A reflection on Joseph H Cuphers chapter titled Seductive and Subversive Meta-Narrative in Unforgiven. Published in the Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 60, No. 3/4 (FALL/WINTER 2008), pp. 103-114

• Unforgiven has a self-reflexive narrative designed to demythologise the traditional Western. Firstly, the violence in the film isn’t glorified. The most brutal depiction of violence is of Quick Mike slashing a prostitute in the face with his knife. This is scene is horrific, the viewers hears her screams and sees the knife cut her face. This is Eastwood commenting on the reality of violence. Many of his films in the past romanticise it, when a ‘bad guy’ gets shot a bucketful of red paint spawns from him, in a gory, unrealistic fashion. Unforgiven is Eastwood’s statement on the Western. Eastwood through Unforgiven contends that the audience must appreciate/celebrate the Western for its mythology, but not reality. Because the reality of violence is nothing to celebrate, which is why he begins his most honest film in a very honest, brutal fashion.
• The film criticises similar stories for their disturbing glamorisation of violence. Beauchamp is a significant character because he quite literally fills in the gap between truth and lies. Essentially he is the person who hyperbolises the truth until it becomes fiction. He represents the writers and filmmakers who give enduring, yet false substance to Oral history. For example, In the film Little Bill witnesses English Bob kill a man. Beauchamp’s writing of the event only told part of the truth-most of it was hyperbole or a straight out lie. This is Unforgiven critiquing the Western genre for its inability to tell the truth, it is a genre entirely based on false mythology. This false mythology has been a framework used to rationalise violence. The idea of good conquering bad through violence fulfils the viewer. What the viewer doesn’t know is that they’re tricked, they’re tricked into believing the good is justified in killing the bad. What Unforgiven and (and Sergio Leone) does is blur these boundaries. They don’t justify death in any scenario they contend it is innately cruel and undignified. This what The Schofield Kid learns. At the beginning of the story (like the viewer) he is fascinated and enthralled with the ways of the west, he actively self-mythologises, he wants to turn himself into a legend ‘I’ve killed five men’. After he kills Quick Mike the reality of death hits him, he begins to understand that he took absolutely everything away from that man forever-the significance and permanence of his actions hit him like a train and he begins to weep. This is The Kids redeeming moment, he is ignorant and insensitive at the beginning of the film and is swept off his feet when the reality of death hits him. Instead of coming of age as a superstar cowboy gunslinger (something the traditional western would promote) he instead matures in a more real sense. He has the realisation that guns and violence aren’t really all there cracked up to be. Again, this is Eastwoods statement on the Western and it goes back to the same old contention that the mythology embedded in the Western is best left a myth, it should never be celebrated or brought into reality. In many ways he wants the audience to learn the same thing as The Schofield Kid-that the reality of violence and death is nothing to be celebrated. Unforgiven is a cautionary tale. The idea of the western is good, but the western itself is innately flawed.
• It critiques the pathological connection too Manhood and violence: Quick Mike attacks the woman because she insults the size of his genitals. Corcoran (who was killed by English Bob) is called ‘Two Gun’ because he has a large penis. These two occurrences associate masculinity and violence. In ‘Once upon a time in the West’ we see Henry Fonda’s greater (the most violent man in the film) has sex with Jill McBain. There seems to be an innate link between masculinity and violence that these two revisionist Westerns critique. The men in Unforgiven appear as unintelligent brutes (except Morgan Freemans Ned) whereas the women get revenge on the violent cowboys in a subtle, non-violent method. They also show care and love for each other, that the men in the film do not show. Strawberry Alice (the leader of the prostitutes) is the most articulate character on the film, she has a strong understanding of justice.
• Clint Eastwood, by portraying the old and deeply flawed Will, symbolises the Western within contemporary society-it is old and out of touch. The morals celebrated in traditional westerns are no longer celebrated-Eastwood contends this is a good thing.
• By Fulfilling our expectations at the end of the film, it reinserts itself back into tradition.
• The film teaches the audience, not to believe everything it hears. There is a huge disparity between truth and myth.
• There is racism in Unforgiven and Once Upon a time in the West. English Bob bounty hunts Chinese People and Henry Fonda’s character in ‘Once Upon a Time’ seemed to be hanging a Chinese Man and his Son out of pure cruelty. These revisionist Westerns are showing blatantly and all to significantly the evil within racism (that has plagued the Western genre from its conception).
• Yes Clint Eastwoods Will is an anti-hero. But did he kill women and children as the story suggests? Because truth is the first fatality the audience cannot and should not believe what the characters in the film are saying in regards to Wills past-what they are repeating would be second or third hand information that through time would have become bloated and twisted.
• Many revisionist Westerns believe that true law must replace conflict with guns. However to make this possible, to implement the law-they need guns.
• Unlike a traditional Western (such as High Noon). Will, Ned and the Schofield Kid are the outsiders looking to restore balance. This is subverting the convention of the Sheriff protecting the town from outsiders who are looking to overthrow the balance of thing. In almost all cases the Sheriff doesn’t want change.