"We all have it coming, kid."

UNFORGIVEN, as many of you probably already know, is more than just another western. It’s an interesting movie because there is a nice parallel between its main character, William Munny, and the actor playing him, Clint Eastwood. Munny is an old, retired cowboy who stopped fighting long ago, on account of the death of his wife. Eastwood, at the time he made the movie, was reaching the end of his career, no longer the young, charismatic gunslinger he used to be in the old Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. Both Eastwood and Munny embark on one last adventure, one last journey so they can achieve some kind of atonement and finally rest in peace. Munny's journey is an exterior one - he is traveling to some town to kill two rapists for money, while Eastwood's journey is an interior one - he is making one last great western before he throws in the towel.

It’s funny then that this movie that represents Clint Eastwood’s retirement from the genre should become one of his best. While his earlier movies dealt with morality and justice, UNFORGIVEN is a slower, quieter film that is about reflection and inner peace, making it ultimately more meaningful.

There is a beautiful scene in the movie that takes place after the young, fledging cowboy, played by Jaimz Woolvett, has just killed his first man. He is erratic, in shock as he realizes that murder in the old west isn’t as attractive as he used to think. Trying to rationalize his actions, he tells Munny that the guy he killed had it coming. Munny replies, “We all have it coming, kid.”

This single line defines thirty years of western cinema. In John Ford’s early work, the murders of cowboys were glamorized, and there was a distinct line between good and bad; you clearly knew who you were supposed to root for. Munny could very well have been one of those “good” characters, the vigilante, but now old age has brought him wisdom and he realizes there is no good and bad, and the line between right and wrong is actually quite blurred. In his early years, he did lots of things which now, upon reflection, he considers to be “wrong”... and he was the kind of person who was supposed to be the hero in the old John Ford movies. The fact is we’ve all done something we regret. We all have it coming.

The final shot in the movie is definitely my favorite. It’s a long shot of William Munny standing by his wife’s grave. A clothes line is filled with his children’s dirty laundry. We dissolve into the same shot, but now both Munny and the clothes are gone.

Eastwood, who also directed the movie, is making a very bold statement. There was a segment in A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies where Scorsese says that the old west was completely fictionalized by American novels and movies. There were never any one road streets lined with bars and jails, and there never any battles between lone cowboys and their counterpart, the lone sheriff. This was all made up. So, when Eastwood dissolves into nothing, he is telling us that this is not only the end of the legacy of William Munny, but the end of the legacy of the American western. It’s important to note that this was the last major contribution to the genre, and now the western is dead. That last image is like that last page of a storybook, where we begin to realize that it’s all over and our brains begin to adjust back to our lives instead of the one we’ve been living for the past two hours. Really, UNFORGIVEN is like a requiem for this American contribution to storytelling, and that’s what makes it so powerful and so lasting in our minds.

As he normally does when he’s at the helm of a film, Eastwood assembles an extraordinary cast. Gene Hackman, though (I could be wrong on this one) he never played this kind of part earlier in his career, is brilliant as the corrupt sheriff who, like Munny, is trying to achieve atonement despite his sins. He attempts to do this through building a house. The house, like his attempts to find inner peace, is a complete wreck, leaking all over the place. Morgan Freeman is great, but you already know that, even if you haven’t seen the movie. I have never seen Richard Harris before, but he is perfect for his role. Finally, we get some comic relief through the character W. W. Beauchamp, played by Saul Rubinek, a biographer who is quick to betray his latest “hero” for a more impressive one.

All in all, UNFORGIVEN is a classic in so many ways, and should be seen by everybody who appreciates film.