What seems strange is that until 1990's Dances With Wolves, only one western in history had won Best Picture, and here in 2014, we've had a total of just three. The first was Cimarron way back from 1931, Dances... was second. We're going to focus today on the third one, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, which turned out to be Clint Eastwood's final western film by choice, for fear of repeating himself and/or turning the genre into caricature.
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The setting is Big Whiskey, Wyoming, circa 1880. Two men, Quick Mike (David Mucci) and Davey Bunting (Rob Campbell), are with a prostitute named Delilah (Anna Levine). They get a little rough with her. As she begins to protest, the men resort to violence, with Mike being especially vicious in slashing Delilah's face. The rest of the women overpower and tie up Mike and Davey, and the brothel/bar owner/pimp Skinny Dubois (Anthony James) sends for the sheriff, Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman). Daggett threatens the two men but ultimately decides against whipping them. He orders them to return here tomorrow and give up 6 horses into Skinny's care as payment for the crime. The women are all outraged but both Skinny and Daggett infer to them that they best just keep quiet and accept Daggett's decision. The women refuse to accept it and wind up pooling their stashes the next day into a $1,000 reward for whoever will kill Mike and Davey. Later that same day, Mike and Davey deliver the horses to Skinny. Davey seems repentant and specifically offers up his best pony to Delilah, who stays silent. The rest of the women throw mud at the cowboys.
We shift to Kansas. William Munny (Eastwood) is raising his two children on a pig farm. Munny used to be a cold-blooded killer and hard drinker, but his late wife changed him and he now chooses to put his past behind him. That doesn't seem to matter to Munny's visitor, "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvett), who has come to recruit Munny in helping to kill the cowboys. Munny says those days are behind him, but still tries to shoot a can unsuccessfully with his pistol. He picks up a rifle and blasts the can away. The Kid scoffs at Munny now being a shell of his former murderous self, and leaves. Munny, however, thinks about it for awhile. He's struggling to make ends meet right now with the farm, and he doesn't want his kids to end up in squalor, so Munny heads off to find the Kid. He struggles just to get on the horse to start the journey. On the way, he stops at the house of his friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), another retired gunfighter now living quietly with his Native American wife. Munny doesn't blame Logan's wife for giving him the "evil eye", and both men head out on horses after Logan reluctantly decides to join him.
Munny and Logan aren't the only ones heading to Big Whiskey to collect the reward. On a train, we meet English Bob (Richard Harris), who's regaling people with his tales of heroism and hunting, both for animals and people. One especially-intent listener is W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek), a biographer who is working on a book about Bob's exploits. In the meantime over in Wyoming, Skinny unsuccessfully attempts to catch the women talking about and/or pooling the reward money. He doesn't want any part of this at his establishment, so he alerts Daggett, who does not welcome the news because it means his town could wind up overrun with criminals. The train crosses into Wyoming, and Beauchamp notices the "No Firearms" sign at the border. Upon exiting the train, some of Daggett's deputies alert him that no firearms are allowed. Bob insists he doesn't have any even though we can see otherwise tucked away at his hip.
The deputies tell Daggett about Bob being in town, and they all load up with weapons themselves, showing that Daggett obviously feels he and his gang are the only ones allowed to bear arms. They go to the barber shop, where Bob currently is getting a shave. Bob exits the shop to find himself surrounded. Without provocation, Daggett beats the snot out of Bob, announcing that this is what will happen to any criminals in his town. Bob is carted off to jail.
Returning to Munny and Logan, they continue on the path to where the Kid would have gone. They find him, although they do so when they find themselves being shot at in a field. They duck and cover, eventually seeing the shooter is the Kid. After calling to him, the shooting stops and all three get together. The Kid has attitude, initially balking at splitting the reward money three ways instead of two. Logan questions the Kid as to whether or not he can see, being that he took about 30 shots at the two of them in a wide open field and missed every shot. Munny, meanwhile, still refuses to acknowledge his past and won't drink whiskey with the others.
In the jailhouse, Daggett is telling Beauchamp the true story of English Bob, who Daggett calls the "Duck of Death" instead of "Duke of Death" as the in-progress book is entitled. It turns out all the stuff Beauchamp had been told by Bob was severely embellished. Beauchamp is in awe of Daggett's history and reputation. Daggett gives a gun to Beauchamp and tells him to shoot. He won't. Daggett thought so. He then offers it to Bob, who also won't risk challenging. Seeing this, Beauchamp decides to kill off the Bob story and tell Daggett's instead. Bob is booted out of town the next morning, which upsets the women greatly since they now think no one will come to kill Mike and Davey, but the next day they hear about Munny, Logan and the Kid arriving. Bill is alerted to this as well.
