Custom «High Noon and Unforgiven» Essay Paper Sample

The “Unforgiven” is a 1992 Western movie which was directed by Clint Eastwood. The film script was written by David Webb Peoples and it narrates a story of William Munny who was an outlaw aging killer of the time, but later retired and turned into farming. On the other hand “High Noon is a 4 star movie which was directed by Fred Zinnemann in 1952. It narrates of a Western tradition though in a violent connotations. We can rate the two movies as violent since they portray incidences where guns were used to quell personal goals and ambitions. This paper will seek to analyze how the Western movies, “the High Noon” and “the Unforgiven” shows the existence of villains in the civilized society.

Despite of a Western background, the two movies portrayed a violent scenario where killing was the order of the day and where people were often hired to kill others. In the Unforgiven, we see group of prostitutes led by Strawberry Alice planning a revenge mission to the two cowboys who attacked Delilah Fitzgerald their counterpart. We also see Schofield Kid heading to Kansas with an aim of recruiting William Munny for the job. William Munny initially declined to take up the task, since he was now a changed person. However, with the difficult moments that surround him and his two daughters, he finds himself without a choice other than accepting the task some few days later. The movie assumes its violent scenes as Munny undertakes his hunting role in support of the prostitutes and so many people were killed in the process.

In my opinion, although the Unforgiven was excellently staged and directed, it has negative lessons to the viewers as it emphasizes on revenge missions. The movie also supports immorality as it is founded by the gunfighters hired to avenge one of the prostitute members who was beaten by the cowboys. The movie also uses vulgar language and has some uncouth scenes which should not be viewed by underage viewers. It is also so unfortunate that despite of Munny being a hired professional killer, a position which is illegal, he still emerges victorious and accomplished his personal revenge after his longtime friend Logan was tortured and killed by Little Bills gang.

Though based on a similar scenario the High Noon has a different mission compared to that of the Unforgiven. Unlike the former, High Noon Will is driven by his patriotic heart of ensuring law and order is enforced within the city. That is why we see him vehemently returning to his duty despite being a newly married man. Will Kane who is the main actor in the film had retired from his past behaviors and now wanted to start a new life with his new bride Amy. We observe a demanding incident just before the man left for his honeymoon and changed everything. Inclined to his protection role he changes his honeymoon plan and is determined to stop Miller gang. However as he try to solicit for support from his colleagues, all turns against him. This is shown by his Deputy Harvey’s desire to take up Will’s position and who now feels that his come-back will prevent him from attaining his dream career. Will’s situation is further worsened when her wife Amy deserted him. And because the time is still moving, Will decides to face the gang though alone. What keeps him going and strong is the knowledge that if he does not stop the gang, the gang will eventually eliminate him as they feel threatened by his presence. The movie High Noon revolves around this self-proclaimed hero who chose to fight bad guys throughout his life.

Although the violence overrides in the two movies, the forces which drives the two main characters are different. For Munny vengeance dominated his fearless attack moves while Will in the High Noon is compelled by his protective heart towards humanity. But one common feature that we can observe from the two movies is the dominance of criminal gangs which are so powerful to suppress and who operate openly without fear of arrest. To me this shows how immoral the Western people are and how young and energetic men and women waste their energy and resources in facilitating criminal act (Noble, 201). Despite knowing that killing is wrong and against the law, these criminal gangs still continues to use guns and other dangerous weapons to fight their rivals including the law enforcers. It is a shame to us the Western as many see us as civilized people who should give a good example to the rest of the uncivilized people. Dominance of criminal gangs and prostitutes group is nothing but a shame to our reputable name in the world.

I however fail to understand how these kinds of movies are rated the best. The unforgiven won four academy awards while the High Noon still remains in the list of the greatest American films. To me Unforgiven should not be rated as the best, but High Noon should. And we ought to fight against criminal and illegal gangs in our societies as they taint our image in others.