Netflix’s 2007 Western Beats Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven In 1 Important Way

Summary

• “Unforgiven” reinvented the Western genre with its condemnation of violence, but a newer movie might have done it even better.
• While “Unforgiven” showed the negative effects of violence, the movie still glorified it by making Clint Eastwood’s Munny into a cool and likable character.
• “Seraphim Falls” depicts violence in an uncomfortable way to deliver its similar main theme, making it a more effective film than “Unforgiven” in conveying its message.

Clint Eastwood’s classic movie Unforgiven changed the Western genre forever, but another movie from 2007 might have beaten it in one key area that works better today. Unforgiven stars Eastwood as William Munny, a vicious outlaw who tried to leave his criminal days behind him. He was drawn back into the gun-slinging life after a young man offered to split the reward money from a bounty with him, and Munny needed funds to support his children. Unforgiven deconstructed the Western genre, and it was a groundbreaking film for its time, but another movie might have done that deconstruction in a better way.

One of the main ways Unforgiven subverted the Western genre, and even Clint Eastwood’s other Western movies, was through its portrayal of violence. Westerns often take murder and killing very lightly, as the protagonists make murdering a whole posse of outlaws seem cool. Unforgiven turned that on its head, and showed that Munny’s use of violence was exactly what made him a bad person who was incapable of redemption. That theme and its change to the genre made Unforgiven one of Clint Eastwood’s best movies, but another film did it even more expertly.

Seraphim Falls tells a story of revenge focusing on Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) and Carver (Liam Neeson). The entire movie acts as a chase, but one of the most startling moments comes at the very beginning. After being shot in the arm, Gideon was forced to remove the bullet by himself. The scene was excruciating, both for the audience and for Gideon, as his whimpers and muffled screams highlighted the extreme pain that went along with the process. Right from the start, Seraphim Falls demonstrated that it would be depicting violence in a realistic and brutal way.

The movie kept that trend of showing the uncomfortable side of violence throughout its runtime. Whenever Gideon or Carver killed someone, the movie seemed to take a moment to let their actions breathe. Where other Westerns would show a man being killed and quickly move on to the next duel, Seraphim Falls dared viewers to come to terms with the barbarity of the violence it focused on. The victims of that violence are shown in full detail, which proved that they were not nameless thugs used to show how powerful and important the protagonist was, but rather people who met a gruesome fate that could have easily been avoided.

Seraphim Falls
is available to stream on Netflix.

Unforgiven Shows The Futility Of Violence, But Seraphim Falls Did It Better

Unforgiven showed that violence is not something to be glorified, as it is a dirty business that only leads to tragedy. The final shootout in Unforgiven was subversive in its hectic and messy tone, but it was still cool. Eastwood still delivered iconic one-liners, and the shootout served as the final set piece for the movie. The final shootout made Munny look like a legendary gunslinger more than it offered a critique of the genre’s mystification of violence. Unforgiven‘s message may have denounced violence, but the method it used to deliver that theme reinforced the idea that violence is fun to watch.

Unforgiven
is available to stream on Tubi.

Seraphim Falls was heavily inspired by a different Clint Eastwood movie, but its real strength lies in how it relates to Unforgiven. Both of the films condemn violence and show how it can end and ruin lives, but Seraphim Falls handled its violence in a much better way. Unforgiven‘s action is fun to watch, even if it is more realistic than most Westerns, but Seraphim Falls‘ action is downright disturbing and unsettling. The way the movie depicts its violence indicates that it should be dreaded, not anticipated, and it goes much further as a vehicle to deliver a message of anti-violence.

Other Westerns Glorify Violence While Seraphim Falls Condemns It

Traditionally, one of the main attractions of the Western genre was its depiction of violence. It was used as a way to show the strength of the main characters, as those who could kill the quickest with the least remorse were often the victors. In traditional Westerns, violence was a virtue that helped achieve something good, but in Seraphim Falls, violence was the means of the main characters’ destruction. Seraphim Falls is an extremely violent movie, but it didn’t delight in its violence the same way other Westerns might have, which helped make it more relevant today.

There has also been more of a discussion on the profound effects media can have on the real world. When handled poorly, movies and TV shows can reinforce harmful stereotypes and even change viewers’ beliefs about the world for the worse. That deeper understanding of the influence of movies makes the way Seraphim Falls handled violence much more relevant to the current day than Unforgiven. Traditional Westerns and Unforgiven helped desensitize viewers to violence, even though the movie condemned it. Seraphim Falls showed that violence isn’t something to be taken lightly: it should be condemned, which is an important lesson for the modern day.

The Violence In Seraphim Falls Shows The Movie’s True Meaning

The ending of Seraphim Falls saw the movie become very vague and symbolic, but it had an important lesson to tell about the nature of violence. Gideon and Carver were stand-ins for opposing sides of a war, and Seraphim Falls used them to denounce both war and violence in general as a pointless and self-destructive force. Neither Gideon nor Carver won anything by using violence; it only led to more disaster and despair. The only reason they were able to move on at the end is because they both decided to give up their violent ways.

Seraphim Falls‘ use of violence works incredibly well in delivering its main theme, but it also makes the movie better as a whole. The realistic and grotesque displays of violence set it apart from other Westerns, and made it clear from the start that it was a special movie. It then used that same violence to perfectly contrast staples of the genre, like beautiful scenery and a mystified era of American history, with grotesque images and actions that invited viewers to consider its deeper meaning and reexamine the entire genre. Seraphim Falls delivered on a theme put forward by Unforgiven in a much more effective way.