Research Film Analysis in the Western Movie, Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood

From an actor to a director, Clint Eastwood's evolution has extended throughout the film industry which in turn enabled him to develop a unique style of the film. As such, the utilization of various cinematographic skills made him become one of the most accredited directors in modern cinema. The application of dialogue, lighting, music and characterization in his film conveyed both the messages and emotions relevant in the cinematographic portrayal of American culture (Colbert & Herrera, 2013). Despite recent acclaims regarding unfair and unjust treatment of women in his films, the Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood has retained much complexity even though it disregards the use of subversive elements. Hence, the cinematography and thematic elements in his films encompass a different and powerful trait based on the relevancy of the title.

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For the most part, many directorial accomplishments of Eastwood's films often tend to differ in terms of the kind of information that is incorporated. The use of various shots in Eastwood's films signifies evident opinions based on various topics including violence, American heroism, and women's role in modern society. For instance, in his film Unforgiven (1992), the story revolves around a former hitman's journey. Prostitutes hire the hitman in an attempt to execute those who seemingly offend their members. However, the contentment of sinful past and attempts led to his failure. In this regard, he reinstates that he cannot be classified as a cold-blooded killer that he once was during his early years.

According to various critics, the portrayal of violence in the film Unforgiven (1992) can be considered as an act of glorification (Motley, 2004). This is due to the way it places women in society as unforgivably sexist. The message of American heroism and its slow disappearance may surprisingly be realistic and applicable since it relates to the growing evils faced by the society. The elements of the film also criticize traditional concepts of Western manhood. The conception of Western manhood in the film challenges how manhood is seen as triumphant regardless of the redemption. For a contemporary male audience, Unforgiven (1992) subverts the traditional concepts of Western manhood due to the way it categorizes the mythologized west as accrediting a fairly mundane picture.

Eastwood's character, William Munny, is the first to be introduced serving as an 'uncharacteristic' role of a farmer. On the one hand, the film expresses a sense of nostalgia in the opening while on the other hand, its panoramic longshot reflects on Munny digging his wife's grave, cast by the setting sun. Later on, this scene is followed by a sequence where Munny attempts to locate his pigs back to their pens and slips in the mud. In this context, the film expresses his incompetence and low-status. Munny encounters an opportunity to overcome his downgraded status when a bounty is presented for the killing of two cowboys who attacked a prostitute. Despite his doubts and insecurities, he disregards his insecurities by continuously making statements reflecting on the concept of state security.

On the contrary, the linguistic patterns presented in his statements signified lack of conviction. For example, when he implies "I ain't like that no more," there is a long contemplative pause which distinguishes the two clauses of introspection and simultaneous fears. In other words, he disclaims his past life as a gunfighter. For many spectators, viewing Eastwood as an indistinguishable "fellow" in his films only accustom the deliberate expectation the character's portrayal within the course of the narrative. Nevertheless, when Eastwood 'becomes' Eastwood in Unforgiven, the character of William Munny is depicted as fundamentally aberrant. As a result, its revelation may be that of a violent Westerner in contrast to a Western hero.

In the film Unforgiven, it is witnessed that the West has lost the sense of wildness due to its modernized point of reconcilability. In other terms, the experienced changes tend to exemplify the concept of mythic manhood of the Western hero. On the surface, the glamorous and exotic setting shows how manhood appears more violently. According to Jane Tompkins, the assertion of feminized feelings of triviality, secondariness as well as meaningless activity is everything that most western readers try to escape from (Motley, 2004). As such, most critics relate on the assumption that Unforgiven exemplifies traditional Western manhood while in the actual sense, the film identifies heroic manhood as a disintegrated concept.

The theme of 'Little Bill' in the film Unforgiven challenges manhood. The theme is witnessed in the initial stages of the film when the prostitute Delilah (Anna Levine) slightly laughs at a cowboy's "teensy little pecker. This can be referenced to the biblical text regarding the theft of Samson's power by of Delilah's (Motley, 2004). The prostitute damages the cowboy's manhood as she considered his virility to be inadequate and comical. Significantly, violence is depicted in this scene when the cowboy lashes out at the prostitute in an attempt to restore his injured manhood.

Though unequivocally manly, Little Bill is the primary domesticating and paradoxical agent in the film. He restricted the development of manhood in others and categorized as Munny's ultimate nemesis. In some instances, Little Bill, in his role as sheriff, controls violent characters by incorporating violence. Despite the paradox, Bill's function is precise when considered in terms of Munny defeating a man to become a man. As Jane Tompkins (1992) stated, "Men prove their courage to themselves and the world by facing their annihilation." By this, she meant that the only possible way Munny can achieve his manhood is through the defeat of his manly counterpart, rather than besting the scared and inept deputies of Little Bill.

