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| “ | It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he's got... and all he's ever gonna have. | „ |
| ~ William Munny to the Schofield Kid. |
| “ | All right now, I'm comin' out. Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him. Any son of a bitch that takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill his wife, all his friends, burn his damn house down! | „ |
| ~ Munny warning any potential foes. |
William Munny is the main protagonist of the 1992 Western film Unforgiven. He is a former outlaw who comes out of retirement to collect a bounty on two criminals who attacked a prostitute.
He is played by the film's director, Clint Eastwood, who also played The Man With No Name in several spaghetti Westerns, Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry franchise, Philo Beddoe in Every Which Way but Loose and the sequel Any Which Way You Can, and Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino.
Biography[]
Background[]
In his youth, Munny was a notorious outlaw and gunfighter who killed dozens of people. He reformed after meeting the woman who would become his wife, retiring as a criminal and settling down to raise their two children and run a pig farm. After his wife's death, Munny became a recluse, rarely leaving his homestead as he nursed his grief.
In the film[]
One day, a young man calling himself "The Schofield Kid" visits Munny, seeking to recruit him to help kill Quick Mike and Davey Bunting, two cowboys who had attacked and disfigured a prostitute, promising to split the bounty put on their lives. After initially refusing to help, Munny recognizes that his farm is failing and jeopardizing his children's future, so he reconsiders. Munny recruits his friend Ned Logan, another retired outlaw, and they catch up with the Kid.
Munny, Logan, and the Kid arrive in Big Whiskey, Kansas, during a rainstorm, and head into the local saloon. While Logan and the Kid meet with the prostitutes upstairs, a feverish Munny is sitting alone when the town's corrupt sheriff, "Little Bill" Daggett, and his deputies confront him. Not realizing who Munny is, Bill beats him up and kicks him out of the saloon for carrying a pistol. Logan and the Kid escape through a back window, and the three regroup at a barn outside town, where they nurse Munny back to health.
A few days later, the trio ambush and kill Bunting in front of his friends. After missing Bunting and hitting his horse instead, Logan realizes that he doesn't want to kill again, and resolves to return home. Munny feels they must finish the job and takes the Kid with him to the cowboys' ranch, where the Kid ambushes Quick Mike in an outhouse and kills him. When one of the prostitutes arrives to give them the reward, they learn that Logan had been captured and tortured to death by Bill and his men. The Kid gives Will his revolver and heads back to Kansas with the reward; Munny heads back to Big Whiskey to take revenge on Little Bill.
That night, Munny arrives and sees Logan's corpse displayed in a coffin outside the saloon as a warning to any other "assassins". Inside, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid. Munny walks in alone brandishing a shotgun to confront the posse and uses his first shot to kill Dubois. Munny then holds Bill at gunpoint. Little Bill instructs his men to kill Munny after he takes the second and final shot remaining in his shotgun. Munny pulls the trigger on Bill, but his gun jams, allowing the deputies to draw and start shooting. Despite this, Munny draws his pistol, shoots Bill, and calmly kills several deputies as all of their panicked shots miss him before ordering the bystanders to leave the saloon. Mortally wounded, Bill promises to see Munny in Hell before Munny kills him. Munny then leaves Big Whiskey, warning the townsfolk that he will return for more vengeance if Logan is not buried properly or if any of the prostitutes are harmed.
During the epilogue, a title card states that Munny and his children abandoned their farm and are rumored to have moved to San Francisco, prospering in dry goods.
Quotes[]
| “ | I was always lucky when it comes to killin' folks. | „ |
| ~ William Munny. |
| “ | We all have it coming, kid. | „ |
| ~ Munny to the Schofield Kid. |
| “ | That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned. | „ |
| ~ Munny to Little Bill. |