Unforgiven Analysis

774 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Violence in films

Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven falls into the western genre because of its untamed frontier setting, hero and villain characters, and iconic climatic ending. Unforgiven tells the story of William Munny, a retired Old West outlaw who, with the help of an old friend and a young gunslinger, returns to his old ways with one last job. The movie starts with a group of prostitutes in Big Whiskey, Wyoming offering a reward for someone to kill two cowboys who assaulted one of their own when local authorities are reluctant to get involved. The young gunslinger, the Schofield Kid, goes to visit William Munny out in the wilderness and tries to recruit him to take on this offer. Munny refuses to return to his old ways initially, however his farm is failing and he wants to be able to provide for his children.
Munny then later decides to enlist the help of his old pal and partner Ned Logan, who decides to join him for this final job. When the group of Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive in Big Whiskey to figure out the cowboys’ location, Munny is beaten up by the sheriff when he finds a pistol on him and the trio leave town. After regrouping and recovering they ambush a group of cowboys and kill the first of the cowboys that assaulted the prostitute. Munny and Logan both learn that they can’t kill without feeling remorse anymore. Logan makes the decision to return home, while Munny and the Kid go on and kill the second cowboy. When Munny and the Kid collect the reward, they are informed that Logan was tortured and murdered by the local sheriff. Munny convinces the Kid to return home and give his kids his money. Munny then goes to the town with the intentions of killing any man that stood between him and the sheriff. When Munny goes into town he finds ...

... middle of paper ...

...le. He ends up defeating the sheriff and also killing almost every person in the bar. “Once in Greely's Saloon, Munny (now a fully formed Eastwood character) provides the spectacular explosion of gunfire the genre's narratological grammar demands.” (Ingrassia) This ending to the cowboy’s journey is a very important part of the western genre and in this aspect, Unforgiven matches the western genre.
The western genre film has specific elements to them such as the setting, characters, and the conclusion. While these aren’t the only elements that make a western film, they are the most apparent and significant. Unforgiven has these elements through its vast open frontier setting, hero and villain characters and their personalities, and its final shootout scene between the hero and villain. Through these elements it clearly matches the distinct style of the western genre.

Show More
Related

  • The Legend of Ed Gein and His Filmic Rebirth

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    So you want to hear a legend hmm? Well, I'll give you what you want, but taint nothin' ‘bout it fiction. Now, you one of them scholarly types ain't ya–college and libraries and all that crap, right? Well, college kiddy you may think you know it all, but I know a thing or two about a thing or two. You haven't seen nothin'. You don't know a damn thing until you step right into the path of a cold-blooded killer. ‘Til you look that crazy sumabitch right in his red eyes and send him back to hell! My name is Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden. I'm old now. When I was young, I was the Deputy Sheriff of this here great town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. I know whatcha thinkin'. I ain't no drunk and ain't crazy. Crazy is man who massacres dozens of women–alive and dead. Crazy is a man who eats human hearts for dinner. Crazy is the way your generation made that bastard one of the most famous movie characters in the world. Crazy...is Edward Gein!

    Read More

  • The Satire of Blazing Saddles

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many westerns contain some of the same elements. For instance, almost every western ever made involves a sheriff. He is usually the peace-keeper of a small town overrun by outlaws and cowboys, which he eventually chases out of town or kills. Another element of westerns is a gunslinger. A gunslinger is usually a young man who makes his living shooting other men in showdowns, a classic example is Billy the Kid. Railroads are also a recurring image in westerns. Since the railroad was the major mode of transportation in the old west, it is always present in westerns. Finally, westerns always have a villain. The villain, usually a man, dresses very slick and will stop at nothing in his quest for power. In addition, the villain usually has a gang to carry out his dastardly deeds. The gang is usually full of incompetent, but loyal thugs, who would love to destroy a small town just for the pleasure of wanton destruction. The elements of a western are very simple, but easily manipulated into a very interesting plot.

    Read More

  • Rio Bravo Sparknotes

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    I believe that the film does indeed conform to a certain type of narrative structure expected by other films of this style. This film, through and through, is a Western, even starring one of biggest names in Hollywood Westerns, John Wayne. We’re thrown into a world of sturdy, rugged men riding around on horses, decked out in cowboy hats and belt buckles. Wayne portrays the archetypal man, honorable, reliable and

    Read More

  • The Outlaw Josey Wales

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    The movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales, is an epic tale of a man who lost all that mattered and now seeks revenge on the people that took it. The movie can be viewed as a typical revenge story, however it works at other levels too. After having his first family taken, he searches for something to offer him that comfort again. Josey Wales, the main character travels through the epic cycle of losing everything, but at the end gaining it all back in another form.

    Read More

  • Jesse James and Billy the Kid

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jesse James and Billy the Kid are almost perfect examples for the definition of outlaw. Billy and Jesse lead a life of defiance, always running from the law, their lives clinging to existence, hoping death was not a breath away While running from a governor or robbing a bank, both Billy and Jesse were not the type of men that stop and smell the flowers. It is hard to think that these two men were proud of all they had done, but their choices lead them to become legends and icons of the wild wild west, and their fast lives created senerios in the minds of young and old people everywhere. Their stories were embedded in the history of America, stories of two not so different men.

    Read More

  • The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta by John Rollin Ridge

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his book, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, author John Rollin Ridge introduces readers to a fictional character, who is a larger-than-life bandit. According to the story, Murieta set out on a path of revenge and organized a large band of outlaws to terrorize Californians. Murieta and his men committed terrible and bloody crimes (including robbery and murder). This pattern of criminal behavior continued until the band was pursued by mountain rangers, ending the story in a dramatic climax for the protagonist. However, this story is not an accurate depiction of the important elements of the “New” West according to author Patricia Nelson Limerick, in The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. Instead, the character Murieta exemplifies many of the myths of the American West and the idea of innocence.

