Poll Position: "Unforgiven" (1992)

“Unforgiven” winning last week’s western themed poll was not really too much a surprise, I personally wanted to see "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" 'cause of Paul Newman. But nevertheless, it was interesting that only a few days ago a friend and I were discussing the presence of Clint Eastwood in the movie world. Yeah sure, he has done a few bad movies here and there (“Pink Cadillac” and “Every Which Way But Loose”), but who hasn't. What we decided that, not only has he a great actor and director. He is the quintessential cowboy and badass in the movies, be it western or in space. And to add great support actors such as Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman, no wonder this movie swept the awards. But let me share you my slice of what I thought of this delicious western pie.


Like a lot of other westerns, there is a price on a few criminals’ heads and Clint Eastwood, who plays Bill Munny, has to clean up the act. These criminals mistreated a prostitute and Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), who wants to rid the town of Big Whisky of criminals, goes real easy on these criminals. The head of the brothel is unsatisfied with this and puts a bounty up for the death of these two men.  Of course the quickest to react is the youngest of ‘em all. ‘The Schofield Kid’ (James Woolvett) who wants the fame and money, but he can’t do it himself. He asks Munny, a retired criminal, for his help and though initially resisting, he eventually agrees. He leaves his pig far and two kids behind, sets off with the young kid. But this old timer needs some help from his old partner Ned (Morgan Freeman). The three go ride down to Big Whisky to take care of business.

Hackman can play one mean sumofabitch sheriff. 

I sort of bastardized the story with that last summary, but it is hard to capture the whole movie in a few sentences. But the story lays down good support for the movie and especially allows for the characters to be amazing. Now because we are dealing with all criminals and ex-criminals, there is no true ‘good’ guy here. And this is where we separate the most from most western. We have no true hero; Munny is an old man doing one last job to support his kids by being a murder. And Daggett is the sheriff trying to clean out the town, but has his priorities messed up. No one actually wins; just not dying is the goal.

'The Schofield Kid' chews on more than he can swallow.

To explain a bit more, the movie is more a drama than a western. There is only a couple of gun fights, and we focus more on the characters struggle for who they are as humans than less on the gun shooting skill. That being said, there is still a wicked scene of Munny taking down a hand full of guys by himself in a small saloon. Not the most entertaining scene, but really shows off how much a badass Clint can make his characters seem.

Interestingly enough, this being Eastwood's last western it is a great transition to his more recent movies. He sort of drops the whole 'I'm a gun tootin' cowboy' act and goes for the more serious role of 'what is my purpose in life?'. I haven't seen "Million Dollar Baby", but you can find a lot of Walt Kowalski (his role in Gran Torino) in Munny. His bitter and impatient attitude really grows out from here on in. Munny is his middle ground from cowboy and a man with a morality conflict. Just a neat thing to think about.

Freeman and Eastwood man a find, yet unusual pair.

And because of how drama heavy this movie is, the acting plays a vital role. But the whole cast does a fantastic job playing their respected roles. Freeman, Eastwood and Woolvett bring out the terribleness that is being a criminal. I never felt I wanted to cheer for them; they were evil men doing evil things. Even Hackman played his role as a crocked cop just fine and dandy. The most impacting part of the movie is the interaction of these four main characters. Generally in most movies you’d like to side with the more favourable character. Too bad you can’t in here, instead you are watching 4 ill-moral men duelling it out.

In the end of the day, I wasn’t sure what to think of this movie. This isn’t my favourite Clint Eastwood movie (that being “Gran Torino”), it isn’t my favourite western (award goes to “True Grit”). But what I can classify is it being a damn good drama movie with a western twist.  I personally wish there was some more action, but that would have thrown away what this movie is all about; the characters finding out who they are and where they place in the world. But still, Clint Eastwood stole the my attention in this movie, by playing the amazing badass that he can play.