Unforgiven

Will I decided to write on the use of lighting throughout the film. There was a very clear intent to use the high key and low key lighting to show power and fear for character and I thought it was very well used. For instance The first time the Schofield Kid talks to Will Munny trying to convince him to do another job with him and kill the two cowboys for the whores one thousand dollars. The director decided to make the entire sense in low key, which I think really added to the seriousness of what was happening. I mean Will was a retired bounty hunter basically and was reformed by his late wife. But in the sense you could tell from the expression on his face and the way the light caught it that there was a true killer hidden inside. I also noticed how the Schofield Kid did not have that kind of lighting on him at the time. He was closer to the window and didn't exactly have high key lighting but there was more. Which was really a for shadow of the fact that the Kid had never killed anyone. Obviously at the time I had now idea that, that could be a reason for the different light but looking back it kind of makes sense.

Next major one that comes to mind is when Will is sick and at the whore house. Now in this case the low lighting wasn't used to make Will seem more dangerous, in fact it was the opposite it help to establish the crappy feeling and showed the severity of Will's illness. The Lil Bill shows up and starts to beat the crap out of Will having the lighting even lower and Will laid on the ground in darker shadow showing the pain he was receiving from the beating.

Last but not least was the final shoot off at the whore house. Now this time was a lot like the first example I talked about using low key lighting to show the killer inside of Will. But this time Will isn't just hiding deep inside, the killer comes out and everyone in the place is terrified of what is happening. It makes Will look like a bad ass shooting up the place killing all who he sees as guilty. This light almost makes Will look like the bad guy. And instead of riding off into the sunset he rides off into the dark, like an evil returning home.

So through the use of lighting the director of this film help to make the shots mush more meaningful and strong. Clint Eastwood clearly know what he was doing and turned out a great film.