Not necessarily the best movies ever made, but these are twenty of my favorites, in no particular order.  Each post for the next twenty days will feature a brief discussion of one film (though one or two days will have multiple posts to make up for absences).

Post 14: Unforgiven (1992 dir. Clint Eastwood)

Sheriff “Little” Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) spends the film building his house. In his own way, he is taming the west by bringing civilization to the frontier in Big Whiskey. He controls his town with his own sense of righteous justice, believing he understands the history and the consequences because he’s lived it. W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) takes a shine to the sheriff, falling into his narcissistic circle, and believing Bill’s version of the history, the tradition, the romance of the old west.

But Daggett does not control as much as he thinks he does. His design is flawed. The roof of his under-construction home leaks whenever it rains. And no matter how hard he tries, or how intimidating he thinks he is, he cannnot patch the holes faster than the water comes pouring in; the truth will find its way.

William Munny (Clint Eastwood), despite all of his efforts to avoid his misbegotten youth, will be that truth, that avenging angel. And when Delilah (Anna Thompson) brings news of Ned’s (Morgan Freeman) fate, the film’s truly chilling moment comes. After spending the lenght of the film talking about how he has given up drink and all sorts of wicked things, Will grabs the whiskey bottle and takes a drink. That’s all it takes, the image of him taking one drink and we know, absolutely know, the true gun of the old west is about to be drawn.

You can paint the picture to your liking, as Little Bill tries to do, as much as you want. But Will Munny will still find you and tear your house down. “I don’t deserve this,” Little Bill says, “to die like this. I was building a house.” Will tells him, “Deserves got nothing to do with it.” But, it actually has a lot to do with it from Will’s perspective. It’s just…Will’s better at the violent survivalist old west ranger role…he really lived it, was the villain, and is the past that will not die.

“I’ve always been lucky when it comes to killing folks,” he tells Beauchamp at last. He’s right. It’s just as much about luck as it is skill and experience. And when he sobers up, feels the shame and guilt, Will keeps running, disappearing. He’s the real unforgiven character; unable to make amends with his past, accept his life, or find gratitude for what he has. He can avenge Ned, and for one brief drunken night of violence he is as he was. Still whereever he goes, there he still is, unwilling to forgive himself; unaccepting of the love his dead wife, Claudia, gave him; unable to truly move on with his life.

But when the old west still needed him to take care of Sheriff Daggett, he was exactly where he needed to be. A great film by Director Eastwood (If you haven’t seen Million Dollar Baby (2004), check it out. Just as elegaic, poetic, and visually stunning)