History Film / Unforgiven

In the town of Big Whiskey, normal people are trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys are trying to make a living. Sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Creator/GeneHackman) is trying to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The girls of the town's brothel are just trying to get by. But when one of a pair of cowboys cuts up one of the brothel's girls, who goes by the name of Delilah Fitzgerald (Creator/AnnaLevine), the prostitutes are not satisfied with Little Bill's justice and put out a $1,000 bounty[[note]]Adjusted for inflation that would be approximately the equivalent of over $29,000 in 2021[[/note]] on the heads of both cowboys, Quick Mike and Davey Bunting.

William Munny (Eastwood) is a RetiredGunfighter. Formerly a notorious cold-blooded killer, Munny was seemingly reformed by his late wife Claudia, who convinced him to [[HeelFaceTurn give up his murderous ways]] and settle down as an honest farmer, living peacefully with their two children. However, farming is hard and his family are in financial difficulties, so Munny is drawn back into a life of killing when [[TheGunfighterWannabe Gunfighter Wannabe]] the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) offers to split the reward on the bounty. Together with his old partner Ned Logan (Creator/MorganFreeman), Munny and the Kid set off on one last job, and in the process run afoul of Little Bill. In the ensuing hostilities, the ruthless demon that laid dormant within Munny is unleashed with a vengeance.

!!Provides examples of:

* ViolenceIsDisturbing: Best shown by [[spoiler:Davey's death]]. There is nothing noble or glorious about it. Little Bill's beating of Munny, which we get to see in full, is also disturbing. Judging from their expressions even Bill's deputies seem to agree.

* CallToAgriculture: As with everything else, Deconstructed. William Munny, the legendary outlaw gave up his violent ways to become a peaceful pig farmer... and by the time the movie starts he is failing miserably, his stock is severely depleted and he is forced to take up the Schofield Kid on his offer so he doesn't lose everything. The film emphasizes this at the end when it shows [[spoiler:that it was agriculture specifically and not honest work in general that he was ill-suited for, since Munny eventually became successful as a shopkeeper in San Francisco.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of Western movies. Munny himself is a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype of the [[Film/DollarsTrilogy Man With No Name]] and [[TheExpyWithNoName his expies]], both of which are the kinds of characters Clint Eastwood played in the 60s and 70s.

* IncitingIndicent: Delilah laughing at Quick Mike's TeenyWeenie set the entire movie in action.

* BroadStrokes: According to WordOfGod, William Munny essentially is the Man with No Name. However timeline wise the dates don't line up with the ''Film/DollarsTrilogy''[[note]]this film being set in 1880 while ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' is set after 1873[[/note]] and certain facts such as Munny's character when an outlaw conflict with the portrayal of the Man with No Name.

* DistantFinale: According to [[WordOfGod Eastwood]], this film is the official final chapter of the story of The Man With No Name from ''The Film/DollarsTrilogy'', as well as the finale to Eastwood's career in Westerns.

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: WordOfGod states that Bill Munny is ''the'' Man With No Name from ''The Film/DollarsTrilogy'' by Creator/SergioLeone, which means the fastest gunman and most cunning in the west who once had [[Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly 100,000 Gold Pieces of Confederate Dollars to his name]] and [[Film/ForAFewDollarsMore collected the $27,000 bounty on El Indio and his gang (plus another $40,000 for returning the stolen money to the Bank of El Paso)]] is now a rheumatic old pig farmer who can barely get on his horse, or even shoot ''straight'' anymore...

* CallToAgriculture: As with everything else, Deconstructed. William Munny, the legendary outlaw gave up his violent ways to become a peaceful pig farmer… and by the time the movie starts he is failing miserably, his stock is severely depleted and he is forced to take up the Schofield Kid on his offer so he doesn't lose everything. The film emphasizes this at the end when it shows [[spoiler:that it was agriculture that he was ill-suited for since Munny eventually became successful as a shopkeeper in San Francisco.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unforgiven.png]]

* WouldHitAGirl / WouldHurtAChild: Munny admits that he killed women and children.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Mr. Beauchamp, the writer who follows first English Bob and then Little Bill Daggett around seems to think he's in a simple white hats versus black hats world... whereas it's more akin to a CrapsackWorld.

