Unforgiven BD

The film Unforgiven is considered a revisionist western film. Characters in the film are depicted in a different light than they are in earlier westerns. First, the women of the film have a much stronger presence than what women were shown to have in earlier films. The women, even though they are prostitutes, are the main cause for conflict in the film. Most characters in the film care about what happens to the women and are willing to fight for them. Most of this fighting is due to a reward offered by the prostitutes, which is uncommon for women to be shown to have any amount of money and to be important enough to cause such fighting.

Another example of revisionism is Morgan Freeman’s character, Ned Logan. He is a black man who is considered to be an equal to the alpha male cowboy of William Munny. In earlier westerns, minority characters were considered to always be inferior to white men or even as the villain, which are mostly Native Americans. They are never shown as being main characters in earlier westerns, only as servants to men. This change of character is due to the growing status of African Americans in society during the time in which the film is made.

Revisionist westerns also have a sense of lawlessness in the settings throughout the films. Even though there is an acting character as a marshal, the portrayal of justice is obscure. In this film, the marshal and his deputies’ act as more of a lynch mob rather than a formal group appointed officials. The marshal also acts out of line in his punishment of offenders in his town by mercilessly beating them for minimal offense. It is hard to distinguish where the real law is and the personal law takes.