KILLING OFF THE MAN WITH NO NAME: UNFORGIVEN
Munny tells Schofield he doesn't do that kind of thing anymore, and the whiskey had a lot to do with why he did it in the first place. However, he does need the money, so he agrees to come along, with the help of Ned (Morgan Freeman), who, like him, is a reformed killer, and an old friend. Meanwhile, other gunfighters have drifted into town, among them Irish Bob (Richard Harris), who even has Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek), a writer, along to record his actions for posterity. Except Little Bill is having none of that, so he beats up Irish Bob, jails him, and then tells Beauchamp the true story behind Irish Bob's so-called exploits.
Peoples and Eastwood are out to shed a lot of light on the so-called myths of the West that we grew up with as well. Eastwood and cinematographer Jack Green make this darker lit than most other Westerns, and gunfights are shown in the rain or as protracted affairs, rather than the simple quick draw. The Schofield Kid turns out to be nowhere near the gunfighter he claimed to be either, and when killing one of the cowboys, is traumatized by it afterwards. Little Bill has a sympathetic purpose - he wants to keep law and order - but has a sadistic way of carrying it out.
But the biggest way Eastwood and Peoples turn things upside down is in the character of Munny himself. When The Man With No Name killed people, we were invited to cheer along, and even laugh (which was a mere warm-up for Dirty Harry Callahan). When Munny turns back to his killing ways, however, we're not invited to cheer. At the same time, there's no easy sentiment about how Munny was a good man before killing again (he does refuse an offer of sex from Delilah, but you're left to wonder if its out of decency or from being too old). It's just the inevitability of a man's past catching up to him, and the murders themselves are shot as to look brutal, rather than fun quickies.
UNFORGIVEN isn't quite a perfect film, however. I understand why Eastwood the director would want this to develop at a slow pace, but slow doesn't necessarily have to mean stately. For example, the scene where one of the cowboys is left to die while caught between his friends and Munny, Schofield, and Ned could have been tightened a
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