    Read More

  • The Good The Bad And The Ugly

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    Western films are the major defining genre of the American film industry, a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins - they focus on the West - in North America. Western films have also been called the horse opera, the oater (quickly-made, short western films which became as common place as oats for horses), or the cowboy picture. The western film genre has portrayed much about America's past, glorifying the past-fading values and aspirations of the mythical by-gone age of the West. Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed. But, most western movies ideas derived from characteristics known to the Native Americans and Mexicans way before the American culture knew about it. What you probably know as a good old western American movie originated from a culture knows as vaqueros (cowboys for Spanish). They are many misrepresentations of cultures and races shown throughout movies from as early as 1920's with silent films. Although one could argue that silent film era was more politically correct then now a day films, the movie industry should not have the right of misrepresenting cultures of Mexicans, Indians and there life styles in films known as western films.

    Read More

  • Individualism In The Searchers

    2193 Words  | 5 Pages

    As Ethan rides towards his brother’s homestead, he is greeted by awestruck stares. He rides with the brutal desert behind him, sun glaring at his eyes while his brother’s family is framed in shadow of their own home. A hopeful tune plays in the background as he approaches. In this opening scene of The Searchers John Ford establishes Ethan—played by none other than John Wayne—as the rugged individualist, the one who tames the wilderness. This cowboy is integral to the “Myth of the United States,” he is the one who tames the savage wilderness its residents (Durham). However as the film unfolds, Ford explores Ethan’s tortured psyche, his motivations, his neuroticism, even the Indians and their motivations in order to deconstruct deconstructing the myth in order to show that the cowboy is a relic of the Old West.

    Read More

  • Characteristics of a Typical Western

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    Westerns are split down into sub genres for example classical westerns like "The Great Train Robbery" but there are also other western genres like revisionist westerns. Revisionist westerns occurred after the early 1960's, American film-makers began to change many traditional elements of Westerns. One major change was the increasingly positive representation of Native Americans who had been treated as "savages" in earlier films. Another example is Spaghetti westerns, Spaghetti westerns first came during the 1960's and 1970's, The changes were a new European, larger-than-life visual style, a harsher, more violent depiction of frontier life, choreographed gunfights and wide-screen close-ups.

    Read More

  • The American West

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story of the American West is still being told today even though most of historic events of the Wild West happened over more than a century ago. In movies, novels, television, and more ways stories of the old west are still being retold, reenacted, and replayed to relive the events of the once so wild and untamed land of the west that so many now fantasize about. After reading about the old west and watching early westerns it is amazing how much Hollywood still glorifies the history and myth of the old west. It may not be directly obvious to every one, but if you look closely there is always a hint of the Western mentality such as honor, justice, romance, drama, and violence. The most interesting thing about the Old West is the fact that history and myth have a very close relationship together in telling the story of the West.

    Read More

  • Unforgiven Essay

    179 Words  | 1 Pages

    The setting of the film, Unforgiven takes place in Wyoming in 1880. This date is significant in American history for a number of reasons. After Abraham Lincoln enacted the Union Pacific Railroad Act, this railroad company laid down tracks connecting the East to the West and reached Wyoming starting in 1867. This line connected seven towns including the Capitol, Cheyenne and a military structure, Fort Laramie, with 50% of the population living along these railroad junctions (CITE; CITE). Tensions of race and gender identity constitute a significant portion of the historical significance of the times and also reflect on modern day politics. In 1699, ninety percent of the American colonies consisted of English ethnicities. Afterward, in post-Civil

    Read More

  • The Thematic Paradigm by Robert Ray

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.

    Read More

  • The Virginian, by Owen Wister

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    While the western frontier was still new and untamed, the western hero often took on the role of a vigilante. The vigilante’s role in the frontier was that of extralegal verve which was used to restrain criminal threats to the civil peace and opulence of a local community. Vigilantism was typical to the settler-state societies of the western frontier where the structures and powers of government were at first very feeble and weak. The typical cowboy hero had a willingness to use this extralegal verve. The Virginian demonstrated this throughout with his interactions with Trampas, most notably in the interactions leading up to the shoot out and during the shoot-out itself. “Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him… Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the...

    Read More

  • Samuel Colt and the Colt Revolver

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Wild West is known for its cowboys and gunslingers. In the Wild West the pistol

    Read More

  • Comparing The Woman With No Name In Monte Hellman's The Shooting

    1756 Words  | 4 Pages

    Generally forgotten by critics, and classified as alternately a cult classic and a B-movie (in reference to both its budget and its reception), Monte Hellman's The Shooting is a film worth revisiting. At a remote camp in the middle of the desert, a Woman With No Name arrives to hire two men to lead her to the town of Kingsley, days after one of the camp members was shot dead and another ran away. On their descent into the scorching desert, it becomes apparent that the Woman has misled her employees as a hired gun joins their party and they continue their journey, it would seem, to execute somebody. The Woman from time to time physically leads the pack, and is always deliberately in control of their actions. She is granted much agency in terms of both plot, and cinematic structure, frequently, for instance, holding a position in the frame physically over the men in order to deliver a command. She enacts the ability to do, without being done to, resorting to a performance of femininity/desirability at times to do her bidding. A textual analysis of the scene in which the childlike Coley is ordered by the Woman With No Name to stay behind in the blistering sun reveals a unique style with which Hellman plays with the conventions of the Western and the utilization of the gaze to question gender roles and authority.

    Read More

More about Unforgiven Analysis

Open Document