On this, a brisk fall day, that I have off, I spent the last two hours watching Unforgiven. Because I do so love Clint Eastwood westerns.
- I wonder though, what did Claudia see in William Munny? I know that's supposed to be part of the mystery, but I'm a comic book reader, and we want everything explained to us, don't you know. Not having any particular insights into the female mind, I can't say. Did she catch him on a good day, when he was sober, and in high spirits? Or did she come across him on a bad day, when he felt so low she seemed like a saving grace? He speaks of her reverentially (at least on the surface; there's a feeling to his repetitive comments about how she saved him, and cured him of violence and drink that suggests maybe he resents her for civilizing him. or I'm reading too much into things) enough to suggest that she found him when he was in bad enough shape to be amendable to changing his ways.
- What do you suppose William Munny was like after the end of his trip to Big Whiskey? Did he revert to his state from the beginning of the film? If he did, indeed, continue to care for his children, I doubt that he fell all the way back to what he was when he was a killer of everything that walks or crawled. Would he have still be a good father, but more prone to violence towards everyone else? I imagine fear could be an effective tool in the business of dry goods, if that is what he wound up dealing in. People will accept unfavorable terms from Wilson Fisk for the same reason.
- You know, the running joke of the movie is how bad of a carpenter Little Bill is, and it's true the man certainly couldn't build a roof, but he was able to make working sliding windows, and that has to count for something.
- Or maybe not. After all, he did kill Morgan Freeman. UNACCEPTABLE!!! Morgan Freeman improves movies by 23.7%; Gene Hackman only by 18.4%. This is a gross violation of movie law, cooler characters should not be defeated by less cool characters, which is why the end of The Jackal is such a load of crap. Richard Gere beats Bruce Willis? Bull {expletive deleted}! Though, credit to Little Bill for taking his death well. At least he didn't humiliate himself by begging.
- Kids must have been very self-sufficient in those days. William Munny took off and left two kids, who wouldn't have been out of elementary school if there had been one around, to run a hog farm in his absence. True, they could hardly do worse at it than Munny himself, but still.
- I love the final scene in the bar. All those shots the law got at Munny, and he walks out untouched. Plus, it dovetails nicely with the lesson on gunfighting Little Bill gave Beauchamp, regarding speed versus a level head. It's all put together so nicely.
- It probably hints at my general instability, but I always laugh at that sequence with Little Bill saying 'You just shot an unarmed man!', to which Munny responds 'Then he should have armed himself, if he's going to decorate his saloon with my best friend'. Maybe it's the same thing I was talking about in my review of the Punisher yesterday. It's so threatening, but said so matter-of-factly, that's it's just really amusing somehow. Not in the sense of the absurd tough guy talk in some action films, where you roll your eyes, more in the sense of it's so awesome I find it funny. I don't really know how that works. Maybe the laughter is a sense of giddy anticipation of the violence soon to come?
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7 comments:
Okay, I happen to love this movie. I must've seen it about 6 or 7 times and it's still fresh to me.
We have Little Bill who comes off as such a swell guy but who's really cruel SOB on the inside. Then we have Munny who had been keeping his inner SOB --just barely-- for a few years. Of the two, Munny comes off a more sympathetic because he does acknowledge that he will always be a bad man trying to be good.
I think of this movie more like a samurai drama than a western. Nothing is black and white in this film.
WM
Love this movie too. I think afterwards Munney returned to his hermit-like life with his kids. I think that his journey in the movie just proved to him that he's a man who can't help but revert to his killer nature if he exposes himself to society. All he can hope to do is to raise his kids not to be him.
I think he realizes that his previous life was more fun, but that Claudia showed him the path to spiritual salvation so he has to stick with the path that does not come to him naturally.
Oh yeah, and no way Hackman could take Freeman. But could Michael Caine?
anonymous(WM): I think you hit it dead on. It's all grey. Little Bill is the law, and he does keep the town mostly safe, but he's a bastard, but so are the folks he disarms, then savagely beats.
jason: Michael Caine? I'm not sure. Morgan is too clever to outsmart, so the best chance might be a direct assault, overpower him. Can Michael Caine do that? I'm not so sure. Maybe Anthony Hopkins could pull it off.
Calvin,
Please view the move again as though it were a samurai movie, with its panoramic shots and all its ambiguity and you'll appreciate it better. I came to this conclusion on the third viewing.
WM
Ahhh...Clint Eastwood. Be still my heart.
Actually, didn't the end titles say Munny and his kids moved to San Francisco? Perhaps a touch of order and civilization might have inspired him to keep a level head.
The movie portrayed alcoholism very well, I thought. Munny's killing nature is tied in a way to the person he becomes when he has one too many.
anonymous(WM): I'll try that, thanks.
sallyp: Just don't make your heart still too long. I've heard that can be bad for you.
dan coyle: Yeah, the end says that Claudia's mom traveled to the farm, and Munny and kids were gone, and that it was 'rumored' they'd gone to San Fran. It's a likely a destination as any, I suppose.
And Munny is definitely not a happy drunk, is he?
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