NL "Unforgiven"

The 1992 film Unforgiven brings a few drastic changes to the Western that really embody the difference in the attitudes in 1992 from the mid-1900's when many other Westerns were produced. The change in society that have taken place really lend to the film "revising" many of the essential fundamentals of the "old" Western. The characters and the plot in Unforgiven would have never lent to the film success in the mid-1900's as they did in the 1990's.

For me, the real big change that is completely transparent in this film from prior Westerns was the entire notion that there could be an unarmed town. This is simply ludicrous in the Western film: everything was about the gun. The enforcement of the town's unarmed policy by the sheriff is completely different than what is in any classic Western film... there would be no policy in the first place; the thought of a Western without the threat of the gun on the holster of every man is laughable. This change clearly mirrors many of the attitudes in America that favor gun control and movements against the Second Amendment; there were no such thoughts in the mid-1900's, therefore the thought of a unarmed town would be simply insanity.

The other aspect of the film that embodies some change from the era of the more "classic" Western is in the role of Morgan Freeman's character Ned Logan. Though, as we can safely assume, he never rises to the alpha male level; he does in fact play the role of a faithful partner to Clint Eastwood's character William Munny. The film features a strong actor in the role of a minority and gives him a relatively significant role. This is something that is not typical in the Westerns; there was no sole focus on a John-Wayne-white, but there was also a powerful African American figure.

Something that did surprise me in its lack of "revisionism" was the way that the women were treated in the film. Though the main aspect was treatment of prostitutes, there was no real justice for actions against them. I was surprised how their treatment was a continuation of the treatment of property they had always been; it simply was no 1992 The Ballad of Little Jo in the respect of women's roles.