In the town of Big Whiskey a couple of cowboys are being "entertained" by the ladies of the local saloon. Suddenly one of the girls Delilah (Anna Thomson) is attacked by one of the men and is cut up and scarred for life. When sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Gene Hackman) refuses to suitably punish the men, the "ladies" led by Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher) pool their funds and post a reward of $1,000 to anyone who will hunt down and kill these men.
Word of the reward reaches former gunfighter William Munny (Eastwood) who is now a widowed pig farmer with two kids, when a cocky young kid called The Schofield kid rides up to his farm and proposes that they join up as partners. Munny reluctantly agrees and enlists his former partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to join in.
Word of the reward has also reached other bounty hunters like English Bob (Richard Harris) who arrives in Big Whiskey first. Realizing that he has to discourage such predators, Little Bill brutally beats up the gunfighter and drives him out of town. In the process Little Bill meets a pulp fiction writer named Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) who is writing stories about the gunfighters of the west. Little Bill is only too happy to provide him with such stories.
Meanwhile the unholy trio arrive in Big Whiskey. Little Bill spots Munny in the saloon while the Kid and Ned are being "entertained" upstairs. Munny has become ill during the trip and Little Bill takes advantage and savagely beats him. The others rescue Munny and take him to safety where the "girls" nurse him back to health. The trio then hunt down and kill the two cowboys during which Ned loses his stomach for such killings and starts out for home.
Ned is captured by the murdered men's friends and is brought into town where he is "questioned" by Little Bill to the extent that he is killed. Munny who had mellowed during his marriage, loses it, arms himself and heads into town for a showdown where..........
"Unforgiven" was honored with several Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman. Eastwood's performance as the tragic Munny was also of Oscar calorie.
Its hard to find a hero in this film. Eastwood, Freeman and Woolvett are after all, bounty hunters. By his own admission William Munny describes himself as someone who has killed women and children and just about everything that walks in his lifetime. Hackman's character has good intentions in discouraging the gunfighters but cannot control his hair trigger temper. The only sympathetic characters are the saloon girls as they try to find justice for their dishonored colleague.
A great western! A great movie!
