UNFORGIVEN FILMS. 4 EDITIoN Unforgiven McReynolds, Douglas J, ""Alive and Well: Western Myth in Western moral roots, especially in the precise calculation of the effects of Movies, in Literature/Film Quarterly(Salisbury), vol 26, no 1, violence, its running commentary on honourable behaviour, and its consciousness of the power of falsity of reputation. Plantinga, Carl, ""Spectacles of Death: Clint Eastwood and Violence At a time of increasing violence in society, a return to a classic in Unforgiven, in Cinema Journal(Austin), vol. 37, no. 2, genre permits a distanced examination of issues of revenge, guns, and inter 1998 respect. The story stems from an incident wherein a drunken cowboy slices up the face of a prostitute in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, in 1880 Gene Hackman, as Little Bill Doggett, in a wonderfully written and performed part that reveals unexpected depths in the hackneyed role Like its predecessor Tightrope, Unforgiven-a film critic Pat for the cowboy, choosing economic stability for the whoremaster Dowell calls"droll, dry and deadpan-marks a turning point in the over a harsher justice, and thereby enraging Strawberry Alice, whe career of Clint Eastwood. Just as the almost cartoonish, ultra-violent leads the other prostitutes to put up a S1,000 reward for the lives of the Dirty Harry image changes in Tightrope to a single father nearly two cowboys involved. This incentive draws a collection of misfit vercome by his human frailty and seeking redemption througl bounty hunters, including English Bob(Richard Harris), a British family values, so Unforgiven challenges earlier film stereotypes, not dandy, accompanied by his own dime-novel journalist/flack; the just of Eastwood,'s own spaghetti-western type but also of what has be Billy-the-Kid, whose become of the Western genre itself. The classic American morality extreme myopia makes him potentially lethal to his comrades; and story has fallen on sad days, exhausted by overexposure and made Eastwood himself, as Bill Munny, a long-retired gunfighter turned decadent by the gimmickry of special effects exaggerating form over marginal pig farmer, who is a widower with two children and substance. producer and director eastwood returns the form to its riendless, except for an old colleague-Ned Logan(Morgan Freeman) 1262UNFORGIVEN FILMS, 4th EDITION 1262 Unforgiven McReynolds, Douglas J., ‘‘Alive and Well: Western Myth in Western Movies,’’ in Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury), vol. 26, no. 1, January 1998. Plantinga, Carl, ‘‘Spectacles of Death: Clint Eastwood and Violence in Unforgiven,’’ in Cinema Journal (Austin), vol. 37, no. 2, Winter 1998. *** Like its predecessor Tightrope, Unforgiven—a film critic Pat Dowell calls ‘‘droll, dry and deadpan’’—marks a turning point in the career of Clint Eastwood. Just as the almost cartoonish, ultra-violent Dirty Harry image changes in Tightrope to a single father nearly overcome by his human frailty and seeking redemption through family values, so Unforgiven challenges earlier film stereotypes, not just of Eastwood’s own spaghetti-western type but also of what has become of the Western genre itself. The classic American morality story has fallen on sad days, exhausted by overexposure and made decadent by the gimmickry of special effects exaggerating form over substance. Producer and director Eastwood returns the form to its moral roots, especially in the precise calculation of the effects of violence, its running commentary on honourable behaviour, and its consciousness of the power of falsity of reputation. At a time of increasing violence in society, a return to a classic genre permits a distanced examination of issues of revenge, guns, and respect. The story stems from an incident wherein a drunken cowboy slices up the face of a prostitute in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, in 1880. Gene Hackman, as Little Bill Doggett, in a wonderfully written and performed part that reveals unexpected depths in the hackneyed role of small town sheriff, decrees financial reimbursement as punishment for the cowboy, choosing economic stability for the whoremaster over a harsher justice, and thereby enraging Strawberry Alice, who leads the other prostitutes to put up a $1,000 reward for the lives of the two cowboys involved. This incentive draws a collection of misfit bounty hunters, including English Bob (Richard Harris), a British dandy, accompanied by his own dime-novel journalist/flack; the ‘‘Schofield Kid,’’ a self-promoting would-be Billy-the-Kid, whose extreme myopia makes him potentially lethal to his comrades; and Eastwood himself, as Bill Munny, a long-retired gunfighter turned marginal pig farmer, who is a widower with two children and friendless, except for an old colleague—Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman)