Unforigiven

Bomb Rating: 

I don't know what riding around on a horse when you're eighty years old does to your prostate, but it can't be good. Ultimately, this turns out to be the lesson of the movie.

Old guys on horses. Old guys with guns. Let's face it, any way you cut it, this is a movie about old people worrying about old people things. Sure, it's a western, but basically William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is just a teetering old lunkhead trying to recapture the vigorous days of his youth by accepting a job to kill a couple of men who cut up a couple of prostitutes in the town of Big Whiskey, Nebraska.

In charge of the town of Big Whiskey is Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), another old guy. Little Bill proves he's still a mean bastard by beating the crap out of yet another old guy, English Bob (Richard Harris), who comes into his town to kill the two men at the behest of the hookers led by Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), who put up the thousand dollar reward.

It's the appearance of the Scofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) at his house that gets Munny thinking about taking the job. His wife has died and he and his kids need money because pig farming out in the middle of nowhere isn't cutting it. Barely able to get on his horse, Munny picks up his old partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), and they catch up with the kid, who claims to be a killer but can't see far enough to keep from peeing on his own boots.

I don't know what riding around on a horse when you're eighty years old does to your prostate, but it can't be good. Ultimately, this turns out to be the lesson of the movie. Munny's nature is like his prostate. It swells up angrily because he's done things that aren't good for it his whole life.

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