Eastwood's Use Of Purgative Violence In Unforgiven

Unforgiven (Eastwood 1992), is a western unlike any westerns that we have watched for class. This meaning, I really enjoyed the interpretation of a western that Unforgiven portrays . Clint Eastwood, the director of Unforgiven and the actor of the protagonist William (Bill) Munny, is no stranger to the western genre. In many of his westerns, Eastwood stands by the ideas of “purgative violence as a central path to cultural and personal restoration” (Plantinga 1998), but in Unforgiven, has a very apparent approval for violence. It is said by Plantinga, in the same article that “the traditional Western embodies an American ideology of redemption and purgative violence.” This simply meaning, what we all know about the western genre, that the genre

This is the part of the film where the violence is out in full force and this is the part of the film the violence in Unforgiven is unavoidable and quintessentially what a western is about. The final climatic shootout is a nod to the western genre and follows the formula of all of the great westerns that came before Unforgiven. It is bloody, violent and heroic. Munny’s character arch hits its final stop on the curve at this moment. He is successful in retrieving revenge for his beloved partner, Ned. He accepts the person he is and always has been. Unforgiven is known as “a serious revision of the Western genre, a worthwhile examination of the consequences of violence, and the psychological satisfactions of the traditional Western form is perhaps a major factor in its critical and commercial success.” (Plantinga 1998). The contemporary aspects of the western genre in the film is what challenged the western values, but are, in my opinion along with Munny’s character development, are what makes Unforgiven such a successful