* CallToAgriculture: As with everything else, Deconstructed. William Munny, the legendary outlaw gave up his violent ways to become a peaceful pig farmer… and by the time the movie starts he is failing miserably, his stock is severely depleted and he is forced to take up the Schofield Kid on his offer so he doesn't lose everything. The film emphasizes this at the end when it shows [[spoiler:that it was agriculture that he was ill suited for, since Munny eventually became successful as a shopkeeper in San Francisco.]]

** More than perhaps any deconstruction in this film in contrast to most Clint Eastwood westerns (or any western) where the lead will casually gun down a group of people like it is nothing, this movie makes a point about how there is nothing glamorous about killing a person even if you think it is for heroic reasons. Will Munny is plauged by the guilt over all the people he has killed [[spoiler:and the Schofield Kid has a breakdown after he finally kills one of the bounty targets]].

*** Little Bill himself can be seen as a deconstruction of the town sheriff in your typical Western movie. Like most sheriffs in this type of film, he is just trying to keep the peace. The problem is that when Delilah gets her face slashed up, Bill does not punish the men after Delilah is attacked (granted one of them had nothing to do with it and even tried to stop the other) and lets them go scot free. He is also later shown to be a vicious tyrant and bully who delivers violent beatdowns to others - who are already [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown at gunpoint or restrained]] - and is no better then the criminals he claims to protect the town from.

** The Schofield Kid invokes this [[spoiler:by claiming Quick Mike reached for his gun before his death, but Mike's gunbelt was hanging on the inside of the outhouse door when the Kid opened it, and was therefore well out of his reach when the Kid shot him. In fact Quick Mike died holding up empty hands and begging for his life.]]

* DistantFinale: According to [[WordOfGod Eastwood]], this film is the official final-chapter of the story of The Man With No Name from ''The Film/DollarsTrilogy'', as well as the finale to Eastwood's career in westerns.

* GossipEvolution: When the Schofield Kid tells Munny about the attack, he says that the cowboys had cut out Delilah's eyes and cut off her ears, neither of which was true. When Munny tells Ned about it, he adds that they cut off her fingers and her breasts. It is implied that these Chinese whispers intended to make other people sound better or worse than reality is how these old western legends begin to form.

* GunPorn: Most westerns depict everyone carrying a Winchester rifle, a Colt Peacemaker, or a double-barreled shotgun (largely due to the use of the five-in-one blank round in movingie production). ''Unforgiven'' features a very wide selection of old-west firearms, and several are identified by name.

** Little Bill and his deputies repeatedly refer to bounty hunters as "assassins." The tone they use makes it sound like they're using the word as kind of an insult, but in fact it is an entirely valid distinction: offering money for straight up killing two men is contract killing and the men seeking to collect ''are'' hired assassins.

** The very loud rant he gives the people of Big Whiskey (see under DefiantToTheEnd) as they run him out of town is spoken in what sounds like very coarse Cockney. By that point he's totally humiliated and blind with rage and has no reason to pretend anymore.

* PoliceBrutality: Little Bill enjoys doling out beatings whenever he has someone from out of town at his mercy. When English Bob claims he's unarmed Bill's posse takes his weapons at gun point, and then Bill proceeds to make an example of him by kicking the crap out of Bill while loudly declaring he won't tolerate assassins in his town coming to collect on the bounty. That night he [[spoiler:sets up English Bob to get shot while trying to escape, but Bob wisely doesn't take the bait.]] A few days later he beats the hell out of Munny (and doesn't bother to arrest him) for lying about having a gun. Even later, [[spoiler: he accidentally whips Ned to death for his involvement in killing Davey]]. Bill certainly doesn't seem too upset about [[spoiler:having accidentally whipped a man to death]] while rounding up the posse to go catch his partners.

* QuickDraw: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed;]] [[LampshadedTrope As Little Bill notes]] when he's talking to the writer, while being fast ''on'' the draw is perfectly fine...those who draw and start blazing away without taking the time to properly aim as a rule end up dead -- while a slower, but more accurate, gunfighter will, as a rule, end up the victor.

* RetiredGunfighter: Both Will Munny and Ned Logan were retired and had families, until the Kid convinced them to come along for a bounty.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Probably one of the most cynical westerns of all time.

* UnreliableNarrator: In keeping with the overall {{Deconstruction}} of the Western, a running theme throughout the movie is that many of the characters are either actively trying to rewrite their pasts in order to make them seem better than they were, or have hazy recollections of them to begin with. These fraudulent and flawed recollections then go on to become myths of the west. This starts off early on, as Will only considers the offer from the Schofield Kid because he said the target graphically maimed a prostitute, cutting up her face, carving her body, and chopping of her fingers, when in realty she just had some cuts to her face.

