Unforgiven is a film starring the infamous new age western actor Clint Eastwood. Revisionism is defined as the attempted change of a long standing theory or activities practiced. In Unforgiven, we see a revisionist sense of the alpha male cowboy. An original underlying theme of the alpha male is the power of his gun. His gun not only represented a phallic symbol of the west, but showed how violence was a key aspect of this time period. The alpha male consistently looked to his gun to solve problems, or to get individuals to perform as he wanted them to. In Unforgiven we see the opposite. The characters come to a realization that violence may be a short term answer, but does not solve the issue down the road. When Deliah was cut in the Brothel, every female wanted revenge for this horrific act. Even after their hunger for revenge was pleased, the issue was unresolved.
Morgan Freedman plays what we consider the “other” in this film. His character constantly deviates from the normally roles of the “other”. Freedman is a skilled marksman, but cannot bring himself to shoot the outlaw in this film. In previous films such as “The Searchers” or even “Two Mules For Sister Sara” we see the other not having any trouble shooting down the enemy. In “Two Mules…” the female character even is able to kill when it is necessary. This is the first film in which we see restraint from an “other” character and continues to exhibit this non-violent recurring theme.
This film is also part of the Spaghetti Western phase of the time. The film parallels with many of the themes examined in Spaghetti westerns, most of which is violence. These Spaghetti westerns demonstrate how the west is interpreted by other countries. They saw it as an extremely violent place, with no justice on the horizon. This film does differ from many of the other Spaghetti Westerns because it tries to convey the message of anti-violence towards the end of the film. They try to show that the west was a very violent place, but we need to realize that it does not solve all of our problems. This film brought up the thought that maybe we don’t need to shoot everyone that we disagree with. It arose questions on whether this type of justice was really fair, or necessary.
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Unforgiven is a film starring the infamous new age western actor Clint Eastwood. Revisionism is defined as the attempted change of a long standing theory or activities practiced. In Unforgiven, we see a revisionist sense of the alpha male cowboy. An original underlying theme of the alpha male is the power of his gun. His gun not only represented a phallic symbol of the west, but showed how violence was a key aspect of this time period. The alpha male consistently looked to his gun to solve problems, or to get individuals to perform as he wanted them to. In Unforgiven we see the opposite. The characters come to a realization that violence may be a short term answer, but does not solve the issue down the road. When Deliah was cut in the Brothel, every female wanted revenge for this horrific act. Even after their hunger for revenge was pleased, the issue was unresolved. Clint’s character is much different than the traditional alpha male. We see a lot of emotion exhibited where as in previous the alpha male is calloused. Clint also has a family, including a deceased wife whom he still cares about. The alpha in traditional roles is seen as loner and can never usually obtain and live with a family.
ReplyDeleteMorgan Freedman plays what we consider the “other” in this film. His character constantly deviates from the normally roles of the “other”. Freedman is a skilled marksman, but cannot bring himself to shoot the outlaw in this film. In previous films such as “The Searchers” or even “Two Mules For Sister Sara” we see the other not having any trouble shooting down the enemy. In “Two Mules…” the female character even is able to kill when it is necessary. This is the first film in which we see restraint from an “other” character and continues to exhibit this non-violent recurring theme.
This film is also part of the Spaghetti Western phase of the time. The film parallels with many of the themes examined in Spaghetti westerns, most of which is violence. These Spaghetti westerns demonstrate how the west is interpreted by other countries. They saw it as an extremely violent place, with no justice on the horizon. This film does differ from many of the other Spaghetti Westerns because it tries to convey the message of anti-violence towards the end of the film. They try to show that the west was a very violent place, but we need to realize that it does not solve all of our problems. This film brought up the thought that maybe we don’t need to shoot everyone that we disagree with. It arose questions on whether this type of justice was really fair, or necessary.