Unforgiven (1992)

Unforgiven inhabits classical territory: the story is about revenge. Clint Eastwood - who also directed the film - plays the dangerous killer who has now settled down, trying to lead a quiet life. He has a daughter. He grew up in another era, an era of cowboys and criminals. The world has changed, and he is now an old man. A rider comes by and asks him whether he is interested in making a little money by doing some bounty hunting. The man - he is called William Munny - resists the offer, but then gives in to it. We see that this is no easy decision. Munny has tried to live another kind of life, and all that is now threatened. Typically, the settled-down, quiet life is most of all associated with femininity; Munny's devotion to his new life is a devotion to the women in his life, the dead wife and the daughter. The reason he gives in is also apparently a defense of women: the men who killed a prostitute is to be hunted down. The guy who tries to convince him, Kid, is a mess of a man: he seems to be settled on being a tough killer, despite being blind and clumsy. Munny is old and a bit fragile. This is perhaps what sets the film apart - its emphasis on masculine fragility. This is not something we see often in Westerns, even though there is the ever-present threat of 'weakness'. But here it is not so clear that strength is good and weakness is bad.  We see a transformation of Munnu, but it is not settled whether it is a positive one. He settles in his old ways, his old grimness and lust for vengeance. One could also say that his inner demons are let loose as he is confronted with corruption (he meets a power-hungre sheriff) and is tempted by violence. Beyond the story of a brooding man Unforgiven focuses on the life of the town in which the prostitute was killed. We are presented with journalists, gunslingers, pulp writers and prostitutes. It's a time were legends are already legends - the life of the west is also a life to brag about and try to conjure up. So, much of the film is about people trying to be something, and often failing. It's about inhabiting a world of ambiguity. To the film's defence, one could say that for this reason (the ambiguity) the story does not completely conform with the usual glorification of revenge. Even though there are traces of that. Eastwood's performance is great, and so is also the rest of the crew, especially Morgan Freeman as his partner.