and the Kid go upstairs for some bedroom fun with the ladies. While waiting for his friends to return, Little Bill Daggett, the local sheriff, discovers Munny is wearing a gun (a town ordinance prohibits guns — Upon their arrival one stormy night, Munny failed to (or chose not to) see the sign stating such). Little Bill beats up Munny and Munny manages to drag himself out out of the saloon. Logan and the Kid manage to get Munny out of town to high country above the town.
Once Munny has recovered sufficiently from his injuries, the three men ambush and kill one of the two cowboys in a canyon. It is at that point that Logan realizes he no can no longer stomach murder, and decides to head home. Munny and the Kid find and kill the other cowboy in a latrine outside the isolated cabinwhere he had been holed up, guarded by several associates.
Meanwhile, Logan is captured and brought back to Little Bill, who beats all the information he can out of him, killing him in the process. Logan's corpse is put on display in an open coffin outside the saloon. The next day, one of the prostitutes brings the reward money to Munny and the Kid and tells him of the death of Logan. This angers Munny and he begins drinking again and goes into town to confront the sheriff. Munny walks into the saloon where Little Bill has assembled a posse. A gun battle ensues where Munny kills five men and seriously wounds Little Bill. While Munny is reloading his rifle, he hears Little Bill reach for his gun and kicks it out of his hand. Little Bill realizes what follows and says "See you in Hell, William Munny", to which Munny replies "Yeah" and kills Little Bill.
Theme
For a genre film, Unforgiven is unusally thematically rich. The film's major theme appears to the nature of violence, and the discrepancies between actual and fictional violence. While most Western films glorify violence as a justifiable means to an end, Unforgiven self-conciously tries to depict violence more realistically as something that harms everyone around it. Many critics and viewers tend to consider the film emphatically anti-violence. However, David Webb Peoples has stated in interviews that this was not his intention, and that he wished to present violence as morally complex, as opposed to simply "wrong".
While Clint Eastwood's earlier roles often featured a "Man with No Name", an anonymous stranger who wanders in to town to set things right, William Munney can be seen as a man who is trying to escape his past identity as the Man With No Name.
Trivia
- Eastwood told Gene Hackman to model his character on the then LA Police Chief Daryl Gates.
- Most of the rain in the film was artificially created, because Calgary was experiencing a dry spell. However, the snowfall when William Munny was recovering was both unexpected and unscripted.
- When Eastwood phoned him about the film, Richard Harris was watching High Plains Drifter on TV.
- The film has several allusions to earlier Westerns. The opening scene, where Eastwood stands at the grave of his dead wife, is an allusion to John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. The scene in which Eastwood tells Rubinek to pick up the rifle in the bar is an allusion to Once Upon a Time in the West, which has a similar scene in a bar. Also, Rubinek asks Eastwood how he chose the order in which to kill six men. Eastwood responds that he "got lucky". This is an allusion to The Outlaw Josey Wales, in which Eastwood, in response to a similar question, gives a detailed reponse about their various holders and demeanors.
Notable lines
- "Hell of a thing killing a man... you take away all he has and all he's ever gonna have." (Munny)..."I guess they had it comin'" (Schofield Kid)..."We all have it comin', kid." (Munny)
- "You just shot an unarmed man" (Little Bill) ... "Then he should have armed himself if he's gonna decorate his saloon with my friend" (Munny).
- "All right now, I'm comin' out. Any man I see out there, I'm gonna shoot him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill his wife. All his friends. Burn his damn house down." - Munny
External links
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