Good or Evil?

Sources

The Unforgiven clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SO5VO2ixWY

Blade Runner clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhbQX92fFRM

 

I chose to do my analysis on the final scenes in the movies, Blade Runner and The Unforgiven.  Recently we have been talking a lot about the portrayal of the, “evil other” and the different ways that people depict them through pictures and film.  In my opinion both movies did an exceptional job of depicting the evil other throughout the movie; however, I chose these scenes because I thought they were unique from other movies in the way that they were able to shift the audience’s perception of good and evil in the final scenes of their movies. 

Analysis: The Unforgiven

 Personal

My first reaction to this scene is a reaction of admiration.  I thought the way that the filmmaker changed the setting and the mood of the scene to correspond with the transition of William Munny from good to evil was amazing. 

Historical

The Unforgiven has been considered by many people to be the greatest western ever made.  The lone cowboy surviving in the wild frontier, rescuing the girl, and killing the bad guys has been and continues to be a major piece of American identity.  The film goes against more traditional westerns because it is difficult to differentiate between good and evil.

Technical

The scene begins with the two bounty hunters waiting at a previously designated spot to receive their payment for killing two men.  The men that were killed had cut up the face of an innocent prostitute who was shown as the “whore with a heart of gold” and up to this point the character William Munny has been portrayed as the good guy.  Earlier in the movie they showed the possibility of Munny being a stone cold killer, however, it was made unclear whether or not the stories were true.  Regardless of the past events, Munny did not appear to be the cold blooded killing type.   He had been a calm and reserved individual up to this scene and he showed no signs of aggression, even after he was nearly beaten to death by Little Bill (the perceived bad guy) he still showed no signs of aggression or any signs of wanting revenge.  All he wanted was to get paid and go home.  As the prostitute arrives to pay Munny, she informs him that his friend Ned had been captured and killed by Little Bill for killing the men responsible for the disfiguring of the other girls face.   At the moment that Munny heard about the death of his friend there appeared to be an instant switch in his personality.  It is at this moment that he appears to cease being the good guy and becomes the “evil other”. 

The scene was filmed outside which created a high-key and cool lighting with no cast or attached shadows.  The lighting of the scene is representative of the fact that the viewer still thinks they know who Munny is as a person.  The framing of the scene is taken at a close- up which allows the viewer to see his face clearly, which does not create any sense of mystery.  As the scene progresses and Munny learns of his friend’s killing there is a sudden shift in perception.  He speaks in a tone that he has never used before and his face forms an angry looking scowl on it.  It is at this moment that the transformation appears to take place.  He angrily grabs the bottle of whisky from the kid and began to drink heavily while the prostitute told him about all the evil things that his friend Ned had said that he had done while being tortured, such as killing women and children as well as a U.S. Marshall.  In the scene the bottle of whisky acted as a signifier.  Munny had refused to drink earlier in the film and his act of chugging the whisky signified that he was reverting back to his old ways and becoming someone other than who the audience had come to know. The scene ends with the kid telling Munny that he was not like him and that he would never kill again.

The scene breaks and opens with a long shot of Ned in a coffin in front of a bar with a sign around his neck which serves as another signifier.  The signified is that if you kill without the consent of the law you will also be killed.  The lighting of the scene is low-key; the only light source comes from the torches on each side of the coffin which emits a warm lighting.  It is very dark and raining very heavily with thunder in the background which seems to signify the darkness and rage that has formed within Munny.

The scene continues inside the bar, Little Bill is giving a speech inside the bar about how they are going to go out the next day and catch the remaining killers. For the first time Little Bill is seen as possibly good due to the fact that he is surrounded by the townspeople, which shows that the majority of the people agree with his actions.  He is the sheriff of the town and the only people we have seen him beat have been law breakers.  The negative perception was created throughout the film with his brutal methods, however, at this moment he is suddenly seen differently.

