Unforgiven - Homage to Westerns?

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Unforgiven, even though after the first day I was somewhat confused. I think that was because most of that time was character development and after I established all of that, I could really immerse myself into the plot. I honestly can't believe I enjoyed it because I am not a huge fan of the western genre, but this one was different. I felt that these things could have really happened. Usually I expect huge shootouts or the swinging saloon doors, but the only real shootout in the movie was realistic as Will Munny used only five bullets, then reloaded his Spencer Rifle to shoot again. As for the saloon, it had a real door. Less dramatic effect, but also less corny. 

However, the aspect of the film that really stood out to me was the script. So much time must have been spent laboring over the script, deciding how every line of dialogue needed to be worded and delivered. One line that stuck with me is after Little Bill beat the crap out of Munny, he went upstairs to get Ned and The Schofield Kid, but all he saw was the back window open. 

Alice: "You just kicked the shit out of an innocent man, you big asshole." 

Little Bill: "Innocent of what?" 

Just think about that. Usually you ask "guilty of what?", but not when Little Bill is the law. In his town people seem to be guilty until proven innocent, and that may very well be the way it was in the west back then. And obviously the other great sequence of dialogue is between Will and The Kid. 

Munny: "It's a hell of a thing, ain't it, killin' a man. You take everythin' he's got... an' everythin' he's ever gonna have..."

The Kid: "Well, I gu-guess they had it... comin'."

Munny: "We all got it comin', kid."

Munny is saying that all of us will die, whether we are good, bad, or ugly (Yes, that is a Clint Eastwood related pun and yes, I crack myself up). But, if you are the reason for someone else dying, you have just closed their curtain. There is no way that person can ever live again and it's all your fault. I think this can also be interpreted as an existentialist point. Munny says "you take everythin' he's got... an' everythin' he's ever gonna have..." and it seems like he thinks there is no afterlife. That dead person will never have anything else in any other life. This is it, and you just ended it.

One other repetitive line of dialogue was when Munny was asked about killing someone, it seemed like he almost always responded with "I guess" or "I guess so". It appeared as though he never wanted to talk about killing, like he just wanted to do it and then forget about it. Even when after he had shot Davey in the gut, he just stared and tried to ignore it until he had to tell the other cowboys to give Davey water. It seemed like a side of him hated himself for doing it, but the other side saw it as a job that he was good at. He came out of retirement and took the job, but only because of the reward.

Throughout the movie, storytelling and the stories changing seemed to be a recurring thing. Everytime someone told the story of how the cowboys cut up Delilah, the incident got worse and worse. The first time we hear the story is by The Kid to Munny: "For cuttin' up a lady. they cut up her face an' cut her eyes out, cut her ears off an' tits too." That's definitely exaggerated, but eventually Munny tells the story to Ned: "Cut up a woman. Cut her eyes out, cut her tits off, cut her fingers off... done everythin' but cut up her cunny, I guess." Now her whole body is cut up except her... you know... "cunny". The only thing that really happened to her is that her face got cut. Not that that isn't bad, but it isn't what they are saying. So basically, stories passed by word of mouth almost always get changed.

Moving on to the whole deal with the title of the movie and the sympathy factor. I really didn't feel sympathic for any character that died. Either the character had done so many bad things in their life, that I felt they deserved it, or the character was not imporant/developed enough for me to be attached to. While Mr. Bennett brings up good points about Little Bill just wanting to keep order, he did not have to go to the extremes he did. There is a happy medium between chaos in the town and torturing anyone who sneezes. The title of the movie is perfect. Nothing changed from the beginning to the end except for a few extra dead bodies. Everyone that survived wound up right back where they started, as an unchanged person with the same feelings they began the film with. 

Now on to the title of my post. Surprisingly, I asked myself a question. Is Unforgiven an homage (pronounced o-maj for sophisticated people or hah-midge to the common folk) to westerns? Now, I like to break things down by using definitions (as you may or may not know, but now you do), so what exactly is an homage? (another question, I love it!) According to dictionary.com, homage means respect or reverence paid or rendered. So, essentially, was Unforgiven made to give props to past westerns? I think you could say that (I give myself a question and I don't even answer it. I should be a politician). I see Unforgiven as superior to all other westerns that I've seen (which isn't many), but without the past westerns, it is nothing. The first westerns were the pioneers and Unforgiven followed in their footsteps, but walked even farther. It shows that most other westerns were unrealistic with their infinite ammo shootouts and their swinging saloon doors. If you were going to kill five people without reloading, you were going to have to be as legendary as Will Munny. 

I know this has probably been my most serious, and therefore least hysterical post, but I will leave you with some humor. www.youtube.com/watch?v=32mx_mZn_Ns That link will lead you to the "official" A Clockwork Orange book trailer. If you watch this, and still don't understand what it's about, well... well... that's expected. 

Stay Classy, Bennett's Film Class.