I actually some respect for Little Bill. He’s a misogynist, an ass and a bully to be sure, but like Will Munny he’s part of a different breed of Old West killer. The scene where he educates the writer in the jail cell about what makes him different than a “celebrity” gunslinger like English Bob showed what he was made of. He proves it again after Munny kills Skinny at the saloon in front of all the town’s deputies. Bill walks into Munny’s last loaded barrel tells his men to gun Munny down as soon as he shoots, fully expecting to die in the blast. Had his deputies not turned out to be worthless, he might have survived the fight and even taken Munny out.
I think that’s one of Unforgiven’s strengths: none of the characters are 100% bad or good. That’s what makes them interesting, and Unforgiven more than your standard horse opera.
(OK the cowboy who cut up Delilah had it coming. But then again, we all have it comin’…)
I think the slow raising of the barrel of the shotgun into the frame during the celebration scene in the bar has got to be one of the most chilling and perfect scenes in filmdom. I get shivers just thinking about it.
Whatever became of the actor who played the Kid? he was pretty damn good, especially ini the scene right after he shot the guy and he was all scared. That whole scene is masterful, and the cinematography in the movie is something special as well.
The scene where they wounded the guy and he wanted water was classic. The humanity and fear that you never associate with gunslingers was the epitome of the anti-western theme.
Unforgiven is, I believe, the movie you are thinking of. The Unforgiven is a relatively uncelebrated John Huston movie.
It’s a good movie, but Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are better revisionist Westerns. Unforgiven plays off of Eastwood playing the pathetic flip side of his “Man With No Name” character from Leone’s spaghetti Westerns.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. When I watched it for a film class in college (after I’d already seen in a fistful of times), I told the teacher that one of my favorite things about it was that there were no “good” characters. Everyone’s dirty in some way.
And like you, I do believe that Little Bill was more than just a bully. Sure, he takes advantages wherever he can get 'em, but you can see that he’s always calculating, as when he shows that his “quick” draw isn’t blinding fast, but that he knows keeping a cool head and shooting straight is better than being fast. And you gotta have some stones to keep a cool head under fire. The funny thing is, when he finally faces Munny at the end, he appears to me to lose his cool and screw up his draw; he grabs awkwardly for his gun with two hands.
It’s hard to list favorite scenes, because there are so many, but one that hasn’t been mentioned: when one of the town prostitutes delivers the bounty to Munny, along with the news that Ned is dead. And as he listens, Munny takes that bottle, for what you know is the first time in years, and drinks deep, staring back at the town. That’s when you know the killing fire is back in him.
It seems the gutshot cowboy was the closest we have to a truly good character. He attempts to stop his friend from cutting up the whore and gets punished only because he was with him. He also tries to bring extra horses for the prostitutes as amends. I think that it is no coincidence that the two most innocent characters Ned, and the cowboy suffer the most painful deaths.
Deserves got nothing to do with it.
I say that almost anytime someone uses the word deserve in a sentence.
Too bad I never have the opportunity to say “Anyone who doesn’t want to get killed better clear on out the back.”
But pretty much the movie is full of assholes. I think only the whore who got cut up is the only decent person.
Up until that point he was a tired, over-the-hill gunslinger who couldn’t shoot, couldn’t ride and who shied away from confrontation. From that first sip onward, he was the Man With No Name, the Clint we’ve come to know and fear. Watch the scene again - even his speech patterns changed.
(I was responding to two posts above me. Check the timestamp.)
