From: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: unforgiven (1 of 3)
Date: 15 Aug 92 20:33:41 EST
Reply-To: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Channel 1 Communications

     NOTE: Spoilers for the movie "Unforgiven" appear below.  Normally I
     try to reveal as little of the movie's plot as possible, but this
     time I want to do more than simply say what a good movie it is.

                             *    *    *

          With the release of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," the American
     Western has returned to the movies with a vengeance.
          One might say that John Wayne's "The Shootist" marked the end of
     an era, as the mythic, larger-than-life Old West came to a close.
     Despite several attempts to "revitalize" the genre, from the
     disastrous "Heaven's Gate" to "Pale Rider" (in which Eastwood himself
     emulated Alan Ladd's Shane) to "Silverado," the Western was
     effectively dead and buried in Hollywood.  "Young Guns" and its sequel
     managed to make a quick buck off of the popularity of its "brat pack"
     cast, but those movies could hardly live up to the standards set by
     the likes of John Ford and Sergio Leone.
          But seemingly from out of nowhere, Kevin Costner pulled off the
     coup of the decade with "Dances With Wolves."  This shamelessly
     politically-correct movie was entertaining in its own right, and it
     proved that even the Hollywood Western could be recreated in the era
     of the 1990s.  More importantly, it was a smash box-office hit.
     Hollywood looked up and realized that yes, people DO still watch
     Westerns.
          Flash-forward to 1992.  Ron Howard makes "Far And Away," and
     he also bows to the gods of Political Correctness.  "Far And Away"
     was a light and fluffy folk tale that tried to be an "epic saga."
     It succeeded on the popcorn level, but failed to achieve anything
     higher than that.
          Enter Clint Eastwood.
          "A Fistful Of Dollars," the movie that made Eastwood a star,
     proved to be the death knell of the Classical Western of good-and-
     bad.  The so-called "spaghetti Westerns" reflected the way America's
     tastes in movies were changing in the 1960s, as they sought to
     de-mythify the Western and bring it down to earth.  Now, with
     "Unforgiven," Eastwood once again makes a name for himself, and once
     again he brings the Western to another level.
          Eastwood plays the role of Bill Munny, a grizzled old retired
     gunfighter who has settled down to raise hogs with his two children.
     Everything seems peaceful, though he doesn't seem very happy.  What's
     more, he doesn't seem to be having much luck as a homesteader.  His
     wife died three years ago, and the hogs are coming down with fever.
          But then along comes a young man calling himself the "Schofield
     Kid."  He's heard about a $1,000 reward being offered by a small-town
     brothel for killing two men, and he's looking for a partner to help
     him do it.  Munny had quite a reputation as a gunfighter, and so he's
     offered the role.  He accepts.
          During the first half or so of the movie, Munny keeps repeating
     how he's no longer a killer the way he used to be - his wife changed
     all that.  This is, in fact, only partially true: Munny has mellowed
     with age, but he was born to be a gunfighter, and we know that his
     attempts to convince everyone that he's not a killer are only half-
     hearted.
          In fact, Munny's return to way of the gun marks more than his
     own return - it's symbolic of the way the Western genre itself has
     come back to claim its former place.  The gunfighter has returned
     from retirement, but he's not the man he used to be.  The old
     gunfighter with the white hat of the Golden Age of Hollywood is
     history; today's gunfighter is a complex, struggling figure who
     is anything but the good Paladin of old.

     (Continued in next message.)
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