Clint Eastwood became a Hollywood icon for his acclaimed roles in countless Westerns, but to play the lead in his Best Picture-winning masterpieceUnforgiven, he waited 10 years to be old enough. While many will know Eastwood for his breakout role asThe Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti WesternDollars Trilogy, this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to hisback catalog of playing cowboys, gunslingers, and outlaws. While roles in classics likeHigh Plains DrifterandTwo Mules for Sister Sara,Unforgivenremains Eastwood’s magnum opus as both a star and director.
As an actor and filmmaker who has continued working well into his 90s, Eastwood transformed from the gritty, witty outlaw we meet inA Fistful of Dollarsinto the aged former rodeo star ofCry Macho, yet right in the middle of these two career points,Eastwood blew audiences away with his complex performance as William Munny inUnforgiven. As a film thatdeconstructed the tropes and clichés of the Western genreand presented them back onto itself, Eastwood made the right call by waiting a decade to be old enough to get the most out of the role.
Clint Eastwood Delayed Making Unforgiven Until He Was Old Enough For The Part
Eastwood Bought David Webb Peoples’ Script In 1981, And It Was Released In 1992
Unforgivensaw Clint Eastwood portray the aged outlaw William Munny, a farmer with an incredibly violent past who takes on one last job years later. As a role that not only examined the hypocrisies of the myth of the Old West but was alsoinformed by Eastwood’s lifetime of work in the Western genre, Munny represented the brutality and unforgiving nature of those who embraced violence and bloodshed in the lawless environment of the American frontier. As a movie exploring notions of heroism, morality, and redemption, Munny’s aged wisdom was central to the film’s impact.
This was why Eastwood was conscious not to makeUnforgivenbefore he was old enough to portray Munny with a maturity that the part required. In a speech for the 40th anniversary of theAFI, Eastwood spoke about why he delayed makingUnforgivenfor more than 10 years and explained that even though he purchased the script in 1981, the movie was not released until 1992. Eastwood said that even though he “absolutely fell in love” with the script, he “figured maybe I should be just a little bit older to do this character.”
Eastwood realized, “I ought to take it out and look at it before I get too old to do it.”
This meant thatUnforgivenlanguished in a drawer for a full decade before Eastwood realized, “I ought to take it out and look at it before I get too old to do it.” Eastwood’s love for the film had not diminished one bit in the intervening years, and with the aged maturity needed to accurately portray Munny with the gravitas the role deserved,Unforgivenbegan filming in Alberta, Canada. The results were so outstanding thatEastwood asserted the movie would be his last traditional Western, as any future film would simply be rehashing the past.
Clint Eastwood Also Wanted To Steer Away From Westerns
There’s Far More To Eastwood’s Talents Than Just Westerns
In the years prior to Unforgiven, Eastwood made plenty of all-time great Western movies and didn’t want to be pigeonholed into any particular genre. This was part of the reason he shelvedUnforgivenfor years (viaNJ), although he also felt compelled to return to it, as he described it as the only Western he had ever read that was the equivalent of his classic movieThe Outlaw Josey Walesfrom 1976.
Unforgivennot only earned Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but also won Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman, and Best Film Editing.
The moral complexity of William Munny and Gene Hackman’s Little Bill Daggettsummed up practically everything there was to say about the violent excesses of the Wild West, and continually playing aged outlaws in derivative Westerns was not of interest to Eastwood. Instead, Eastwood focused on moving away from the Western genre and explored mystery inMystic River, sports inMillion Dollar Baby, and socially conscious drama inGran Torino.
The emotional intensity ofMillion Dollar Babyproved Eastwood could be just as good outside the Western genre, and he won his second Academy Award for Best Picture with that acclaimed sports movie. With Hilary Swank as the aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald and Eastwood as her gruff trainer, audiences would be forgiven for thinking that this was simply yet another underdog sports story or a female spin onRocky. However, much likeUnforgivenbefore it, Eastwood used the movie as an opportunity to unpack the tropes of sports films and deliver a complex story about redemption, determination, and euthanasia.
Why Clint Eastwood Was Right To Delay Making Unforgiven
A major reason thatUnforgivenwas such a success was that it came with the baggage of Clint Eastwood’s entire career and legacy. We believe William Munny is an aged outlaw with a violent past because we had already watched Eastwood shoot his way through the Wild West for decades. Witha jaded Eastwood in his early 60s in the role of Munny, it’s clear this outlaw-turned-farmer has had a lot of time to stew on the depravity of his murderous history and is forced to reckon with his status as a cold-blooded killer in his later life.
Eastwood said he connected with the script ofUnforgivenbecause at first he “didn’t know who the hero was” and that even the villains “had a point of view.” While Westerns can often feel almost cartoonish in their depiction of over-the-top violence, there was a sense of realism to this older man being lured back into his violent ways in a quest for vengeance.There’s a realistic darkness toUnforgiventhat was missing from even Eastwood’s most violent movies during the 1970s, and it’s understandable why he considered it “the best Western that I ever had the pleasure of doing.”
As Eastwood’s very best movie, it makes sense that he wantsUnforgivento act as his definitive statement on the genre. With a repeated vow to never make another traditional Western movie again, Eastwood has stuck to his promise, although his most recent acting role inCry Machostood as a partial return to the genre with a neo-Western that explored much different topics thanUnforgiven. As a complex, mature, and thoughtful movie that was released at the exact right point,Unforgivenwas a revisionist story that remains the benchmark by which all other modern Westerns are judged.
