| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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How Hard Can it Be to Kill Someone?
by Andrew (movies profile)
Mar 21, 2007
4
of
4 people found this review helpful
Eastwood wants to be a reformed killer. Morgan Freeman is a reformed killer. Hackman hasn't reformed, he's retreaded. Richard Harris is sick. Woolvett wants to be a killer.
Eastwood (William Munny) has for 11 years tried to eek out a living as a pig farmer. He is not very successful. Ned Logan has managed to enter into a normal life. When a reward offer of $1000 for the lives of two cowboys who cut up a whore calls them out of retirment, they join up with Woolvett, a nearsighted gunslinger called The Schofield whose legendary record is his own imagination.
The problem is that each of these guys find it hard to kill. In this they contrast with both English Bob (Richard Harris) and Sheriff Little Bill Dagget (Gene Hackman). Hackman's character is a gunfighter turned law man who has his own ideas of justice and how to keep the peace in the town of Big Whiskey.
How hard can it be to kill someone? For those who have lost the taste for it, it can be very hard. For those who don't have the skill, it can be impossible. But for the likes of William Munny and Little Bill, killing is not hard at all.
William Munny's reformation is the reformation of a drunk who while never drinking again never gets over the drink. He never settled in to the quiet life the way he hoped to. He alone of the three is truly able to kill. And once his ire is raised when his long time buddy is killed for nothing, any sense of restraint is cast off.
The comic figure of the show is the dime novelist W. W. Beauchamp. Beauchamp writes embroidered stories about the exploits of gunslingers, but until Eastwood and Hackman have their showdown, has never witnessed a true showdown. He flutters from one gunslinger to the next, each of eschalating caliber, until, with all his subjects either disgraced or killed, he is spurned by the only living legend.
Unforgiven is a reminder that killing is not easy for most, but for a few, it can become an easy way of life. It underscores that legendary gunslingers are very often the result of questionable publicity, in which their exploits are embroidered and exaggerated. Living with violence is accomodated in varying ways by the main characters, with some embracing it, others shunning it and another group tailoring it for their way of life.
The Schofield Kid signals a transitional character. He is at a crucial moment of life, in which he must choose to accept or reject the killer's way of life before it becomes a defining characteristic for him. He starts off imagining that he could be a William Munny, but concludes by rejecting this ambition.
The movie is well directed, with great lighting and scenic panorama. The story is complicated and challenging psychologically. It is a challenge both to the free use of gun violence as well as harsh restrictions on gun possession.
The shootouts are quite believable, making them a thrill to watch. If I had one complaint, it is that the William Munny character is caricatured in his earliest stages as an incompetent pig farmer who has really given up on life. He is too pathetic, and his final actions contrast pretty strongly with this with only a fever induced vision of death to explain how he can move from both an emotionally emasculated and physically broken man into a powerful gunfighting force.
Gene Hackman is a good Little Bill Dagget. The contrast between his goals and his destiny is funny. He is a lousy carpenter building his retirement home, but he is incompent. He will never finish it and it will never be fit occupancy in any significant way. |
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