The lighting in the bar is the Rembrandt style of lighting that is a warm and low-key lighting which created various attached shadows on the faces of the people.  As Munny enters the bar one side of his face is somewhat lit with fast falloff on the other side.  The viewer is unable to see his face which shows that we cannot tell if the character we are looking at is the same character we have seen throughout the movie or someone else.  The framing of the scene is a medium shot which also made it difficult to see his face which added to the mystery.  The fire behind him seems to act as a signifier.  It appears to signify hell fire showing Munny as the bringer of death and possibly the devil himself.  As he enters the room he pulls out his shotgun which serves as an index vector which points and direct attention to the men he is aiming at.  What happens after has been described as one of the best gun fighting scenes ever resulting in Munny killing an unarmed bartender, Little Bill, and four other men.  It is questionable whether or not Munny was the good guy or the bad guy, he did kill a lot of innocent men however he also allowed many of them to live.  The part where he kills Little Bill is especially confusing, Little Bill says something to the effect that he did not deserve to die the way he was about to die.  He made a reference to the fact that he was peacefully building a house; however, he also told Munny that he would see him in hell to which Munny agreed which adds to the confusion.  The scene ends with Munny riding out of the town into the darkness and the storm.  There was some connotation and denotation in this scene which was evident in the symbol of the white horse that Munny rode away on.  Good characters are commonly thought to ride white horses while evil characters often ride away on black horses.  I think the white horse was a signifier that signified the conflict between good and evil with Munny since he could not be fully characterized as one or the other.   The scene ended with Munny riding off into the darkness or the unknown; it seemed to leave the viewer wondering which man was leaving the scene, the good one or the bad one.

Ethical, Cultural, and Critical

Ethically the scene was filled with various things that crossed the line in terms of what some people might have seen as ethically acceptable.  Examples include sin, reference to the devil, prostitution, murder, and alcohol.  As I mentioned earlier culturally the western is synonymous with American culture.  Critically it is very difficult to tell whether or not Munny or Little Bill were good or evil.  The reference to seeing each other in hell may suggest that they were both evil.

Analysis:  Blade Runner

Personal

Whenever I watch this movie or this scene I always see something new.  It is one of those movies that leaves room for different theory’s because everything is not fully explained.  I love the way that the filmmaker was able to portray the replicants as the evil other throughout the movie then in a matter of moments pull a 180 and switch their perception from evil to good.  The movie is about a group of replicants that appear like people but are actually manufactured people that are used as slaves and workers throughout the galaxy.  Deckard is a Blade Runner, his job is to hunt down and kill replicants when they escape.  The final scene begins during the final fight between Deckard and Roy.  Deckard has already killed the other escaped replicants and Roy is the only one remaining.  Up to this point the replicants have been portrayed as killers and a menace to society, they are dangerous, on the loose, and Deckard is the only one who can stop them

Historical

The Bible is the only reference that may have inspired this film due to the various biblical references.  Other than that I thought the film was very original.

