This Epic ’90s Western Featured the Genre’s Best Villain

One of Eastwood’s most brilliant choices in the construction of Unforgiven is keeping Munny and Bill apart for the majority of the story. Scenes of Munny, Logan, and the Kid working to track down the bandits are interspersed with flashes back to Big Whiskey where the viewer gets to see first hand what Bill is doing to the small community. Bill doesn’t just allow for violence under his watch, he takes part in it himself. After Bill’s rival, the British gunslinger “English” Bob (Richard Harris), dares to question his authority, Bill takes joy in stripping him of his dignity and shaming him publicly before the community. It serves as a warning to the townsfolk of what could happen if anyone stood up to him, and it also seems to be something that Bill genuinely takes pride and personal satisfaction from doing. Hackman’s callous laugh never seemed so threatening.

The action by Bill that truly crosses the line and forces Munny to unleash his old ways is the brutalization of Logan. It’s one of the most tragic death sequences in western movie history. Like Munny, Logan was previously retired and had no intention of ever returning to his past. While Logan admits that there are things in his past that he regrets, his history as a gunslinger was not nearly as sordid as Munny’s, and thus his only reason for taking part in the prostitute’s proposal was to satisfy his friendship with Munny. He serves as Munny’s moral compass and a compassionate mentor to the Kid, and Bill’s killing of Logan destroys the fabric of their group dynamic.

It’s not just the fact that Logan dies, but the nature of how Bill disarms and flogs him that makes it clear that he’s trying to warn Munny. Like any truly evil man, Bill himself is a coward, and fears Munny’s wrath. His mistake is thinking that by killing Ned he will scare Munny away, where in actuality this is the key to unleashing his wrath. The final shootout features Munny turning into a truly vengeful avenger, as he murders Bill and his deputies in cold blood. Up until the end, Hackman brings out Bill’s worst impulses; he holds on to his pride, and even mocks Munny when he shoots an unarmed man. The moral righteousness Bill has in trying to correct Munny is simply infuriating.

Hackman has played great villains before. He even depicted a completely different type of western bad guy a few years later in The Quick and the Dead. However, playing a villain that could test someone as legendary as Eastwood is something only one of the all-time greatest actors could do. There are a lot of dark characters in Unforgiven, but Bill may be the darkest.