Unforgiven MR

Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is a very powerful, revisionist film that really shakes up the Western film genre. Included in this film are strong female characters, a main black protagonist, an alpha male cowboy who doesn’t want to kill people, and a brutal sheriff. The women in this film are particularly unlike anything we’ve seen in this class because they may be even more morally ambiguous than even the alpha male cowboy, essentially putting a $1000 hit on two men who slashed one of their friend’s face and condemning them to death. Morgan Freeman’s character of Ned Logan is also very interesting. Keeping in mind that at this point in history slavery was illegal, it is still strange to see a black man as both a property owner, although this can be explained by his previous life as an outlaw, and as the best friend of a white man. In fact, Will Munney, Clint Eastwood’s character, cares for him so much that his death is enough to make him snap and go back to his old ways, killing everything in sight. Although Munney has killed women and children in the past, his wife was able to make him turn away from that kind of lifestyle. As a way to make sure he never went back to being the person he once was, he gives up drinking. Will Munney is a dry alcoholic with not only alcohol, but also killing. When he finally does drink, he keeps drinking, just like once he starts killing, he doesn’t stop. Little Bill Daggett, played by Gene Hackman, is the sheriff of Big Whiskey, the town where the movie takes place, but he is just as immoral as the men who slashed the prostitute’s face. He disfigures three different people throughout the film and doesn’t show any sign of remorse. Even though he thinks what he is doing is for the greater good, but in reality, he is obstructing justice rather than enforcing it. Perhaps the two men who slashed the prostitutes face didn’t deserve to be hanged for the crime. That would seem excessive. The fine that was implemented upon them however was too lax. One of the strangest things about this film is the extreme role reversal. Little Bill, the sheriff, is the primary antagonist while Will Munney, the outlaw, is the film’s primary protagonist. This is a way of saying that nobody, in the Western film or in real life, is all good or all bad.