Unforgiven | Eastern North Carolina Now

    
“Unforgiven” is the Minimalist’s Approach to Producing a Classic Western

    Clint Eastwood put on his director’s cap and actor’s battered stetson and filmed one of the finest Westerns ever made. The film was released in 1992, and qualified for that years Academy Awards. It was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 4, including Clint Eastwood’s first two Oscars for Best Director and Best Film of 1992. Of all the 5 films nominated, it was, without a doubt, the best of the lot. I can rarely say that.

    The film is also one of Clint’s best as an actor, and was his first nomination in the best actor category. The wisdom from his redemptive pain was etched deep in the craggy lines of his weather beaten face, and spoke volumes of his hard, violent past battling the softer side of a conscientious widower, with two young children, who found redemption with his late wife, Claudia. One of the themes from this complex tale: to what extent would a man go to care for his brood?

    Enter the Schofield Kid, played as a squinting reprobate by Jaimz Woolvett, propositioning William Munny, Eastwood’s character, on the profitable adventure of accompanying him to Wyoming from their home in Missouri to complete the daring deed of killing a couple of drunken cowboys. It appears that “Will” Munny’s reputation as a former killer preceded him, and life as a straight living “pig farmer,” just after the loss of his beloved wife, was wearing thin. “The Kid” had gained knowledge that a large bounty was being offered by the whores of Big Whiskey, Wyoming to kill the aforementioned cowboys for the rather unpleasant act of cutting up the face of a fellow whore.

    Initially, William Munny wants nothing to do with "The Kid" or killing, but when he examines his position in life, he seeks out his former traveling partner, Ned Logan portrayed by Morgan Freeman, and between them, they gather up the gumption to set out to complete this dastardly deed. In a focused discussion to gather up the gumption between "Bill" and Ned, they each begin to rationalize, between themselves, if they are up to the deed and can they both, especially William Munny transition to the next phase of their existence and the final theme of the balance of their lives - redemption lost:

    Ned: Hell, Will. We ain't bad men no more. Shit, we're farmers.

    Will: Should be easy killing them, supposing they don't go on down to Texas first.

    Ned: How long has it been since you fired a gun at a man, Will? Nine, ten years?

    Will: Eleven.

    Ned: Easy, huh? Hell, I don't know that it was all that easy even back then. And we was young and full of beans. I mean, if you was mad at 'em, Will, I mean. If they'd done you some wrong, I could see shooting 'em.

    Will: We done stuff for money before, Ned.

    Ned: Yeah, we thought we did. All right, so what did these fellas do? Cheat at cards? Steal some strays? Spit on a rich fella? What?

    Will: No, they cut up a woman.

    Ned: What?

    Will: Yeah, they cut up her face.

    Ned: I'll be dogg - Golly, I guess they got it comin'. 'Course, you know, Will, if Claudia was alive you wouldn't be doin' this.

    Claudia was dead, and "Will" took Ned and "The Schofield Kid" to Big Whiskey to do the bidding of the whores. And before them a weathered English Bob, a cultured hired gun played by Richard Harris, spent a very short time in Big Whiskey. Intercepting these aspiring killers was the sheriff, Little Bill Daggett; an awful carpenter, but fearless and ruthless with a gun. In fact, the only hardware separating Little Bill, played Gene Hackman who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the whore's hired killers was a sheriff's badge.



    This morality play of Redemption lost and redemption never possessed is spare in dialogue, but what there is, is rich in the depth of the purposeful need of men guided by their instincts for survival. The rich communication in David Webb Peoples words is not the film's only expressive device. Merely the glint in Clint's eye set deep in his rugged face, expresses the pain of a man that has seen much death and has lived too close to the edge of the abyss of his eternity. Once when sick with the influenza after being beaten badly, "Will," delirious with fever begged Ned:

    Will: I seen 'em, Ned, I seen the angel of death, he's got snake eyes.

    Ned: Who Will, who's got snake eyes?

    Will: It's the angel of death. Oh Ned, I'm scared of dying.

    Ned: Easy, partner, easy.

    Will: I see Claudia too.

    Ned: That's good, Will, that's good you saw Claudia, ain't it?

    Will: Her face was all covered with worms. Oh Ned, I'm scared, I'm dying. Don't tell nobody, don't tell my kids, none of the things I done, hear me?

    Ned: All right, Will.



    This is William Munny's hell on earth and for 131 minutes, we walk in his boots and through prairie eyes, we see the long stare of his broken world of bad cowboys, vengeful whores, a sadistic sheriff and fear on the faces of all who live upon this stage. It so personal and yet one man's distant nightmare, and we cannot avert our eyes until it's finished. And when it’s over, you know you’ve seen all that Director Eastwood and Actor Eastwood had to give as an artist. It is a true classic.

    Rated R. Released in theaters in 1992.

    This article provided courtesy of our sister site: Better Angels Now.