Within any genre a film's individual cogs and cogs may vary in degree, but the film still ascribes to a set of rules preordained by the genre's progenitors. Like a meme, genre films such as the western will deform and intentionally borrow from themselves to apply a deeper discussion of ideology within the framework of the genre and thus vicariously discuss its discourse with previous films and futures of its kind. Furthermore, being a space of pseudo-history, the Western protagonist such as Unforgiven's Will Munny must be a response to previous protagonists of the genre. Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven is a Western that contains multiple examples of characters inhabiting false personalities to represent a symptom of the genre, and within that subtext the characters are forced into catharsis by the film's inevitable conclusion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Eastwood's Unforgiven is a western that contains multiple examples of characters perpetuating false identities based on evolving frontier meta-lore. According to literary historian Richard Slotkin, the "genre space", but more particularly the western/frontier film, is a "pseudo-historical setting strongly associated with stories and concerns rooted in the mythical/ideological tradition of the culture" (Slotkin) . So, in the living memory of the origins of the West, the West becomes a meta-adaptation of real history, and real history is influenced by the West. Unforgiven contains references to the genre as a whole when it invents characters such as the Schofield Kid who attributes his personality to his signature weapon, thus perpetuating the genre's desire to create his own. He cannot satisfy lifestyle demands by killing again, and thus demonstrates that his constructed self is a set of desired attributes among his ideal counterparts. By using Schofield and Beauchamp to establish a desired literary fantasy for the character, the audience can observe the perspectives of both Will and Schofield as they change alignments so dramatically in the final act. Schofield realizes dramatically that the persona he imagined for himself and assumed for Will is a façade facilitated by gender. Schofield can no longer force himself to pursue that identity because it is mythical, and in a way this suggests that the film wishes to be perceived as an opposition to the violence Schofield carries out in the toilet. Schofield's violence is perceived as negative because he is not entirely the one engaging in the violence. It is because of his metacognitive knowledge of the performative frontiersman that he attempts to imitate the grandiose Western hero, but this results in the harsh reality that violence is a way of life and not a singular choice. Will says early in the film that he thought Schofield had come to kill him for something he had "done in the old days" because Schofield aesthetically matches the "young gun" archetype we see repeatedly in Western history such as the Sundance Kid. or even Robert Ford (Eastwood) by Casey Affleck. Schofield longs to be perceived as the archetypal suave, likable killer like Johnny Guitar's Dancing Kid, but is ultimately received as Turkey from the same film. Unforgiven gives Schofield the ability to play the character because he is second generation frontiersman. He can remedy the violence inherent in the film's genre by distancing himself from Will's past, and thus criticizes the anti-heroic approach to Western myth in that Schofield must live with his decision rather thanto die a climactic and glorious death. Unforgiven focuses on teaching the Schofield Kid the difficulties of anti-heroism and vigilantism, and this is indicative of the fact that it caters to the impressionable. This leads one to wonder who Eastwood's audience is looking for with the film, because his protagonist Will Munny is in many ways reminiscent of George Stevens' Shane in that he is a murderer, and returns to a lifestyle that is a source of shame for him. They both walk off into the distance after killing a room full of men and influencing the young men not to follow suit. Young people love Tarantino, Scorsese and Tim Miller because they offer unapologetic violence, and they also offer humor with violence that treats young people with respect regarding their understanding of death as an irreversible action. Filmmakers like Tarantino can joke about the genre from a place of deep respect and therefore treat his audience as an intelligent, curious young man who is tired of a preachy method. Doctor of comparative literature Jean-Christophe Cloutier says that "Unforgiven suggests that the sick old men we were so eager to get rid of might actually be the only ones who can do the job the way it needs to be done", and this is indicative of the The film approaches the evil of this violence as something that younger generations should be grateful they don't have to perpetuate. Unforgivable violence makes violence an ongoing burden for which the perpetrator cannot be forgiven; the frontiersman has the ability to kill and therefore must kill because the resolution intrinsically depends on the protagonist shouldering the entire burden of the resolution. That's why Will Munny kills Little Bill and Skinny Dubois, and the Schofield Kid has to leave before that scene. Will Munny shows the Schofield Kid firsthand that he is not capable of this lifestyle because it is a conservative lifestyle that Schofield has been purposefully protected from. Will Munny validates older generations by giving them a protagonist who identifies with how they perceive themselves. in relation to young people, and is representative of the value of Eastwood's wisdom over idealistic conventions. Director Clint Eastwood once said in a BBC interview with Stella Papamichael “I've always been fascinated by the theft of innocence. It is the most heinous crime and certainly a capital crime if ever there was one. So the strategy of this film is mainly to demonstrate the preservation of the classic anti-hero character that Clint Eastwood was created to play, and in a sense to forgive Schofield for his unbridled idealization of the "Damned Killer" (Eastwood). When Davey is killed by Will, it is purposely mentioned that Schofield cannot see, and after the harsh reality of the murder is revealed to Schofield, Will spares him from witnessing further violence by sending him away. This departure is not new to the West, as previously mentioned The Unforgiven are in many ways the revisionist Shane, and in many ways it is an internal conflict in both Schofield Kid and Will Munny who are trying to be Shane and escape from that identity. respectively. Schofield is representative of Joey's eagerness to become Shane, and Will Munny is the revisionist Shane because Eastwood wants to establish wisdom as more valuable than conventional knowledge. When Joey makes it very clear that he wants Shane's identity, Shane attempts to quell his curiosity. essentially telling him not to idealize him. Will, however, will allow the Schofield Kid to make his mistake, thus demonstrating his change to the Shane archetype as a guide rather than a teacher. This Lassez-Faire approach to apprenticeship actually shows arespect for human growth through experience, as well as the development of individuality within young