UNFORGIVEN
A film review by Michael Stoneheel
Copyright 1993 Michael Stoneheel
Many Western fans consider this genre to be a cinema par excellance, while other persons claim that only a few Westerns are good films. UNFORGIVEN is a perfect opportunity to confront this issue. It seems to me that this film is about the Western myth, but what is that myth?
It is the myth of open landscapes and wide spaces, a hero on his horse, the good prostitute and the pure virgin, the progress against the primitive, and the use of Christian values. But most of all, it is the myth of the border between good and evil (usually the good hero is a reformed criminal, that could hardly be considered pure--like John Wayne in STAGECOACH) which resolves in a conflict between individual morality and the law.
Does Clint Eastwood follow this pattern? Certainly yes! The landscapes are as wide as ever, the hero is a reformed not in shape gunfighter (this is almost a cliche), the good guys act to restore the dignity of a prostitute, the only way to solve problems is by lynching and at the end we have a spectacle duel between the hero and the evil.
Actually, we could not have been more wrong. It seems that Clint Eastwood tried to break the myth from every possible angle. The abuse of a woman is very rare in Westerns and it is more likely to be done by Indians. All the good gunfighters are being humiliated during the film (either they cannot shot or cannot ride on their horses). Can anyone imagine a film in which John Wayne would be bitten by someone without responding?
From the narrative perspective, some things are worth to be pointed out. The tremendous use of closeups and the photographing of the hero's face during a gunfight are against the principles of the old Western in which everything was done to increase the myth. Another way that Eastwood use to break the myth is by making the Western more realistic (the curses, showing scars and wounds, the way sex is treated and the realistic killing).
One may presume that Eastwood was trying to define the limits of the myth. If such a claim is correct than the limits could be pushed even further. The cause for the struggle could be less moral, the sheriff could be more (or less) cruel, and the stereotype of the hero could be less conventional. At the end of the film the myth is as valid as ever (not only for the spectator but also for everybody in the film). Could it be shattered?
If Gene Hackman (or someone from the town) had made the score even, the answer would have been probably yes. Not only would such an act break the myth, but it would shutter a much more important thing, the myth of Clint Eastwood, the actor. In fact, Eastwood has demonstrated that even if he looks ugly, being humiliated, has a dubious sense of morality, the myth of him as a super hero actor is greater than ever. It is quite impressive, but should we admire him for it?
Actually, the myth of the hero is being finally realized in the duel scene. Eastwood has found the primer component in the aesthetics of the struggle, namely, the sympathy and admiration for the weak against the strong, for the few against the numerous and for the individual against everybody else. The result is a transformation of the conflict between the individual and the society from the moral level to a struggle dealing with action. Are all the ideas, stated so far, sufficient for explaining the evolution of the myth?
One must admit that the myth exists inside of us from the first moment we lay our eyes on the screen. To understand it profoundly, one should see classic Westerns like STAGECOACH, SHANE, RED RIVER, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE etc., but even by watching BONANZA much of the myth is becoming a part of the viewer. If many years ago the myth was a benefit for the Western, at some stage the overloaded self concern with it became an artistic obstacle. When discarding the exhausted self concern with the myth, there is no form of expression and not much is left. I'm not saying that there aren't Westerns which are great films. Usually, such films are being consisted of more aspects.
Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN is probably the best Western created in the last ten years, nothing less and nothing more.
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