“It destroyed some of the myths”: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Blasphemy’ Gave Us the Greatest Western Ever Made That Inspired Taylor Sheridan for Yellowstone
Clint Eastwood’s take on the American West in Unforgiven went against the films of legends like John Wayne.
Clint Eastwood retired from the Western genre with the most epic Western film in cinematic history, Unforgiven. It won the Best Picture Oscar and the Best Director Oscar for Eastwood. In his final Western outing, Eastwood deconstructed some of the outdated myths that were popular in Westerns including John Wayne films. Not only did he create the greatest Western movie, he also inspired other filmmakers in the genre with this film.
Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has reiterated how the 1992 film served as an influence for him to enter the Western genre. Eastwood also admired the creator’s vision in his Western dramas, even allowing to use Unforgiven‘s theme music in a Yellowstone Season 1 episode.
Clint Eastwood Deviated From The Usual Myths To Create The Greatest Western Film
Clint Eastwood‘s journey with Western movies began with the 1964 film, A Fistful of Dollars, that kick-started a famous trilogy. He acted in several other films in the genre, including High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Pale Rider. However, he decided to step away from the genre to avoid repeating himself. For his last movie, Unforgiven, Eastwood decided to go out with a bang.
The Dirty Harry actor created one heck of a swansong starring the likes of Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Francis Ford Coppola recently shared in an event that he wasn’t allowed to do David Webb Peoples’ script as Western genre wasn’t popular in the movies. However, Eastwood picked it up, deconstructed the genre itself, and produced a magical output.
His film was initially considered anti-Western by many as it destroyed some of the long-standing myths about the genre. He once said that the film wasn’t “anti-Western” but rather a “mythbreaking Western”. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly actor shared (via Far Out Magazine):
“I don’t think you’d call the script of Unforgiven an anti-western. I think you’d just call it a mythbreaking western. It destroyed some of the myths that had been built up about the West.
In another interview with Empire Magazine, Eastwood shared that the genre gave him the utmost recognition in films and Unforgiven was the perfect last film for him in the genre. Eastwood told Empire:
I felt like that was the genre I became known in, it had been so good to me, and that this would be the perfect last western for me.
The film broke the concept of a black-and-white hero, as the dark, ugly backstory of William Munny made him a grey-shaded character. There were other mythbreaking characters — Gene Hackman‘s cruel Sheriff, s*x workers who were shown in a more positive light, and Jaimz Woolvett’s cowboy character, The Schofield Kid, who vows to never take another life after his first kill.
Taylor Sheridan Was Influenced By Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven
Taylor Sheridan revealed that it was Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Oscar-winning Western was the film that got him into the world of Western movies and series. His successful series, Yellowstone, paid homage to the Million Dollar Baby actor and his film Unforgiven. The series used the theme song of the Eastwood film in its first season.
During Season 1 Episode 6 of Yellowstone, titled The Remembering, Eastwood’s Claudia’s Theme was used in the opening sequence. In a behind-the-scenes clip of the series, the creator shared (via CinemaBlend):
You know, it’s the theme of Unforgiven, which, for me, it’s the film that made me decide that’s what I want to do for a living. So to have an opportunity to pay this abstract homage to the man who both directed that movie and wrote that song and performed it…that was a 90-second homage to Clint Eastwood.
Eastwood usually never allows another filmmaker to use his music, but he permitted the 1923 creator to use the song. He saw the heart in Sheridan’s project and considered it worthy to have his song.
Unforgiven is now available for rent on AppleTV+, while Yellowstone is now available on Peacock.
