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."