* TheAllegedHouse: Sheriff Bill Dagget built his own wood-frame house on a lonely parcel away from town. While recounting the exploits of The Wild West to biographer W.W. Beauchamp, both men set out assorted vessels to catch all the rainwater that's leaking through the roof. One of the sheriff's own deputies put it succinctly; "You know, he don't have a straight angle in that whole god-damned porch, or the whole house for that matter. He is the worst damn carpenter."

* BoomHeadshot:[[spoiler:How William Munny kills Little Bill. Shotgun blast to the face. Point blank.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Little Bill, staring down Will Munny's gun.]] Subverted all to hell with every other death. Nobody else in the film dies as cleanly or quickly.
* IncitingIndicent: Delilah laughing at Quick Mike's TeenyWeenie set the entire movie in action.

* SexForServices: The whores allow Munny's companions to take 'advances' on their payment as they don't actually have the full amount they're promising.

* PunctuatedPounding: Little Bill gives one to English Bob and later one to Munny.

* RetiredGunfighter: Both Will Munny and Ned Logan were retired and had families, until the Kid convinced them to come along for a bounty.

* VillainProtagonist: The main characters are {{Professional Killer}}s looking for a pay-out on an illegal bounty. They are opposed by TheSheriff who is actively trying to keep law and order and stop the hit. The Killers happen to be reluctant and fighting their own demons, while the Sheriff has a sadistic streak and the reason for the bounty itself was considered DisproportionateRetribution. The film in general features GreyAndGrayMorality.
%%* VillainousValor: Little Bill manages to [[spoiler:[[FaceDeathWithDignity in his final moments.]]]] - ZCE

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Beauchamp's face is positively ecstatic when Will enters the bar and admits that he's killed women and children.

* EnemyChatter: Little Bill's deputies get screen time talking about random stuff, showing they are a bunch of regular guys just doing their jobs.

* AdaptedOut: In this version Ichizo's men do not receive names or any character development.

* ArtisticLicenceLaw: Everyone refers to the $1,000 that the girls are offering for the killing of two men as a "bounty". However, a private citizen cannot legally offer a reward for the extrajudicial killing of a person, meaning that the girls are inciting murder of specific persons, which is a crime. Given the reaction of Sheriff Little Bill for the whole rest of the movie, it can be inferred that the only reason the girls themselves weren't arrested was that the sheriff only knew of the "bounty" through multiple levels of hearsay. This is why Bill and his deputies [[InsistentTerminology refer to Munny, Ned and the Kid as "assassins" throughout the film]]- because that's what they are, not bounty hunters.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted with Delilah, whose injuries kick off the plot. While she's isn't exactly disfigured, and arguably still pretty good looking, she has permanent scarring on her face.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Munny goes back to his old ways and Ned is murdered, but Munny avenges him. And with the money he earns from the bounty on the two cowboys, he's able to move on and make a better life for himself -- rumored to be San Francisco, where he prospered in dry goods.]]

* CombatPragmatist: Every single gunslinger in the film.

* CurbStompBattle: Little Bill delivers a brutal one sided beating to both English Bob and William Munny at two different points in the movie
** [[spoiler:Despite being out numbered, William Munny is able to easily outgun and kill Little Bill and his men; if only because of his experience and knowing better than anyone in the bar the business of gunfighting.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: Of the Western. Even compared to the Creator/SergioLeone's SpaghettiWestern films, this film is DarkerAndEdgier.

*** Little Bill himself can be seen as a deconstruction of the town sheriff in your typical Western movie. Like most sheriffs in this type of film, he is just trying to keep the peace. The problem is that when Delilah gets her face slashed up, Bill does not punish the men after Delilah is attacked (granted one of them had nothing to do with it and even tried to stop the other) and lets them go scot free. He is also later shown to be a vicious tyrant and bully who delivers violent beatdowns to others - who are already at gunpoint or restrained - and is no better then the criminals he claims to protect the town from.

-->'''English Bob''': A plague on you! A plague on the whole stinking lot of ya, without morals or laws. And all you whores got no laws. You got no honor. It's no wonder you all emigrated to America, because they wouldn't have you in England! You're a lot of savages, that's what you all are. A bunch of bloody savages! A plague on you!

