Unforgiven

If you are crazy about westerns and young Eastwood in a big scarf, you should watch Unforgiven, because I can assure you that it is different from any westerns you have seen. Of course, it is also a westerns, but you will find that the same word can have multiple meanings.

What's your impression of westerns? Cowboys stood opposite each other, staring at each other. Suddenly someone's wrist moved, and between the crackles, a bunch of people were hit by .45 bullets that were more accurate than precision guided missiles (although you can't see where they hit). Yes, if you have seen N westerns, then you must have seen N times in the above scene. It's very enjoyable, but it's easy to make people think too romantically about the performance of firearms in the 19th century. Fortunately, we have Unforgiven, which can tell us a little truth.

"It's not easy to be quick, but the most important thing is to be cool-headed." This summary by Sergeant Little Bill and the ridicule of British gunmen in prison can be said to be a mockery of the whole western film group in the 1960s.

Legendary images have been re-deconstructed into a group of hooligans and idlers making meaningless fights. The key to winning is that you can pull out a gun and hit your opponent in no hurry (certainly not soon).

At the same time, your gun is too good to explode due to accidental fire. If this ridicule is not specific enough, look at the final gunfight in the film, and you can get a general idea of what cowboy gunfight looks like in the real world. There is no Shinhwa-like marksmanship, no incredible tactics, only blood gas, the psychological quality of not killing people, a calm mind and luck.

The description of one killing five (not including being released) tends to make people have many wonderful associations, but Eastwood tells us that the facts it represents can be far from our imagination, which is not exciting, romantic or even funny, but this happened, and some viewers' illusions about gun battles in the west ceased to exist.

However, Eastwood's ambition goes far beyond this. It is hard enough to carry out the structure of the signature gun battle on which the western films depend, but he is not satisfied. What he wants to challenge is the emotional foundation of the whole western films and smash cowboy heroism. For the audience, it may be very depressing to see the heroes they admire beaten up by the "bad guys", but compared with the sudden discovery that the so-called "heroes" are just desperate people who don't care about other people's lives, This depression is nothing at all.

"Unforgiven" stripped off the cloak of knight fairy tales in western movies, and told us the real living conditions of people who keep their heads in their belts all day and enjoy shooting and killing people, and told us how limited the concepts of "heroism", "getting rid of violence and being safe" and "justice" are in their world.

A total of eight people died in the film. Which one is the "bad guy" and which one deserves to die? Even the worst of them is just a farmer who violently attacks prostitutes on impulse. Should Little Bill die? A police officer trying to keep the town quiet in the lawless west, banning all people from entering with guns? Not a loyal but at least not a bad brothel owner? Or take the initiative to ask for forgiveness of another peasant boy? If you ask such questions, you can't find the answer in this film, just as Will said when he shot the sheriff: "It doesn't matter whether you should die or not." What justice, what good or evil, there are only simple revenge and killing. In a violent world, it is meaningless to talk about morality, and it is a lie to be brave, whether it is American cowboy or Chinese outlaw.

If you understand this layer, you will understand why the old theme of western films won four Oscars in 1993. "Unforgiven" is not only a transcendence of western films, but also a summary.

If you haven't seen westerns, please read Unforgiven. If you have seen many westerns, please read Unforgiven.