Unforgiven stars Clint Eastwood as Willy Munny, a retired gunslinger in the Old West who is failing as a hog farmer. To support his two children, he decides to go after a $1000 bounty on two cowboys who slashed the face of a prostitute.
Reminded of his reputation as a cold-blooded killer, he tells his young partner (Jaimz Woolvett), "I ain't like that anymore. I gave up drink and wickedness." But his shadow side lurks just beneath the surface.
In this morality tale directed by Eastwood, all the characters the gunslingers, the sheriff (Gene Hackman), the prostitues, a journalist (Saul Rubinek) are tainted by power, violence, and the lust for revenge.
In the end, Munny's actions are a powerful illustration of St. Paul's lament in Romans 7:19: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do."