Technical

The scene opens with Deckard running around in as state of fear; he is running as if to escape from something.  He appears to see a route of escape; however, Roy comes from no where and blocks the path.  Deckard is startled by him and obviously afraid.  He runs and makes a desperate leap from one building to the other but he does not make it and finds himself holding onto a beam for dear life.  The scene goes to a close-up of Deckard as he hangs on the edge helpless and vulnerable.  The filmmaker sets it up to show that he is at the mercy of the bad guy Roy and is most likely finished.  The lighting of the scene is low-key.  The only light appears to be a spot light that flashes off and on Deckard’s face only illuminating it for a brief moment which seems to show that his life could end at any moment.  Roy slowly enters the scene; his frame is illuminated with a back light which makes him appear as a shadow.  His shadow acted as a signifier which signified darkness, the unknown, black and evil.  He disappears just as he is illuminated which adds to the mystery and fear towards him.  The screen then goes to a close up of Roy and shows him holding a dove with his arms crossed.  He is fully illuminated by a spotlight directed towards him.  The dove serves as a signifier throughout the scene, however the signified varies.  At this point in the scene the dove appears to signify life in the presence of death.  Roy is posed with his arms crossed like people when they are placed in their coffins.  The dove signifies life, he is holding tightly onto the dove as if to show that he is clinging tightly to life in the presence of sure death.  The dove is also white which is illuminated along with Roy for the first time; the sudden illumination of Roy is the first indication that Roy is in fact good.  Roy then takes a gigantic leap across the building like Deckard; however, Roy makes the jump easily.  This adds to Roy’s depiction as the “evil other”.  The dehumanization method is used often in depicting the “evil other” and it is done well in this case with the depiction of superhuman strength and physical capability.   The scene moves to an over the shoulder shot of Roy which shows his perception from Deckard’s point of view.  Roy is definitely portrayed as evil in this scene; he is covered in shadow and mist making it difficult to make out his figure.  He emerges from the shadow and the camera shifts to a close up of him displaying his gashes on his face which add to his threatening image.  Roy simply observes Deckard in his hopeless situation causing the audience to question his motives The spot light again begins to come and go illuminating and then un-illuminating Roy’s face creating the desired emotion created by the scene which is the conflict of Roy’s perception of good or evil.  He begins to talk to Deckard which adds to the suspense and feeling of the unknown.  He speaks to Deckard about the fear he is currently feeling and describes to him that what he is feeling is what he has felt for a majority of his life.  Roy gets a sickening smile in his face as if to show that he is relishing Deckard’s pain and fear.  However, at the exact moment that Deckard loses his grip and begins his certain plunge towards death Roy catches him and lifts him up with one arm, displaying his un-human like strength.  In this moment the audience is shocked to realize that Roy would save the life of Deckard who would have killed Roy in an instant if he had the chance.  Roy throws Deckard to safety and the scene depicts Roy’s dominance over Deckard by showing him stand over Deckard in a long shot.  Roy then sits down at Deckard’s level making him seem almost child like.  The scene then shifts to a close up of Roy.  The lighting is emitted from the back light at a very high intensity making Roy appear supernatural and almost godlike.  Roy is very near death in this part of the scene and the lighting acts as a signifier signifying the “bright light” people supposedly see when near death.  He then goes into a deep reflection of his life, where he makes the point to Deckard that in his short and seemingly miserable life of labor he saw and experienced things that most people do not experience in a hundred years.  After expressing his love of life Roy then has a memorable quote that expresses his acceptance of death.  “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain; time to die.”   Roy slowly drifts away and as he dies the dove that he had held so tightly throughout the scene flies away into the sky signifying the migration of his soul, freedom, and peace.  The screen then goes to a close up of Deckard who closes his eyes for a couple seconds and then opens them again signifying the change in Deckard’s perception as well as the audience’s perception of Roy.  In the scene Roy was exposed to the audience as far more fit and deserving to live, than any other human being.  In the moment the viewer realizes that Roy was not the bad guy that he was portrayed to be throughout the film.  He was the product of evil present within society and humanity.      In a matter of moments the audience’s perception shifted from seeing Roy as “the evil” other to seeing themselves (the human race) as the evil other which in my opinion was amazingly well done

Ethical, Cultural and Critical

Ethically some people may have a problem with the idea of something manufactured having a soul as well as the various killings.  Culturally and critically the film makes people think really hard about themselves and how their own actions in everyday life could be seen as either good or evil.

Conclusion

The scenes both used lighting in order to portray the shifts from good to evil and vice versa.  The Unforgiven used the day time shot to show Munny as a good guy and then after the switch they used the storm during the night to show him as evil.  Similarly Blade Runner used shadows and slight glimpses of light at first to depict Roy as evil and then after the transition he was shown in bright divine light.  Another thing that both films had in common was their use of rain.  The Unforgiven used it to help show the rage and unstable state that Munny was currently in.  The filmmakers chose not to use rain until this scene and it was sudden and complimented the change well.  Whereas Blade Runner used the presence of rain throughout the film allowing it to creatively compliment Roy’s dialogue at the end.  Furthermore, both scenes used a signifier to signify their character’s change of perception.  The Unforgiven used the whisky to show the switch while Blade Runner used the dove.

The Unforgiven portrayed Munny as good throughout the movie and then switched and showed him as bad; whereas, Blade Runner portrayed Roy as bad throughout the film and then changed and showed him as good.  Both films used the concept of killing differently in the final scenes in order to portray the characters as good and evil.  In The Unforgiven Munny killed an unarmed and helpless man where as in Blade Runner Roy saved an unarmed man who was unarmed simply because he disarmed him.  Another concept that was done differently in both films was the way they handled the concept of death.  Munny had no emotion about it, he seemed to feel like whenever it is your time, then it is your time no questions asked.  He did not seem to cherish his time but rather hate it.  Roy on the other hand was grateful for every moment he had and accepted death with a sense of appreciation for the time he was given.  

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