Blogging By Cinema-light: Don't Make a Scene (Redux): Unforgiven

It takes a lot of time to do the "Don't Make a Scene" feature that I put up every Sunday (all those screen-caps!), so while I'm preparing a bunch more, I'm going to take a break and re-post the ones that have gotten the most "hits," and others that I think are exceptional—it is no surprise to me that they couldn't be more different. This one sticks with me a lot and I've expanded my look at it a bit

The Story: Even as this scene unspools in Clint Eastwood's

valedictory western Unforgiven, you know that it is a classic scene—a moment of summing up and reflection on violence and its effects, something that doesn't occur in most westerns, certainly most modern westerns. Certainly most of the westerns that starred Clint Eastwood when he was working with such masters of the form as Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. Both directors were interested in taking their genre films and doing something more. Now their star, after some twenty years of directing films, moved into a new deepening understanding of not only what film could do, but what it was capable of. Unforgiven is dedicated to those directors who had gone before, "to Sergio and Don."

Eastwood's elegant picture-compositions start from the first image. His work has always been notable for the occasional "perfect" shot here and there, but the work was mostly concerned with efficiency and clarity, the cornerstones for beginning film-makers trying to get attention of the front-office and bean-counters. But, Unforgiven, tells its story a bit differently (his previous movie was The Rookie, after all), where image is important and you tell your story with pictures and less with quote-worthy dialog.

So, there wasn't a BIG surprise for me in the theater when this scene started. The first shot is another deep-focus landscape with figures dwarfed in the foreground, another simple tree as a point of focus. But, the scene, with the second image—of a distant figure riding out of town to meet those men—already anticipating what comes after this scene, undercuts the weight it holds.

It's just two guys by a tree waiting. Talking about what just transpired, recovering from it—if recovery is possible—and talking about death, no longer an abstract, but a very real thing.

One of the themes of Unforgiven is its look at the use of violence to solve problems, as its a trope of westerns and certainly of Eastwood's of the past. The inclination towards violence is inspired by those who are low enough to use it...and those wanting revenge for it. The revenge motivation seems so ingrained in our entertainment now—certainly, it makes up so much of the super-hero genre—that it is no longer even questioned.

But, it needs to be questioned. It's a sick inclination, looking at life like a game of win or lose, who's on top and who isn't, a narcissistic view of life where only the self matters and not the impact that self has. That philosophy may be important only to the life of a hermit, and then, only in a limited way.

Which is why that last line is so devastating. "We all got it coming, kid." It says that no revenge will save you or make your life longer. No one gets out alive. Win all you want. You'll lose everything eventually. It's like the devastating last line of Barry Lyndon: “It was the reign of King George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly; rich or poor…they are all equal now.”

I can't tell you how many times I've replied to "They probably deserved it" with "We all got it coming, kid."

Life is just not a game.

The Setup: Former gunslinger William Munny (Clint Eastwood) takes on a bounty hunter job to save his failing pig farm. But he finds that old habits die hard, but men die just as easy. He and his partner "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvert) have just taken care of part of the job, and are awaiting payment.

When you're ready....

EXT. OPEN COUNTRY - DAY
Open country at sundown seen from a low hill, and you can
barely make out a lone RIDER approaching in the extreme
distance.

VIEW ON MUNNY
Standing on the rise and watching the rider in the distance.

THE KID: Is that what it was like in the old days, Will?... Everybody ridin' out shootin'... smoke all over the place an' folks yellin' an' bullets whizzin' by?
The Kid is behind Will sitting under a large oak drinking
from a whiskey bottle.
MUNNY(absently): I guess so.

THE KID: Shit... I thought they was gonna get us.

The KID: I was even... scared a little... just for a minute.
(pause)

The KID: Was you ever scared in them days?
Munny turns from watching the rider's slow approach and walks over to The Kid who can't see the rider from where he's sitting.

MUNNY: I can't remember. I was drunk most of the time.
The rider is a little closer now and the sun is a little lower. It is very beautiful.

THE KID (drinking heavy): I shot that fucker three times. He was takin' a shit. He went for his pistol an' I blazed away... first shot got him in the chest...
The Kid wipes whiskey from his chin. He has been working hard to make the hysteria he feels into a high... but it won't quite come.
THE KID: Say, Will...
MUNNY: Yeah.
Munny is watching the rider and the rider is closer.

THE KID: That was... the first one.

MUNNY: First one what?
THE KID: First one I ever killed.
MUNNY (preoccupied with his vigil): Yeah?

THE KID: You know how I said I shot five men... it weren't true. (long pause) That Mexican... the one that come at me with the knife... I just busted his leg with a shovel... I didn't kill him or nothin,' neither.
Munny is watching the rider and the rider is much closer but coming at a walk and and he's trying to make The Kid feel okay when he says...

MUNNY: Well, you sure killed the hell outta that fella today.

THE KID (forced bravado): H-hell yeah. I killed the hell out of him... three shots... he was takin' a sh-sh-shit an'... an'...
The Kid is shaking, becoming hysterical, he can't go on.
MUNNY: Take a drink, Kid.

THE KID (breaking down, crying): J-Jesus Ch-ch-christ... it don't... it don't seem... real... How he ain't never gonna breathe no more... e-ever. How he's dead. An' the other one too... On account of... of just... pullin' a trigger.
Munny walks back to the edge of the rise and watches the rider and it is a lovely sunset happening and he is talking to no one in particular.
MUNNY: It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. You take away all he's got... an' all he's ever gonna have...