Unforgiven (1992)

[Movie 270 / Day 286]

William Munny (Clint Eastwood) was a murderer and a thief, until he married and his new wife showed him the error of his ways. Since his wife passed away, he’s been living on their small farm, raising the kids and looking after the pigs. One day, a young man, the Schofield Kid, rides up and asks him to partner with him in chasing down and assassinating two cowboys who have a bounty on their heads for cutting up a prostitute. Munny politely declines, protesting that he has left that life behind.

However, before long, he realises that he can’t ignore that amount of money, and he saddles up and goes to see his old partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). Logan, also a farmer, agrees to go along with Munny as he also needs the cash.

The pair catch up with the Schofield Kid and together they ride into Big Whisky to meet the town whores and agree to do their killing. While they’re there however, the sheriff, a nasty piece of work called Little Bill (Gene Hackman), visits Munny while he sits alone at the bar. Little Bill has a law in place that states no guns are allowed in the town. When he discovers a feverish Munny’s pistol, he beats him and kicks him out.

Holed up in an old shack, Munny recovers from his fever and his beating with the help of the whore who received the cutting. Then he rides out to catch up with his partners in order to finish the job. When they eventually track down the cowboys, Logan discovers he no longer has that killer instinct and he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. No such problems for Munny, although his aim is off; he eventually manages to kill the first cowboy.

With the second holed up in a ranch, Logan leaves Munny and the Kid and heads for home. Before he’s gone far however, he is captured by Little Bill’s deputies and during the sheriff’s whip-based questioning, dies.

After the second cowboy is dead and Munny meets up with another whore to collect the bounty, he learns of Logan’s death and swiftly starts drinking again before riding back into Big Whisky and taking his revenge.

A brilliant Western, UNFORGIVEN gives us an unromantic glimpse of the wild west; a place where the sheriff isn’t necessarily the good guy and rules with a fist of iron, dealing out brutal beatings when the law is broken and a place where it wasn’t unusual to kill for money. A real slow burner, the tension builds until Munny’s true colours are revealed in that final bloodbath. It’s well worth a watch as it’s both Clint’s last time in the saddle and one of his best.

Rating:  

[ IMDB rating: 8.3 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 131 mins ]