Movie Week: What was it to you?

IT'S A LOVE STORY!!

Though I haven't spoken to her in a month of Sunday's, for SD, every movie ever we'd watch together would be boiled down to that. In many ways, she is right about this one... "The Unforgiven." It is a love story. Whatever his late wife saw in him, William Munny let it come out for her. Not to mention for his dear friend Ned.

Whatever she saw in him, it made him drop the life he was leading, to become a farmer, a husband, and a father. But while he may have been good in the latter two roles, the first, a farmer, he wasn't doing to well. And with two young children to bring up, ol' William Munny was having the dickens of a time. One day, a visitor comes calling.

The Schoefield Kid, some young teen who wanted to start off his life of being a gunfighter, remembered his father telling of William Munny, and if he wanted to go off in that direction, that he was the man to go see. That was a lifetime ago, and the William Munny that was here now, was not who 'The Kid' expected. But he knew he needed some help, and he figures he couldn't do any worse.

William wasn't going to ride with out his close friend, Ned. Despite the obvious disapproval of his woman, Ned rides out, and they go after the bounty.

If you have seen this movie, you know it like I do. So lets go to where William and 'The Kid' collect their money for the killing of the cats who were responsible for cutting up their friend.

The girl who paid them, the one that was slashed and who William Munny didn't take an 'advance' out on, let them in on what happened to his friend, Ned. When they went to shoot the slasher, Ned 'froze', Kid nerves were janglin', and it took cool (or should that be 'cold'?) William to get things together. Ned admitted that his nerves were shot, and rode for home. William and The Kid stayed to get their money.

Well, the Jenny had to tell them that the posse caught up to Ned, and that Little Bill (the town sheriff, played by Gene Hackman in a bravura performance) tortured out the info, and that they left Ned's corpse up in front of the saloon, to serve as a warning.

Oh, and that his 'friend', the cat that he and the kid was riding with, was THE William Munny.

REMORSELESS

Earlier in the film, the posse, led again by Little Bill, beat the snot out of William Munny, trying to send and example, as he had did with 'English Bob', an earlier would-be bounty hunter. They treated him with disdain, and didn't even acknowledge that they were quite possibly be dealing with one of the most dangerous men in the plains.

That is how far William Munny had come from is 'early burglary years'. It wasn't until the Jenny recounted the reputation of William Munny, did the Schoefield Kid realize that he prolly didn't know HALF of what the man he was riding with, was capable of. And like the first cold breezes of an oncoming storm front, the mood shifted. And everyone knew that they were as good as standing in the presence of the grim reaper himself.

What did he tell the now frightened Kid, who himself had killed a man, and found himself unable to stomach it? "Ain't gonna do nothing to you Kid, you're the only friend I got."

One thing that I knew, is that for sure, Ned's woman was going to get his share. William Munny told the kid to take his and Ned share to her. While William may have been killed, facing Little Bill and his posse alone, you wouldn't want to take that chance.

That money got there, and to the penny.

"YOU BE WILLIAM MUNNY, THE KILLER WOMEN AND CHILDREN"

Don't know if the score was nominated, but it surely could have been. The music was somber and heavy, without a glimmer of hope when William Munny rode quietly in on the celebration of the posse in the town saloon.

When he rode past the effigy made out his friend, I felt the temperature drop in my room, and as I watched the scene. I remember someone saying that Mike Tyson (at his 'most awesomeness', and anyone who says they don't remember him being considered that, is LYING!) carried with him an 'aura of palpable menace' with him. While I am too stupid to have ever been afraid of Mike Tyson, I think I would have been afraid of William Munny, particularly on that night!!

When he entered the saloon, obvious yet unnoticed, I could feel the dread. He called out the saloon owner, and shot him. His reply to the statement that '...shot an unarmed man', was, '...that he should have armed himself, if he is going to decorate his saloon with my friend!'

He only had a shotgun out, and he had fired one shot. Little Bill gave the order to kill him after he fired his one shot, which to be sure, was going to be aimed at Little Bill. But when it misfired, they had their chance.

For what it was worth.

He reached for his sidearms, and his bullets cut thru the room like a scythe, cutting down anyone who dared raise a weapon at him. After the firefight, he let the cowardly (or intelligent, take your pick!) run out of the back. When Little Bill stirred, trying to shoot him, Munny see him and kicks the gun out of his hand.

"I'll see you in hell", he hissed as William stood over him.

"Yeah." And with that, William Munny dispatched Little Bill to his maker. I loved that he said "Yeah," to that. It is something that I would say to anyone who has the temerity to wish a curse similiar to that upon me.

SOONER OR LATER: The conclusion!