** The entire movie is a result of Quick Mike cutting up Delilah's face for laughing at his small penis.

-->'''Munny''': Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill but I'm gonna kill his wife and all his friends]], [[AndYourLittleDogToo and burn his damn house down!]]

* ForWantOfANail: If only Delilah hadn't laughed at Quick Mike's TeenyWeenie.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Little Bill is much too fond of them.

* ProBonoBarter: The whores allow Munny's companions to take 'advances' on their payment as they don't actually have the full amount they're promising.

* TeenyWeenie: Quick Mike cut up Delilah because she laughed at his small penis.

* VillainousValor: Little Bill manages to [[spoiler:[[FaceDeathWithDignity in his final moments.]]]]

* WarForFunAndProfit: Beauchamp's face is positively ecstatic when Will enters the bar and admits that he's killed women and children.

* AWorldHalfFull: This tale seems to be told in a CrapsackWorld... until we realize that [[spoiler:Claudia]] has been dead for years and she still has influence over Munny. It could be said that this is her tale, how she still manages to be the only light in the TheWestern darkness.

* QuickNip: As is standard for any movie in the genre.

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Little Bill's deputies get screen time talking about random stuff, showing they are a bunch of regular guys just doing their jobs.

* PetTheDog: After shooting a man, who is lying in agony begging for a drink of water, Will Munny shouts out to the man's friends to "Give him a drink of water for Christ's sake! We ain't gonna shoot!" This might also be a MercyKill, since when you have a wound in the guts, a drink of water will end your misery rather fast.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted; although it's easy to overlook, both the protagonist and the antagonist have the same first name.[[note]]"Bill" is an abbreviation of "William".[[/note]]

* InstantDeathBullet: Subverted. Munny shoots one of the targets in the gut, and he dies slowly and painfully. [[spoiler:A few of his victims after the final shootout]] can be seen slowly writhing on the floor in obvious agony. [[spoiler:Little Bill]] doesn't die from the first shot either.

* ForeShadowing: Little Bill telling Beauchamp about how it is a disadvantage to quick draw because you won't properly aim and winning a gunfight is all about staying calm and focused. [[spoiler:This is exactly what happens in the climax. Will Munny calmly and methodically kills all of the panicking deputies.]]

* DeadlyEuphemism: Everyone refers to the $1,000 that the girls are offering for the killing of two men as a "bounty". However this trope is in play because a private citizen cannot offer a reward for the extrajudicial killing of a person. Referring to the money as a "bounty" is only meant to obscure the fact that it is plain old murder for hire.

* BerserkButton: Munny finds out about [[spoiler:Little Bill killing Ned and desecrating his body]] in the last 20 minutes of the movie. He spends those last 20 minutes [[spoiler:killing most of the people who die in the movie]] in response.

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Subverted with Little Bill. He has a reputation as a badass who "worked them tough towns" in Kansas and Texas according to his deputies (including the notorious Abilene, according to Beauchamp), and he has the measure of "dangerous men" as he demonstrates dealing with English Bob and as he recounts to Beauchamp. English Bob has an OhCrap moment when he first sees Little Bill, and not just because there are four guns pointed at him. At the same time, the only violence he manages in the entire movie is [[spoiler:[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutal beatdowns]] on men already at gunpoint or restrained. The only time he manages to get a shot off is after he's already been shot himself and is lying on the floor bleeding out, and Munny easily deflects his gun by stepping on his arm, making the shot miss.]]

* TheAlcoholic: Munny used to be one; he was drunk during his most famous exploits.

* AssholeVictim: The brothel owner "Skinny" very cruelly insults Delilah over her scars, and [[spoiler:puts Ned's body on display outside the saloon]]. He should've armed himself before he did that last one, not that it would have mattered when Will came calling.

* TheAtoner: Munny honestly attempts to live a life that would be pleasing to his departed wife, never touching alcohol and even forbidding his children from cussing. But his dire financial situation pushes him back into his gunslinging ways, and he goes over the edge completely [[spoiler:after Ned's death]].

* BlindWithoutEm: The Schofield Kid, though he never owned any spectacles to begin with.

* CelibateHero: Will Munny stays faithful to his dead wife.

