Space Cowboy
Allahu Akbar
I've seen a lot of westerns but Unforgiven takes the cake.
Most westerns are lacking in depth either thematically or story-wise. For example, I watched Tombstone immediately after Unforgiven and it was aight. The best westerns in my experience are ones that are inspired by samurai films like Yojimbo (A Fistful of Dollars).
What makes Unforgiven the GOAT for me is how textual it is. There's so much subtext and subtlety in the writing that simply does not exist in the majority of westerns.
My favorite subtextual theme or story beat is how the film takes stories about criminals and their deeds. Everyone is padding their resume. The Kid says he's killed five. English Bob is puffing his chest and acting like he's a western hero. Even the Sheriff falls into the trap of thinking he's an all good. Everyone is smelling their own bullshyt and bragging about their deeds and they did and they did that. All except for the main character Munny, who shows contempt and shame towards his past deeds. He doesn't brag once. There's a key part where Little Bill is talking to English Bob's biographer. He reads the utter shlock that the biographer got out of Bob's monocracy spewing mouth and deconstructs a story of how he won a duel with a tough hombre. In actuality, English Bob killed the guy defenseless in cold blood after his gun jammed. But English Bob sold the biographer a tall tale. Almost every character has some tall tale about them that turns out to not be true. People say Munny killed women and children but since every tall tale in the film turned out to be false, we - the audience - think that might not be true about Munny. But Munny, who doesn't brag about his deeds and sins says near the end that he did kill women and children. So what are we to believe? The tall tale or see through the myth of wild west? Is Munny really that bad.
And if he is it's really interesting that within the context of the film Munny is downright the most moral man in the movie. Ned (Morgran Freeman's character) is a bad husband that cheats on his wife with hookers. Schofield Kid wants to kill so badly and ends up doing it only to find out it's not all that and a bag of chips. The Sherriff Little Bill tortures and beats Ned to death and parades his dead body in a town while having a piece of writing that says,"this is what happens to assassins". But aren't you an assassin as well? The "law" ends up raising a town of lawlessness where men are allowed to cut up prostitutes faces and not face punishment. Where men have their second amendment rights waived and are beaten half to death just for having a firearm. Little Bill shyts on English Bob for talking about the English monoarchy on Indepedence Day but that Sheriff certainly acts like he's exactly that: a King on the American frontier and he rules his town like a despot. The supposed good guy - the Sheriff - is cruel; the supposed bad guy - the apparent assassin and child murderer - has a conscience and heart of gold.
What a riveting film that just turns the western genre upside down. Watching most westerns is a chore after watching it. It's like playing tic tac toe after learning Chess mid game and late game strategy. Boring as shyt in comparison.
GOAT.
Most westerns are lacking in depth either thematically or story-wise. For example, I watched Tombstone immediately after Unforgiven and it was aight. The best westerns in my experience are ones that are inspired by samurai films like Yojimbo (A Fistful of Dollars).
What makes Unforgiven the GOAT for me is how textual it is. There's so much subtext and subtlety in the writing that simply does not exist in the majority of westerns.
My favorite subtextual theme or story beat is how the film takes stories about criminals and their deeds. Everyone is padding their resume. The Kid says he's killed five. English Bob is puffing his chest and acting like he's a western hero. Even the Sheriff falls into the trap of thinking he's an all good. Everyone is smelling their own bullshyt and bragging about their deeds and they did and they did that. All except for the main character Munny, who shows contempt and shame towards his past deeds. He doesn't brag once. There's a key part where Little Bill is talking to English Bob's biographer. He reads the utter shlock that the biographer got out of Bob's monocracy spewing mouth and deconstructs a story of how he won a duel with a tough hombre. In actuality, English Bob killed the guy defenseless in cold blood after his gun jammed. But English Bob sold the biographer a tall tale. Almost every character has some tall tale about them that turns out to not be true. People say Munny killed women and children but since every tall tale in the film turned out to be false, we - the audience - think that might not be true about Munny. But Munny, who doesn't brag about his deeds and sins says near the end that he did kill women and children. So what are we to believe? The tall tale or see through the myth of wild west? Is Munny really that bad.
And if he is it's really interesting that within the context of the film Munny is downright the most moral man in the movie. Ned (Morgran Freeman's character) is a bad husband that cheats on his wife with hookers. Schofield Kid wants to kill so badly and ends up doing it only to find out it's not all that and a bag of chips. The Sherriff Little Bill tortures and beats Ned to death and parades his dead body in a town while having a piece of writing that says,"this is what happens to assassins". But aren't you an assassin as well? The "law" ends up raising a town of lawlessness where men are allowed to cut up prostitutes faces and not face punishment. Where men have their second amendment rights waived and are beaten half to death just for having a firearm. Little Bill shyts on English Bob for talking about the English monoarchy on Indepedence Day but that Sheriff certainly acts like he's exactly that: a King on the American frontier and he rules his town like a despot. The supposed good guy - the Sheriff - is cruel; the supposed bad guy - the apparent assassin and child murderer - has a conscience and heart of gold.
What a riveting film that just turns the western genre upside down. Watching most westerns is a chore after watching it. It's like playing tic tac toe after learning Chess mid game and late game strategy. Boring as shyt in comparison.
GOAT.
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so i never did