In his attempts, Munny succeeds to confront and kill Little Bill and some other men. He successfully emerges from the carnage unscathed despite being disadvantaged numerically. Due to pure physical efficiency, Eastwood's character takes the assumed role of a familiar gunfighter. However, the image of heroism is problematized in this scene as the film, by the end, disregards the definition of a hero. In Bingham's statement, a film critique, he mentions that there is a lack of coherence in the film because of the irrelevant acquaintance of the villain (Durham, 2007).

Munny reciprocates an indiscriminate nature of his killings when he admits that he "killed just about anything that walked or crawled at one time or another." As he conveys the idea of executing wounded men in cold blood, a slow zoom is captured into his emotionless face. Again, this emphasizes the admission of cruelty which underestimates any sense of heroism. The purpose of the slow zoom is to solidify the subject in matter dramatically. Therefore, the kind of persona presented by Eastwood only reflects an "ideologically potent deconstruction," whereby the transformation of the character unequivocally foregrounds the implicit depiction of what has transpired.

In terms of Eastwood's persona, a character's transformation may be seen as that of vicious, implacable, fascistic killing machine. In the spectator's expectations, the "popular persona" may reveal viciousness as more problematic beyond that of previous characterizations of Eastwood. In conclusion, the violence represents the execution of the wounded Little Bill. This prolonged affair can be termed as uncomfortable since it encapsulates the coldness brought by the character. With the rifle pointing at Little Bill's head, he entreats "I don't deserve this. To die like this." Although the tenets of the genre categorize his death as 'deserving,' in any case, Little Bill's death would not tend to consider evisceration.

Similar to the stranger of High Plains Drifter, Munny is overall associated with hell. In reference to the scene where the sheriff says they will see each other in hell, a darkly lit low close-up of Munny is observed. The cut signifies scarred features as his fragmented and disturbed identity are underlined by suggestively casting his face slightly in shadow. The mise-en-scene underlines this point when Munny goes off town (Durham, 2007). While riding, the rain suddenly pours down with thunderstorms. Ned's propped-up body is seen when the small torch fires light up. Consistently, the score is dominated by the low register strings. Effectively, Munny embodies the status of a horror's figure in regards to the horrific milieu. Considerably, the excessiveness of his actions undermines his admission while disrupting the vestiges of heroism.

Munny's proclamation of Ned's proper burial can be viewed as a heroic echo of motivation. In his comeback, he highlights a new-found malevolence which potentially hints the indiscriminate slaughter he might have inflicted while returning to the town. Therefore, having built up this kind of expectation, this "comeback" seemingly aggregated a "spent" hero reflecting on his old ways. In this context, many westerners can classify gusto as a relevant cliche. For spectators, Unforgiven exemplifies a cliched expectation whereby the confusion surrounding moral identity specifically compounds Eastwood's character towards the end of the film.

In an incongruous coda, the domestication of Munny as he tends to the grave of his wife reflects on the composition identical to the prologue. In a titled note, Munny has since relocated to San Francisco, "where it was rumoured he prospered in dry goods." Moving away from the 'savage' west reestablished his redemption (Durham, 2007). In the film, Munny is depicted as a reformed character whose professions are devastatingly established, while in the real sense, it was only a sham. Contrarily, the difficulty associated with placing a self-admitted killer of both women and children proves to be difficult especially when considering that the same voice of rage which was used to threaten people is that of a "civilized' man of business.

Throughout his film career, Clint Eastwood has been criticized as both a racist and a sexist. Much controversy has been generated regarding the polarized debated topics of violence and its consequences. As a result, numerous questions have been raised reflecting on the concept of American heroism as well as women's role within the society in general. In each of his films, it is undeniable that the fervent debate result from the ideas presented. Even though Clint Eastwood's general observations tend to reflect on all aspects of the society, there is a fairly consistent measure, especially when considering certain factors such as the manifestations of his differing opinions. Of course, this may also be relevant to his directorial accomplishments in relation to violence, women and the American hero.

Conclusion

Unforgiven only proves to be one of the remarkable films he has ever produced. From a directorial perspective, the film techniques are utilized according to specific ideas engrained within the audience's mind. In some ways, Eastwood can be characterized as a minimalist. The reason for this is because of how he deploys special effects as well as dialogue and lighting. He rarely approves the application of special effects, which in turn, is seen as a unique film technique. Furthermore, the characterization and plot development mainly relies on the actions of the characters rather than their utterances. Specifically, he uses lighting to build a specific emotional mood. In this way, he enhances the character's disposition by representing them with certain traits such as using the half-lit setting on faces and physical beings to indicate as...