Spectacles of Death: Clint Eastwood and Violence in "Unforgiven"

Abstract

Although screen violence is common in many genres of American cinema, Western film provides a useful entry point to its study. One finds in Western both a codified treatment of violence and countless revisions and reworkings of that treatment. The traditional Western embodies an American ideology of redemptive and purgative violence. As Richard Slotkin writes, Western myth portrays the redemption of American spirit or fortune as something to be achieved by playing through a scenario of separation [from 'civilization'], temporary regression to a more primitive or 'natural' state, and regeneration through violence.' In Western myth, ritualized violence is purgative because it cleanses society of Other in eliminating outlaw or savage. Clint Eastwood's William Munny remains unredeemed at close of Unforgiven (1992), but film's revisionism and vaguely left politics certainly redeemed actor/director in eyes of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and a Best Director Oscar for Eastwood. Prior to Unforgiven, Eastwood had figured prominently in maintenance of Western myth. In many of his Westerns and in Dirty Harry series, Eastwood upheld idea of purgative violence as a central path to cultural and personal restoration. Unforgiven, on other hand, withholds an easy justification of violence. The extent to which film critiques violence, however, is debatable. When Unforgiven was first released, many critics lionized Eastwood for his directorial effort, seeing film as penance and restitution for his earlier films.4 Dennis Bingham, for example, finds progressivism in Unforgiven and calls it a deeply