Object #49 - Duke of Death Magazine - Unforgiven (1992)

Dir. Clint Eastwood 

Clint Eastwood puzzles me. How can a man who directed this masterpiece (and trust me, I don't use that word lightly), which deconstructs the Western hero so utterly that it's nigh impossible to have a pure western hero these days without it feeling false, go on to direct American Sniper? Eastwood as a director has a tendency to focus on mythological figures, heroes, normally American. Much of this comes from his tendency to direct westerns, which also tend to focus on the role of the cowboy, the outlaw, and the lawman in the Old West - Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and of course his final say on the topic, Unforgiven, which has William Munny (Clint Eastwood) - the outlaw brought back for 'one last job'; Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), a morally dark sheriff; and English Bob (Richard Harris) a mythological foreign gunslinger. 

This tendency of Eastwood's has expanded to the modern American 'hero' - the U.S Army sniper, Chris Kyle in American Sniper, pilot Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger in Sully, and to an extent, the older, veteran American male in Gran Torino. Indeed, one of his better explorations of 'heroes' was in his duology - Flags of Our Fathers and Letters of Iwo Jima, the latter of which, to myself and many, was far more interesting by portraying the Japanese side of the famous World War 2 battle. Iwo Jima had far more relatable characters than the U.S soldiers of Flags, avatars of manufactured propaganda diluted from their 'heroism'  - hell that was, in my opinion, the point of the film, particularly in their pairing. Frankly, that again makes American Sniper even more baffling to me because Eastwood utterly fails in his cinematic technique to undercut the 'heroism' of the sniper Chris Kyle, creating what many found to be a 'positive' portrayal of an American 'hero', rather than portraying him as what he was, a mentally-unsound government-sanctioned murderer riddled with PTSD and personal issues, clearly unfit to be an avatar of American heroism - ...or perhaps not, these are larger questions, ones Eastwood brings full circle in the final scene of Unforgiven, but we'll get to that.

Little Bill (Gene Hackman) - English Bob (Richard Harris)

Throughout Unforgiven, the mythology of the gunslinger/outlaw is explored. English Bob, in our introduction to him, is a foreigner who praises the Monarchy of Britain and challenges a proud American to a contest of shooting pheasants (on a moving train no less), to see which is better the Queen or "whoever it is you want". English Bob wins 8-1, displaying his sharpshooting skills. Skipping ahead, he is imprisoned by Little Bill, along with Bob's travelling biographer Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek). You can view the scene here. Little Bill reads from the magazine-cum-novel that Beauchamp has written about the famed exploits of English Bob. English Bob by all account out shot a man, Corkey Corchorane, to defend a woman's honour. The language used is flowery, which Beauchamp admits is a failing of his, but is so indicative of the style used to mythologize skilled gunmen, hell look no further than classic radio serials of famous lawmen (now isn't that an irony?) or cartoons, you know the style. The West is a land of myths, and exploits which give you nicknames, which are deconstructed so effectively by Little Bill (note the nickname) in one statement:

"First off, Corky never carried two guns (,..) oh a lot of folks did call him 'Two Gun", but that wasn't because he was sporting two pistols, that was because he had a dick so big, it was longer than the barrel of that Colt that he carried". 

It's hilarious, and we see that it's pulp authors like Beauchamp who are the reason that these tall tales become so popular, due to their misconstruing of facts, assumptions about silly nicknames, and complete blowing up of the truth - here done in earnest, by the personal narrative given to Beauchamp by English Bob, who is aiding in his own mythologization. Most authors probably twisted the truth anyway to make a better story. Little Bill goes on in the scene to tell the 'truth', as he was at the bar, where a drunk Bob shot at Corky for sleeping with a girl he fancied, missing the shot, making Corky leap to defend himself - thus shooting himself in the foot in haste. Bob fired and missed again, the "Duck" of Death (as Bill so eloquently mocks Bob) ready for death. Corky lines up the shot, *bam*, the guns blows up in his hand. Bill walks over slowly, and shoots Corky through the liver [seriously watch the scene because you get Gene Hackman performing that and it's phenomenal].

Now what is integral here is that we don't know if this is the truth. It probably is, and seems far more true than the gallant tale in Duke of Death, but nonetheless, Little Bill's aim with this re-telling is to mock English Bob. Bill takes it one step further as he and Beauchamp discuss the act of killing a man. He gives Beauchamp a loaded gun, and the key to Bob's cell, but Beauchamp can't kill Bill and escape to freedom, as we will later see repeated by the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) who hesitates before his first kill, and Ned (Morgan Freeman) who can't return to a life of murder. In that later scene even Munny can't out and out kill one of the young men complicit in the slashing of the prostitute's face (the catalyst of the film's plot) right away, choosing to shoot his horse, breaking his leg. What is crucial in that scene however is that Munny, after missing twice (ambiguous whether it is from a reluctance to kill, or due to his self-professed inefficiency with a rifle), does shoot the man in the gut, returning to his ways of murder, with the end-goal of money from the prostitutes for 'justice'. He does however allow the boy a drink of water, promising not to shoot any member of the gang who gives him water, and so he does have decency - which was never really in doubt due to his earlier love for his children, and his re-established enduring love for his dead wife - but it portrays him as a complicated man - killing only for money, finding no love from it. 

