A Review of Unforgiven as it Relates to Hume's Account of Liberty

In Unforgiven, a 1992 Western, we see Clint Eastwood portraying William Munny, in yet another role as a grizzled, scowling hero who emotes just a hint of warmness under all of his dirt and blood. In almost every movie where Eastwood stars, he plays a character that goes through a bunch of extremely sad or dangerous (or both) events in order to kill everyone brutally at the end of the movie and/or emerge the unlikely (which, in Hollywood, means most likely) hero. Usually, Eastwood has motives for his killing, which makes it OK for the viewer to sympathize with a man who is unsympathetically murdering people. In Unforgiven, we see Munny, an infamous cold-blooded killer turned docile, widowed farmer, revert back to his old ways for one last job in order to keep his children and their family farm afloat.

The movie provides two reasons for justifying Munny's return back to bounty-hunting. Aside from the aforementioned fiscal and familial reasons, the two cowboys that Munny (along with his old friend Ned and green assassin The Schofield Kid) is tracking down have sliced a prostitute's face with a knife after a joke that she made. Although in "movie world" this would seem like a solid justification for their death, the movie does take measures to evoke some sympathy on the side of one of the cowboys. He is shown as being sympathetic towards the injured woman, bringing her his best horse as a measure of apology, even though it was not he, but the other cowboy that knifed the girl in the first place. At no point while I was watching the movie did I think that it was reasonable for that man to be killed, yet, he is eventually assassinated by Munny, the "hero" of the movie.

Unforgiven has another serious instance of backwards portrayals of heroism in the case of "Little Bill" (Gene Hackman), who plays a sheriff that goes to brutal, but not death-inducing means, of keeping his town safe. However, when Ned is caught by Little Bill on his way out of town, he is murdered for his contribution to the killing of the two cowboys. Little Bill seems to be set-up as the "bad guy" in the movie. He is the final enemy of Munny, who goes back into town after collecting his bounty in order to exact revenge on the death of his partner. Although Little Bill acts as a fearless upholder of peace throughout the entire movie, he is too brought down by the bullets of Clint Eastwood's hero. It is worth noting that in the final scene of the movie, Munny kills about half a dozen men after killing Little Bill; men that were not portrayed as being either "good guys" or "bad guys" in the movie up to that point.

Here is what I've been contemplating since finishing the movie: Why does Unforgiven go to such lengths to create a hero that acts (on paper) so much like a villain? Sure, Eastwood gives warmth to Munny with his tender interactions with Delilah, the injured prostitute, his relationship with Ned, and his undying love towards his family. But when he kills Little Bill we get the signature line of the movie, from the murderer to the murdered - "Deserve's got nothing to do with it."

Hume says that liberty is simply the ability to follow one's own will. The opposite of liberty; however, should not be considered as the idea of necessity. Because people have inferred causal relationships instead of simply recognizing correlations on almost everything observable in the world, we have come to think that nothing is random, that everything can be explained through a cause and effect relationship. This directly relates to the way that movies are watched; people do not feel satisfied when they think that a movie "doesn't make sense." Cause and effect drives cinema and makes people happy. Entire movies, namely prequels like X-Men Origins or the Star Wars Episodes 1-3, are based around the revealing of plot details that indicate character traits that we know about already from past movies. The tying together of loose ends creates a happy feeling in the viewer, best described as an "A-Ha! moment."

Unforgiven does not play by these rules, in fact, it seems as though it is moving directly against them. Eastwood's character is a hero because he can act on his will, even when his will seems to contradict various laws of nature, reason, or realistic gunfights. The other characters are mowed down in his path simply because their will to protect or will to live is not strong enough to handle Eastwood's gritty determination. At the end of the movie, you are left wondering why Munny wins. It turns out that the only viable reason he "wins" is because he is the hero. He lives because he had more liberty and the other characters had more constraint. There is very little justice in his victory. Hume's account of liberty turns you on your head in a very similar way that Unforgiven acts on its viewers, and this dissension from the norm, I believe, is part of the reason why each is such an important work in its respective field.

You don't look no meaner-than-hell, cold-blooded, damn killer

*Spoiler Alert*

Unforgiven is credited with being the first western to comment on the ideas and themes of the western genre itself. What happens after the gunslinging cowboy gets old and settles down with the pretty girl? Can a bad boy ever really hang up is holster?

In this 1992 Clint Eastwood film, Eastwood stars as William Munny, an older version of the character that Eastwood played in western when his career first began. When a very young assassin approaches Munny about a $1000 reward for the death of two men who mutilated a prostitute in the town on Big Whisky, the retired gunslinger is thrust back into the crime world because he needs the money. When Munny first decides to join the young man on his quest, it is obvious that Munny's cowboy days have been long over and he has problems “getting back into the saddle” of the bad boy lifestyle. The now sober farmer has to relearn his old way of life that his wife had taken him away from about ten years ago. Munny has lost his expert shooting abilities, his equestrian skills, and his love of whisky. After a rocky start, Munny Leaves his children and simple life behind and rides off to find his old partner in crime to join him for one final kill. His friend Ned Logan (played by Morgan Freeman) has also retired to a simple farming life, but has kept up with his target practice and decides to join Munny on his mission just like the good ole days. Munny and Logan discuss that neither of them have killed anyone in over eleven years and throughout the film we follow the two men who are trying to find their place back in the crime world after being away for so long.

When the hired assassins find their first victim, it is obvious that this is something very different from what it used to be. Ned Logan aims his shotgun, but is unable to fire. While Logan discovers that he can no longer kill, Munny is forced to take the rifle and shoot the man down himself. Because of his lack of training, his shots continue to miss, but finally he hits the victim right in the chest. Munny sits with his comrades as they listen to the man slowly die. The supposed bad boys are obviously affected by this kill in a different way than they used to be. Logan soon decides that his killing days are over and turns back around to head back home. Munny pushes forward with his young friend and soon assists the new gunslinger in killing their other target. After the young man kills his prey, it is revealed that he has never killed before and would like very much to never kill again. The beat men, return to town to fetch their reward and be done with the whole ordeal only to find that their friend Ned Logan has been murdered by the local law enforcement.

At this point in the film, there is a shift in William Munny. When Munny married his wife, he completely changed his life around and was forced to realize all the wrong that he had done in the past. He stopped killing and drinking but took his first drink of whisky in eleven years when he found out that his partner had been killed. With his young sidekick back at home, Munny falls back into his murderous ways with all the anger and passion that used to power him forward. Throughout the story, there are many references to Munny's very drunken and violent past. Though Munny has left this part of his life his behind him, the memories and passions still dwell inside the aging cowboy. The true gunslinger comes out in Munny when he bursts in on the law enforcement that tortured and ended his friends life. While drinking whisky, Munny quickly and easily shoots up the bar all while being shot at himself. Without hesitation, Munny skillfully murders about six men including the county's sheriff.

Through the changes in Munny, Unforgiven argues once a killer, always a killer. Even though Munny had completely disowned his immoral history, when placed back in the situations of the past Munny returned to his old ways. Our readings this week discuss fate and the rules of nature that determine our lives. No matter how much he fights against it, Munny's fate seems to the crime-ridden life of a cowboy. Is it possible for people to change, or is a persons innate personality the only thing that can truly resonate throughout one's life?

I have included a scene from the movie when William Munny and his young comrade are waiting for their reward money and talk about the man they just killed. This scene perfectly reflects the mentality of a young man who has ended a life for the first time, and Munny who recognizes the atrocity occurring around him but has become numb to the pain.