* DirtyCoward: Little Bill repeatedly accuses Munny of being one, expressing disgust at his past atrocities, even though he himself seems to prefer administering rough justice to old men who have already been disarmed and surrounded by deputies.
** English Bob, having built his fearsome (but false) reputation as a deadly effective gunslinger by shooting other gunslingers unawares and gunning down unarmed Chinese migrant workers.

* TheDreaded: Munny, when his past days as a thief and murderer are discussed. The Schofield Kid in their first scene together describes Munny's reputation as "the meanest goddamn son of a bitch alive." Later, when Little Sue (the prostitute who delivers the bounty) describes what Ned said about him — that dynamiting a train full of women and children wasn't even the ''worst'' he'd done — her quavering voice, and the look the Kid gives Will, say it all.
* DrunkenMaster: Munny was drunk during most of his famous exploits, and he attributes his decayed skills in the present to having given up whisky at the urging of his late wife. [[spoiler:He drinks a bottle of whiskey before the salon shootout, where he's much more effective then he was previously in the movie.]]

* EvilCounterpart: English Bob to Will Munny, except he's just a vicious coward who was trying to cash in on his reputation. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation An argument could be made that]], [[GreyAndGreyMorality in as much as 'good' and 'evil' are meaningful concepts in this movie]], Will Munny is the EvilCounterpart to English Bob. Consider the way both of them end their time in the town; English Bob is kicked out in disgrace with his reputation in tatters, exposed as a coward, and for all his ineffectual ranting and raving about how he'll return and make them all pay, he's basically a joke. Will Munny leaves of his own accord with a room full of bodies behind him, and when he promises that he'll come back and make them all pay if they give him cause to return, there's probably not a person in the town who doubts his sincerity or ability to make good on his threats. Which one's the evil one again?

* EvilBrit: English Bob. [[OohMeAccentsSlipping But his educated upper-class accent slips]] when he finds that Little Bill is the sheriff of this town, meaning his accent is as fake as... well, nearly everything else about him.

* FauxAffablyEvil: When he's not doling out DisproportionateRetribution, Little Bill can be fun to hang around with. He even takes on the writer English Bob brought into town, who is more fascinated with Bill's tales.

* GrumpyOldMan: Munny has evolved into one. Once he's unable to shoot a can with a revolver, he angrily [[MoreDakka goes for a shotgun]] to ensure he doesn't miss.
* TheGunfighterWannabe: Thoroughly explored with the Schofield Kid. He enlists Munny for the job, and brags about how he's killed five men. Once he actually kills someone he breaks down, admits that he'd never actually killed anyone before, and swears off killing for good. In a scene that didn't make the final film, it is later revealed that the Schofield Kid actually [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] out of shame.

* HidingTheHandicap: Downplayed, the Schofield Kid tries his best to hide the fact that he has bad eyesight. It doesn't stop Ned from figuring it out real quick.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Little Bill is a horrendously hypocritical man. When Munny [[spoiler:shoots Skinny in cold blood ([[AssholeVictim for]] [[DeadGuyOnDisplay decorating his saloon with poor Ned]])]], Bill is outraged and calls him a "cowardly son of a bitch"; a bit rich coming from a man who has at least ''thrice'' engaged in PoliceBrutality against unarmed old men who were at the mercy of him and his deputies. He says openly that he is a better man than English Bob and Munny; however, Bill is definitely more dangerous and violent than Bob is, and is too much of a KnightTemplar to have any sense of remorse for his deeds. In contrast, Munny spends the whole movie trying to deny his past but by the end of the film [[IAmAMonster he has fully accepted what he really is]].

* LargeAndInCharge: The ironically named sheriff "Little" Bill Daggett.

* MessianicArchetype: His late wife Claudia was – '''is''' – this for William Munny... [[RedemptionFailure to the extent he can be saved]].

* MilesGloriosus: The Schofield Kid. For another example, English Bob is shown to be an excellent pistol marksman (shooting birds in flight from a moving train with a pistol is no mean feat), but he has no stomach for actual fighting.
** William Munny is a subversion. He takes no glory in his past (bloody) achievements, even though being able to outshoot multiple opponents is quite impressive on the face of it. But Munny actually downplays his feats, claiming to kill fewer than the actual number.

