My Life at the Movies 2.03.09: 1992 - Unforgiven

Posted by DC Perry on 02.03.2009

It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have.

1992 was a crossroads in movies. Reservoir Dogs was fresh, nonlinear, and hailed as an innovation in film making. Quentin Tarantino's quick hitting, pop-culture riffing style was on its way in, and on its way out was one of the genres that quietly informed many of Tarantino's sensibilities. As in all things, age before beauty.



1992 at a Glance

US President: George H. W. Bush
Median annual salary: $30,636
Gallon of gas: $1.13
Dozen eggs: $0.93
New house: $144,100
New car: $16,083
Movie ticket: $4.15
Boston Red Sox: 73-89, seventh place, American League East
Me: Driver's ed with Mr. Menin and his Napoleon complex


William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a Kansas pig farmer with two young children to feed. The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) knows that Will used to be a much more dangerous man, and he's got word of a hit on two cowboys in Wyoming who cut up a whore, and the other prostitutes in town pooled their money to put a bounty on the men's heads. The Kid needs a partner to kill them; in return for his help, he'll split the $1000 reward with Munny. Munny turns the Kid down – he's given up that life, thanks to his late wife, and he has two children to raise. But after the Kid leaves, it's the faces of those two children and the money he needs to care for them that make Munny reconsider. He rides north to convince his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to join him one last time, then the two catch up with The Schofield Kid and ride north to Big Whiskey, Wyoming.


That you here, Bob, on the cover? "The Duck of Death?"

Big Whiskey, Wyoming, is not a town that welcomes old gunslingers. When English Bob (Richard Harris) rides into town with his biographer W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) and ignores the town ordinance against carrying firearms, local sheriff Little Bill (Gene Hackman) takes some time away from building the worst house west of the Mississippi to beat Bob bloody, and to shout a few warnings to anyone thinking of trying to collect the bounty on the two cowboys. Before running Bob out of town, Bill takes time to charm Beauchamp with some shoot out stories of his own; when Bob leaves town, Beauchamp stays behind with Little Bill.


I guess they got it comin'. 'Course, you know, Will, if Claudia was alive you wouldn't be doin' this.

Ned, the Kid, and Will arrive in town soon after, and while the others pay the saloon's ladies their respects, Will stays downstairs and fights with Ned's bottle of whiskey. Little Bill, who fails as both a carpenter and a sign maker, leaves his leaky house to see the latest stranger who ignored the town ordinance against guns. Will is sick from riding in the rain and does what he can to avoid a confrontation, but Little Bill is eager to show off and savagely beats Will. Ned and the Kid take the less dignified upstairs exit and hide out with the prostitutes outside town.


Give him a drink of water, goddamn it.

While Will recovers from his injuries, Ned and the Kid scout out the marks, and when he's able to travel, the three of them ambush the cowboys. Ned injures the first one, but can't stomach killing him. Will does what he must because he can, and the three leave, planning to circle back for the other one. Ned's done – he wants to go back to his wife, and Will tells him he'll bring his share once the job is done. The Kid finishes off the second cowboy while he's using the outhouse, and he's shaken so much that he can barely stand. Will collects the bounty and starts to count out Ned's share when he learns that Ned is dead – beaten to death by Little Bill because he wouldn't give him information about his partners.



Will takes a drink and heads into town. He storms into the saloon, blasting Skinny with his double-barreled shotgun for displaying Ned's corpse outside. He aims the other barrel at Little Bill, who orders his men to drop Will after he's out of shots. Will's gun misfires, but before anyone can get off a shot, he drops five men. Beauchamp fawns over Will's shooting skills, but Will hears Little Bill cock his gun on the ground. He kicks it away, and after letting Bill make a brief speech, shoots him with Ned's rifle. Will mounts his gray horse and rides away to his children, a mixture of fear and admiration behind him.



Unforgiven is a love letter to westerns. The homages and allusions pile up one after the other. The movie winks at scenes in The Outlaw Josey Wales more than once, most notably early on when Munny tries and fails to shoot a tin can off a rail – he solves his problem with a shotgun, pulling off the elusive allusion/foreshadowing combo. The overall theme of the movie is very similar to The Shootist - a retired gunman is forced out of retirement by circumstances beyond his control. But Will and Ned are more layered and human than John Wayne's J.B. Brooks. These men are not the romantic heroes of W. W. Beauchamp's penny novels or The Schofield Kid's daydreams. Unforgiven ranked fourth on AFI's top ten westerns, and it was made 20 years later than anything else on the list. Just like Munny's career, the western genre is a relic of the past, admired but misunderstood, representing a time that we romanticize, despite its physical and moral brutality. This is a fitting and loving tribute – indeed, requiem – for the genre, and that makes it the best film of 1992.