"I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned."
If THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY was Clint Eastwood's vision of a gunslinger living legend on the way up in the Old West--with awesome one-liners, grizzled eye squinting, commanding presence, and unparalleled badass-ness--than UNFORGIVEN is the way down.
It's fitting, to me, that this is Clint Eastwood's film. No one has a more influential presence when one talks about American westerns than Eastwood, other than John Wayne maybe, and it is fitting that he closes the door of the genre. After all, films of his such as THE MAN WITH NO NAME Trilogy, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, and THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES are some of the quintessential spaghetti westerns to ever be made.
While UNFORGIVEN isn't as entertaining, or as good really, as these films, it is certainly obvious that Clint has riden in the saddle for quite some time. While most Westerns involve glorifying their heroes and making the enemies completely one-dimensional assholes, UNFORGIVEN blurs the line. It stars Eastwood as William Munny, a former gunslinger who has moved on from his old profession, and is now a widower with two children in 1880 Wyoming. He climbs back in the saddle for one last job after a group of whores offer a reward to anyone who will kill the men who scarred one of their own. Joining him is his lifetime Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), who used to ride shotgun with William in his old crusades. Tagging along is the young, dumb, trigger-happy yuppy known only as The Schofield Kid, played by Jaimz Woolvett.
In UNFORGIVEN, the violence is not pretty. It does not make one a bigger man, or more liked or glorified by anyone else. One of the most emotionally shattering moments in the film comes after The Schofield Kid has shot a man. He has been riding around for months with the men to do so, and couldn't be more eager when the time finally comes. He busts down a door, looks the man he is about to kill straight in the eyes, and then shoots him in the chest. The violence isn't cartoonish at all, instead, it's mesmerizing, in the same way a car accident is. It's awful, but you can't look away. Horrified, The Kid drops his gun and runs away, saying he will never kill another man again for as long as he lives.
This is Eastwood's natural evolution as a director. He has been making westerns for decades, so nobody in Hollywood should be more aware of the reality of the material than he. UNFORGIVEN is a mature film, one that takes its time in telling its story so it can get everything right. That doesn't mean it is a perfect or flawless film by any means, I personally think it is a bit too slow in spots and could cut down on its running time by fifteen minutes, but it knows its story.
Opposing William when he rides into town is the sheriff of Big Whiskey, Little Bill Daggett, played juicily by Gene Hackman. Little Bill is a great character, a concoction of corruption and glee rolled into a dark man who, like William, knows the truth behind violence. While Little Bill would rather be at home building his porch, he knows how to lay down the law in a way that makes people understand not to break it: street violence. He beats Will to within an inch of his life, and then throws him out on to the rainy, cold streets in the middle of the night. Does this make him a bigger man? No, but it shows what happens when people believe they can take the law into their own hands and committ acts of violence.
Overall, UNFORGIVEN is a damn solid western. While it is too slow in many scenes and the acting is a bit wooden by some of the supporting characters, it's message on violence and it's vision of the Old West is brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment