In the film Unforgiven, Morgan Freeman plays the role of Ned Logan. Him and his friend William Munny set off hunting for a bounty on two cowboys. Logan and Munny were once bandits who killed anything in sight, but over the years they both settled down and led normal lifestyles with their families. Revisionist westerns, as we have seen, show the struggles that trace back to the sixties and early seventies. We see the women in this film treated as objects by the cowboys and are tossed around and battered. In terms of the role of Morgan Freeman as Ned Logan, the struggle for African Americans to be equal in society is seen when he is punished for no reason at all. Throughout the movie Ned is treated as equal to the white men in the movie, but when it comes down to who will be punished for the murder of the cowboys, he is punished. The punishment he received for not doing anything is parallel to the discrimination that African Americans endured for being born a different race.
The kind of alpha male cowboy that Clint Eastwood plays as William Munny is another clear cut reason that this is a revisionist western. Although Munny is seen as weak and soft throughout most of the movie, we see his true self at the end of the movie. When Munny takes a sip of whiskey he becomes the man he used to be, one who kills women, men, children, and the unarmed alike. This is the kind of alpha male cowboy that is seen due to the darker, and more cynical tone the revisionist western is known for. William Munny's ruthlessness and moral ambiguity show the difference between the romantic alpha male cowboy we saw in the classics, and the more realistic role of the alpha male cowboy in the revisionist westerns.
In the film Unforgiven, Morgan Freeman plays the role of Ned Logan. Him and his friend William Munny set off hunting for a bounty on two cowboys. Logan and Munny were once bandits who killed anything in sight, but over the years they both settled down and led normal lifestyles with their families. Revisionist westerns, as we have seen, show the struggles that trace back to the sixties and early seventies. We see the women in this film treated as objects by the cowboys and are tossed around and battered. In terms of the role of Morgan Freeman as Ned Logan, the struggle for African Americans to be equal in society is seen when he is punished for no reason at all. Throughout the movie Ned is treated as equal to the white men in the movie, but when it comes down to who will be punished for the murder of the cowboys, he is punished. The punishment he received for not doing anything is parallel to the discrimination that African Americans endured for being born a different race. What makes him even more other is the fact that he has an Indian wife. Logan takes on the qualities of the alpha male cowboy but is still portrayed as other in many ways.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of alpha male cowboy that Clint Eastwood plays is far more of the revisionist alpha male cowboy than the classic. Although Munny is seen as weak and soft throughout most of the movie, we see his true self at the end of the movie. When Munny takes a sip of whiskey he becomes the man he used to be, one who kills women, men, children, and the unarmed alike. This is the kind of alpha male cowboy that is seen due to the darker, and more cynical tone the revisionist western is known for. Munny's breaking point in the saloon was not based on duty it was based on his emotions. This separates him from the deontological alpha male cowboy in the classic western.