Rewriting Western Myths in Clint Eastwood’s New “Old Western”

L E N E N G E L Quinnipiac College RewritingWesternMythsin ClintEastwood’sNew“OldWestern” Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, while mixing a variety of elements— mythic and anti-mythic, de-romantic and revisionist—is, basically, a morality tale with a strong sense of Puritanic gloom. Like Preacher in Pale Rider, Eastwood’s character William Munny is out for revenge. However, unlike Preacher, he is an avenger whose wrath is only part ofa dark world that includes notjust character but landscape, weather, and narrative action. In language influenced by that of Calvinistic predesti­ nation, and with character and imagery drawn from scripture and literary naturalism, director Eastwood and scriptwriter David Webb Peoples undermine traditional myths and create new ones in their revenge story ofa “reformed”gunfighter who is coaxed back into action one last time. The film succeeds on a number of levels while purposely violating the usual box-office conventions that have attended other Eastwood films and many Westerns. De-romanticizing of the gunslinger is clear early in the film: Eastwood’scharacter, William Munny, who, we’re told, is a notorious, hardened killer, is seen with his young son clumsily chasing pigs around a muddy, manure-filled corral. However, as one can see from the dilapidated state of the ranch, Munny’s new life as a pig farmer hasn’t been exactly prosperous. When he’soffered a partnership in a scheme to kill two cowboys for a share of the $1,000 reward, he, at first, refuses, then reconsiders, and finally accepts. In Big Whiskey, Wyoming, a cowboy has slashed the face of Delilah (a prostitute, but unlike her Biblical namesake, a sympathetic one) for having made derogatory comments about his private parts. All the cowboy and his partner receive as punishment from the crooked sheriff Little Bill Daggett is a fine; they must deliver a string of horses to Skinny Dubois, the brothel owner, for his loss ofvalued property. In this instance and throughout the film, as Michael Sragow (New Yorker, 70-71) points out, the director takes what is a fairly ordinary 262 Western American Literature situation in Westerns and complicates the convention, undercutting the emotions and showing the danger of exaggerated language and overre­ action. The prostitutes, angered by SheriffDaggett’sadjudication (“they can’t brand us like horses and get away with it,” states their leader Strawberry Alice), pool their money and offer a reward for the death of both cowboys, making no distinction between the one who did the slashing and Davey, the one who was with him. Exaggerating the of­ fense, at least as far as the innocentDavey isconcerned, they are reacting, it seems, more to the indignity of their position than to the actual incident. And when Davey offers Delilah a horse for herself, the women mercilessly drive him awaybefore he gets near her. With the wrath ofan angry God, Alice refuses his petitions and willnot allow Delilah to accept the horse. In effect, the women’s action in offering the reward defines the plot and controls much of the action. Despite the bluff, bravado, and posturing of the men, their actions are a direct result of the reward. Repeating rumors he’s heard about the slashing and adding his own inflated sense of self, the Schofield Kid tells Munny that Delilah’s face was cut so badly, one couldn’t recognize her. (When we see her later, she talks as ifall her beauty is gone. But as the visual evidence indicates, her face is only slightly cut, and she’s still a very attractive woman.) Through the Kid’s exaggerated claims and, of course, for the reward, Munny is lured out of “retirement” even though he claims he doesn’t want to kill again. He, in turn, lures his partner from the old days, Ned Logan, not only for the money but for what he terms a good cause. In manipulating the men, the women are revealing the truth behind the myths that gunmen have built about themselves and that have been built about them—that these myths are nothing but male fantasies. Most of the men in the film are depicted as selfish, boastful, cowardly, and unheroic—for the most part, they are...