* MoralityChain: Claudia Munny is posthumously one. In life, she calmed William down and reined in his murderous tendencies. In death, her memory keeps Will on the straight and narrow. [[spoiler:The chain slips after Bill murders Ned and a vengeful William slips back into "gunslinging psychopath" mode faster than you can say "ChaoticEvil".]]
* TheMunchausen: English Bob, who tells grand stories about his exploits, only for it to be revealed he's a coward and any truth to the stories has been ''heavily'' embellished. Averted with Little Bill and Munny. Bill is every bit as badass as his own stories suggest, and Munny's past actions were actually ''worse'' than the stories themselves, and he promptly tells off Beauchamp when the writer tries to cozy up to him as well (whereas both Bob and Bill enjoyed the audience).

* PosthumousCharacter: TheLostLenore -- Claudia Munny was dead before the beginning, but Munny will talk about her whenever he has a chance. At the end of the movie, we know how much her character influenced him and the whole story.

* PsychoForHire: Rather downplayed. Munny is brought onto the job mostly for his reputation as one, but he doesn't do much to live up to it. [[spoiler:[[ItsPersonal Even when Bill tortures Ned to death,]]]] he isn't overly sadistic in his revenge (ruthless, but not sadistic).

* RemittanceMan: English Bob may or may not be a real example, but he certainly ''acts'' like it, possibly even [[GenreSavvy deliberately fostering a reputation of being a badass English nobleman to intimidate people away from bushwhacking him.]]

* SaloonOwner: Skinny. It's established in short order that he isn't that great a guy. After Delilah gets cut up, he's more concerned about ''the loss of investment'' than he is about her wellbeing. He also decides [[spoiler:(or followed Little Bill's orders) to put Ned's corpse on display in front of his saloon, prompting Munny to blow him away with a shotgun and deliver one of the best lines of his career: "He should've armed himself, if he's gonna decorate his saloon with my friend."]]

* SelfAppliedNickname: It's heavily implied that the Schofield Kid is the only person who calls him "The Schofield Kid."

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Delilah only has a few scenes, but everything that happens in the movie is a result of her being cut up by Quick Mike.

* TranquilFury: As only Eastwood can do, this is [[spoiler: how Will Munny speaks, when he takes his revenge.]] ''[[MookHorrorShow Yikes.]]''

* WellIntentionedExtremist:
** [[TheSheriff Little Bill]] seems to genuinely believe that what he does is for the greater good. He probably [[{{Sadist}} enjoys it]] a bit more than he should, though.
** The Schofield Kid. He continually asserts that the two cowboys "had it coming", even while bawling his eyes out from guilt. [[spoiler:Ironically the Kid killed the cowboy who was the most guilty for what happened to Delilah, and he still can't handle the guilt.]] Munny replies that "We all have it coming, kid".

* BookEnds:
** A unique meta-example; the boots that Creator/ClintEastwood wears in this movie, which has been his last (to date) appearance in a western, are the same ones that he wore during his first western appearance, on the 1950s TV show ''Series/{{Rawhide}}''.
** This movie and Eastwood's first directed western ''Film/HighPlainsDrifter'' open and close their movies with the same location, camera angle and time of day.

* ArtisticLicenceLaw: Everyone refers to the $1,000 that the girls are offering for the killing of two men as a "bounty". However, a private citizen cannot legally offer a reward for the extrajudicial killing of a person, meaning that the girls are inciting murder of specific persons, which is a crime. Given the reaction of Sheriff Little Bill for the whole rest of the movie, it can be inferred that the only reason the girls themselves weren't arrested was that the sheriff only knew of the "bounty" through multiple levels of hearsay.

* BroadStrokes: According to WordOfGod, William Munny essentially is the Man with No Name. However timeline wise the dates don't line up with the ''Film/DollarsTrilogy''[[note]]this film being set in 1880 while ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars is set after 1873[[/note]] and certain facts such as Munny's character when an outlaw conflict with the portrayal of the Man with No Name.

** The final showdown deconstructs ConservationOfNinjutsu. Will kills almost all Little Bill's deputies because they are not experienced in actual gun fighting like Will is and none of them has a killer instinct despite their numbers.

* ArtisticLicenceLaw: Everyone refers to the $1,000 that the girls are offering for the killing of two men as a "bounty". However, a private citizen cannot legally offer a reward for the extrajudicial killing of a person, meaning that the girls are inciting murder of specific persons, which is a crime. Even with all his usual rule-bending, Sheriff Little Bill could and should have arrested the girls as soon as he found out what they were doing, yet he never takes any action directly against the girls.