audiences through personal experience rather than attributing personality to culture. Schofield Kid and Will Munny create a dynamic where the younger man can't fully understand the older man until he reaches this experience of ending a life, and Eastwood tells a very strange and touching coming-of-age story through an example of trauma . Eastwood implies by this that assumed innocence is inherently evil because it prevents experience from being earned on its own. Will Munny's allowing Schofield to gain this experience in the context of the film is simply Eastwood's attempt to revise the character on a generational level by advocating a personal connection to violence rather than a dissonant glorification of it as in Shane. By then taking Schofield's Schofield, Will removes any connection the Kid has to the archetype. He has gained experience and now has the means and resources to reinvent himself based on his new knowledge. Will Munny wants him to kill him because he will understand that it is not an aspiration that good men have. He believes that if this lifestyle were pursued by Schofield in a situation where it was a fair fight in a glorious setting, Schofield would be killed or indulged in the very myths that Will himself had created. It reveals the cynicism inherent in Will Munny's character and attempts to draw a clear line on where innocence should end and experience begin. Unforgiven is immersed in the realm of experiential discussion with itself, it wants its audience to desire Ned's (Morgan Freeman) experience and restraint, but it also indicates that this is dangerous due to his indecisiveness. By essentially turning himself into a spectator, Ned reveals that the middle ground between Will and Schofield may be unattainable, and this is an example of Eastwood's inherent cynicism about growing up. Gaining experience means eventually becoming as tired as Will, and although the gap between Will's murderous phases is large, by killing Will again he regresses to the point in his life where he was gaining experience. Ned is no longer willing to grow at this point, and in the genre associated with the expansion of both the nation and the individual this is a death sentence. Merciless rewards the character with initiative and eliminates those who are caught off guard. By killing Ned, Eastwood is saying that the myth of the Western requires initiative, and Ned is a symptom of the domestic frontier rather than the wild one. By domesticating Ned and making him seemingly at peace with his marriage and life, a pseudo-elitism is implied that targets those with attachment. Those who strive for material improvement are inherently weaker than those who protect their ideals. The cutthroats play with the idea that an individual becomes irrelevant in the moment of his or her stagnation. To stand still is to accept death, and in westerns this is a popular legend. There is always a competition to see who can be the fastest to break a deadlock. In Jim Jarmusch's Deadman, Charlie Dickinson becomes static after killing his former lover, and then is eliminated by William Blake (Johnny Depp). Both films deal with stasis in a way that depicts it as having no place in the frontier, but Deadman depicts the Western as a sandbox for the blank slate. William Blake is discouraged by the monotonous life outside the frontier, so he attempts to do the same thing inside the frontier only to realize that he is destined to adapt to the environment. It is a return to nature in that its disposition to the frontier lifestyle is not one of reverence, but of indifference.Indifference to action or morality allows him to experience in a way that does not arise from cynicism, but is rather an enlightened experience relevant to the trials he must undergo. Furthermore, Unforgiven is a film that swings back and forth between domesticity and wilderness. Unforgiven features multiple instances of violence in a domestic space, but only one death in the wilderness. Death in the desert is depicted as heartbreaking, but it is also approached in a way that respects death as an experience from all perspectives. Whether death occurs to a friend or an enemy, Eastwood portrays it from a perspective that inhibits the ability to sympathize with all sides and thus to ascertain the clarity of an unfortunate situation rather than a hyperbolically idealized situation. prejudice on the side of the hero. As a postmodern Western, Will Munny becomes sympathetic to the viewer because of his intrinsic connection to the African American. Eastwood uses post-racial ideology in Unforgiven as something that develops through personal experience. For Will and Schofield, Ned is a partner, but for Little Bill he is an object that contains something to be desired. The film ignores race in many ways because it is intent on not soliciting prejudice for either the innocence or experience of the Schofield Kid and Will Munny, respectively. Little Bill's murder is left until the end of the film because in the eyes of the audience it is unforgivable. at this point. It cannot invite prejudice because it represents the institution in a world that is intrinsically antithetical to the institution. Richard Slotkin states that “the difference between lawmen and outlaws is obscured by their kindred gift for violence.” and this is especially important in Unforgiven because it gives authority to a reprehensible man like Will Munny by making his opposition more reprehensible than him. Eastwood's philosophy of ignoring color impacts his audience as everyone recognizes the implications, whereas if Eastwood ignores race, we pay more attention to it. Eastwood designs his heroes to normalize racial difference, but he acknowledges the history of racism by using it to villainize Little Bill. The fact that Schofield appears antagonistic towards Ned during their meeting, but does not use an insult towards him, is indicative of Eastwood's ability to immediately establish Schofield's development and essentially strengthen his character against criticism in the future . By developing Schofield so quickly, Eastwood also gives his audience insight into his perspective on the development as a whole. Experience is defined in Unforgiven as something acquired not through time, but rather through action. If domesticity is the character's desire, then the experience is not in life, but in stasis. Little Bill is similar to Will Munny in many ways; predominantly he is a gunslinger past his prime as well as a lawman, but exists in a realm of domesticity that does not allow for experience. Thus Little Bill becomes a terrible carpenter and at the same time disconnected from the desire of those he governs. The dissonance between the lawman and his community resembles the inability to tame the frontier, and from a perspective that attempts to do so we see holes in the roof. Domesticity cannot survive the border in a state that depends on violence for protection, otherwise it is not domesticity. Little Bill desires to be both the outlaw and the lawman at the same time, and in doing so overcomes his limitations temporarily preceding his death. His experience demonstrates the continued idealization of the Western hero and the zealous defense of corporate interests. Attempting to tame the frontier, his defense of his ideals becomes the.