Unfortunately, the trio arrived in a downpour of rain and Munny finds himself immediately taken with a severe fever that causes him to hallucinate. They visit the saloon/whorehouse to get info on the cowboys they're hunting. While they're there, Logan and the Kid go upstairs to get "advances" on their payment while Munny decides to sit at the bar. Daggett confronts Munny, not knowing of his past. He finds a pistol on Munny's person and beats him up. Munny, sick as a dog, can't defend himself. Daggett kicks Bill out of the saloon. Logan and the Kid escape out a window and bring Munny to a barn outside of town to nurse him back to health. The Kid thinks Munny's worthless now as Munny is huffing how he's scared to die.
Munny wakes up to discover Delilah is caring for him. He learns he was out for nearly 3 days, but the fever broke and he's getting better. Delilah offers an "advance" to Munny, but he refuses it. Delilah thinks it's because she's scarred, but Munny explains it's because of his wife back in Kansas. Delilah thinks this is legitimate and understands, not realizing the wife is deceased and buried on the farmland where he lives.
With Munny healthy, the trio hide on a cliff to ambush a group of cowboys and in the process, shoot Davey. Logan was going to make the kill but couldn't bring himself to do it. Munny succeeded with the shot. They can hear Davey calling for water and yell down for the other cowboys to give some to Davey, promising no one else will be shot at. Davey gets water but soon dies from the gunshot wound. Logan, through this experience, learns he no longer has the stomach for murder and calls it quits, heading home. Unfortunately, Daggett is informed that Logan has been spotted on his way out of town, and he sends for his deputies to capture him. They do, and Logan is savagely whipped by Daggett until he gives every piece of information about who they are and why they're there.
Now down to two, Munny and the Kid head to the ranch where Quick Mike is said to be located. Mike is in the outhouse after saying to those he's with at the ranch that he isn't concerned about getting shot while he's in there. Bad move, because the Kid ambushes him there and kills him, but immediately has a look on his face of horror as he does so. The Kid then confesses to Munny that despite all his bravado, he'd never killed anyone before, and he never wants to again. He renounces life as a gunfighter.
Munny and the Kid meet with one of the women to collect the reward. Munny begins to talk about Logan and the woman informs him that Logan is dead. She tells how Daggett had found him and whipped him mercilessly to get information, and now his corpse is being displayed outside the saloon/whorehouse as a reminder to everyone about what happens to criminals in Big Whiskey. As Munny hears the news, he starts drinking from Logan's whiskey bottle. He borrows the Kid's gun, sends the Kid to deliver the reward money to everyone's families and heads back into town for revenge.
In the saloon, Daggett has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid. They wind up not needing to go anywhere, because Munny walks in alone with rifle in hand. He first asks who owns the place. Skinny says he does. Munny shoots him dead. Daggett yells at Munny for shooting an unarmed man. Munny says he should have armed himself. A gunfight then breaks out, and several of the deputies are shot dead. Daggett is also shot. Munny orders everyone else to leave if they want to stay alive. Just about everyone does indeed exit. Beauchamp is still there and begs for mercy, saying he's just a writer. He lets Beauchamp leave, and as this happens Daggett slowly reaches for a pistol. Munny stops him. Daggett curses Munny before being finished off with a final fatal gunshot. Munny leaves the building and yells out to everyone that he's leaving town now but will return if he learns that Logan is not given a proper burial immediately, or if any other prostitutes are harmed. The movie closes with Munny back at home visiting his wife's grave.
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The original concept of Unforgiven was brought to Eastwood's attention all the way back in 1976, but he decided to wait on doing this one for what would eventually be his last Western, plus to be properly aged for the role. Eastwood wore a pair of boots in this film that were actually the same boots he wore back in the 1950's when appearing on the TV western Rawhide. This was a deliberate notation for Clint to bookend his career in westerns.
Unforgiven was praised for many reasons. Some called it a western noir. Some said it was a fitting tribute and/or eulogy to the genre. Just about everyone agreed it resembled the classic western profile better than any film had in the post-John Wayne/John Ford era, or since. Critics loved it. Moviegoers loved it even more. The film spent a full year in and out of theaters, bringing in over $100M. The Academy certainly weren't ignorant of its success either, with Unforgiven earning 9 nominations and winning 4 of them. The non-winning categories were Art Direction, Sound, Cinematography, Original Screenplay and Lead Actor (Eastwood). The wins came for Film Editing, Supporting Actor (Hackman, his second career Oscar win), Director (Eastwood) and Best Picture, which saw it conquer The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howards End and Scent of a Woman. Eastwood would win two more Oscars several years later with Million Dollar Baby, but to many this is his ultimate achievement. Personally, I think Unforgiven may be the greatest western film I've ever seen.
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