Returning to the prison, Beauchamp muses that he could give English Bob the gun, and Little Bill is so firm in his belief that neither will kill in cold blood that he allows it to happen. As Beauchamp falters, Bill commands him to give Bob the gun. There is tension at to whether Bob will take it, but in the end he chooses not to, thus giving Bill the victory of 'proof' that the mythological Duke of Death is a coward. There is a further trick in that the first chamber of the gun was empty, which would have allowed Bill to win the duel regardless. There is even a further insult in that the other five chambers were full, giving Bill that slim chance of victory. If nothing else, this scene is a masterclass of villainy from Little Bob, played to peak performance by Hackman, rightfully deserving of his Oscar for the role. It is a further deconstruction though I think, what can appear to be a fair duel and battle of speed and will, can be as false as the tales they will go on to create. The Duke of Death magazine then acts as a symbol of this falsehood in the mythologizing of the Western hero.

English Bob is cast out of town, and Beauchamp remains to write about Little Bill, who he clearly sees as the 'true' symbol of the West that deserves to have stories told about. The role of the story-teller in myth and legend is integral to the entire process, and what we have in Eastwood as director is a further degree of this. Eastwood himself has portrayed the Man With No Name for Leone, and outlaws in his own work - often almost supernatural symbols of American justice, as in Pale Rider, and so there is a meta-textuality as Munny, spurred by the torture and humiliation of the honest Ned, fully embraces his past and goes to the bar to murder Little Bill. It is irrelevant whether the myth of Munny is true or not, but in Eastwood casting himself, it is almost like himself slipping into his old roles and (re-)becoming the mythological hero of the Leone films who could kill many men in a single shootout and live to tell the tale. 

In the final scene, after shooting Little Bill, he becomes the myth, avoiding gunfire (luck or skill? - does it matter?) and dispatching five men. He is not 'good' here. Little Bill was a sadist, yet a lawman, in another tale Little Bill's exploits throughout the film would have him be a hero (see American Sniper, ironically), and Munny was 'right' to kill him for what he did to Ned. But was Munny just in committing vengeance for the prostitutes by murdering the attackers - when he only did it for money? The money would have helped his children - does that make it better? He killed Little Bill for torturing his friend, a good man, and humiliating him after death (presenting his body outside the tavern, as a warning to further vengeance-seekers), but was he justified in killing the men, who did as lawman Little Bill commanded, to shoot Munny if Bill himself was killed? It was self-defense, but it was Munny who acted first by entering the tavern with murder in his heart. There is no good here, only shades of dark morality. This is Munny become legend, embracing it, promising to not only kill any man who tries to stop him leaving the town, but also their wives, and to burn their houses down.  

Beauchamp finally gets to witness a true Western event, and he aims to get every detail right before he goes - the number of dead, the weapon used, and the reasoning of Munny in the order of who he shot first. Munny doesn't care for this, drinking whiskey - the gateway to his old murderous ways throughout the film - and becoming this vengeful boogeyman, threatening him with a gun: "All I can tell you is who's gonna' be last [killed]". Just before this, Beauchamp, who thinks he'd been shot, was commanded by Munny, to pick up a gun, and to load it - a twisted morality where he'd want the story straight, that he only killed armed men. A falsehood as the first man he killed, the owner of the bar was unarmed. But what else is Beauchamp's character for if not to tell us this - it doesn't matter. It is his telling, as an actual eyewitness, which will be reported and made legend - and we know that his penchant for flowery language will enhance this event to mythological proportions. But Eastwood does this as well, and this is the cherry on top. As Munny leaves, his final words to the town; 

"You better bury Ned right!... Better not cut up, nor otherwise harm no whores... or I'll come back and kill every one of you sons of bitches."

He re-establishes his motive - vengeance for Ned; makes himself noble in his defense of the prostitutes (a lie as money was his initial motivator); and ends with a threat - becoming the boogeyman outlaw. What Eastwood does, which is genius, is shoot Munny to the left of an American flag- calling attention to the words paired with the meaning of the flag. In his last Western, one which tackles the mythologizing of the old West and their outlaws, he makes the American hero an outlaw who just can't stop killing - who will lie to others and to themselves, spurred into action by the lure of money. Masterful.