Unforgiven

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For the 1960 Western directed by John Huston and starring Audrey Hepburn, see The Unforgiven (1960 film). For the song, see The Unforgiven (song). For the WWE pay-per-view event, see WWE Unforgiven.

Template:Infobox Film Unforgiven is a 1992 revisionist Western film which tells the story of a retired gunslinger who takes on one more job for the money. It stars Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek and Frances Fisher.

The movie was written by David Webb Peoples and directed by Eastwood.

It won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Clint Eastwood), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

It was dedicated to Eastwood's former directors and mentors, Don Siegel and Sergio Leone.

1 Plot
2 Themes
- 2.1 Violence
- 2.2 Masculinity
3 Response
4 Trivia
5 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in 1881, after a prostitute is brutally slashed in the face by two customers, her co-workers offer a $1000 reward to anyone who kills them. William Munny (Eastwood), a retired gunfighter and now, as a widowed parent, a pig farmer whose stock is dying of swine fever and whose prospects are bleak, recruits a former associate Ned Logan (Freeman) to hunt down the two men responsible for the attack on the prostitute.

On their way, they catch up to the Schofield Kid (Woolvett), who had told Munny about the reward and had boasted of his own trigger-happiness. After reaching town on a cold, rainy night, they enter a saloon for a drink and inquire about the reward. Munny remains at a table while Logan and the Kid go upstairs for some bedroom fun with the ladies. While waiting for his friends to return, Little Bill Daggett (Hackman), the local sheriff, discovers Munny is wearing a gun. A town ordinance prohibits guns — upon entering town that stormy night, Munny failed to (or chose not to) see the sign alongside the road stating such. Coming down quickly with a fever, Munny is in no condition to fight back as Little Bill brutally beats him in full view of the patrons. Munny manages to drag himself out of the saloon. Logan and the Kid then get Munny to high country above the town.

Once Munny has recovered sufficiently from his injuries, the three men ambush and kill one of the two cowboys in a canyon. It is at that point that Logan realizes he can no longer stomach murder, and decides to head home. Munny and the Kid find and kill the other cowboy in an outhouse outside the isolated cabin where he had been holed up, guarded by several associates.

Meanwhile, Logan is captured and brought back to Little Bill, who beats all the information he can out of him, killing him in the process. Logan's corpse is put on display in an open coffin outside the saloon. The next day, one of the prostitutes brings the reward money to Munny and tells him of the death of Logan.

This angers Munny and he begins drinking again and goes into town to confront the sheriff. Munny walks into the saloon where Little Bill has assembled a posse. A gun battle ensues where Munny kills five men and seriously wounds Little Bill. While Munny is reloading his rifle, he hears Little Bill reach for his gun and kicks it out of his hand. Little Bill realizes what is to follow and says "See you in Hell, William Munny", to which Munny replies "Yeah" and kills Little Bill with the rifle.

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Themes

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Violence

Its major theme appears to be the nature of violence, and the discrepancies between actual and fictional violence. While most Westerns glorify violence as a justifiable means to an end, Unforgiven self-consciously depicts violence more realistically, and shows how it harms everyone around it. Yet the film ends on a contradiction, as William Munny becomes at the climax a classic Western hero, and defeats the villains in a conventional shootout scene. Thus, although many critics and viewers consider the film emphatically anti-violence, David Webb Peoples has stated in interviews that this was not his intention: he wished to present violence as morally complex, as opposed to simply "wrong".

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Masculinity

Another, related, theme appears to be the connection between violence and masculinity. Twice in the film, violence is linked to the male organ; the film begins with a prostitute having her face slashed for mocking a man's under-endowment. Secondly, Little Bill equates the penis with a gun, when explaining a nickname. Moreover, the film further links violence with masculinity in the Schofield Kid's attempts to prove himself, especially when his visual deficiency is exposed. In Unforgiven, violence is not glorious or heroic, but rather is stereotyped as a painful expression of insecure masculinity. We also see the influence of women on this, generally stereotyped as a civilizing presence. The most obvious example of this is William Munny's mentioning of how his late wife helped him to become a more stable and gentler character. Another example is Munny's meeting with the prostitute who was attacked and we see his gentler side. However, at the end of the film, when Munny threatens the whole town, we see the prostitute onlooking, clearly upset. The caring and gentle sensibilities of women contrast strongly with the vengeful and violent nature of men, to which William Munny ultimately succumbs. However, as with many of the themes in the film, the influence of women is not clear cut and absolutely good or evil. While in some instances they act as a "civilizing" force, it is the prostitutes who offer the bounty and demand blood despite the victim's willingness to forgive her attackers. While Clint Eastwood's earlier roles often featured a "Man with No Name", an anonymous stranger who wanders in to town to set things right, William Munny can be seen as a man who is trying to escape his past identity as the Man With No Name.

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Response

Critical response was generally very positive. The film makes appearances in both the IMDB top 250, and the American Film Institute's 100 years, 100 movies. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years. Many critics acclaimed the film for its noir-ish moral ambiguity and atmosphere. They also acclaimed it as a fitting elegy to the western genre.

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Trivia

Eastwood told Gene Hackman to model his character on the then LA Police Chief Daryl Gates.
Most of the rain in the film was artificially created, because Calgary was experiencing a dry spell. However, the snowfall when William Munny was recovering was both unexpected and unscripted.
When Eastwood phoned him about the film, Richard Harris was watching High Plains Drifter on TV.
The film has several allusions to earlier Westerns. The opening scene, where Eastwood stands at the grave of his dead wife, is an allusion to John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. The scene in which Eastwood tells Rubinek to pick up the rifle in the bar is an allusion to Once Upon a Time in the West, which has a similar scene in a bar. Also, Rubinek asks Eastwood how he chose the order in which to kill six men. Eastwood responds that he "got lucky". This is an allusion to The Outlaw Josey Wales, in which Eastwood, in response to a similar question, gives a detailed response about their various holders and demeanors.
At the end of the film, there is a post script which says that Munny moved to San Francisco to sell dry goods. San Francisco is the setting of two other Clint Eastwood movies, Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz.