Here’s a menu of Desert Island Movies:

No.	Title	Director
01	The Godfather	Francis Ford Coppola
02	Lawrence of Arabia	David Lean
03	Bridge on the River Kwai	David Lean
04	Ben Hur	William Wyler
05	Man on Fire	Tony Scott
06	Shadowlands	Richard Attenborough
07	The Royal Tenenbaums	Wes Anderson
08	Big Fish	Tim Burton
09	Saving Private Ryan	Steven Spielberg
10	Stranger Than Fiction	Marc Forster

Top heavy with epics and a couple you may not have even seen.

When I first saw Unforgiven in the theater in 1992, this scene is what I walked out with, replaying in my head. In these two or three minutes are the movie. William Muny may think “He’s not like that no more,” but this scene tells the story of what he was. Can you become someone different, someone better? Sure, but it does not erase where that new someone started. Forgiveness is up to us, and God, and no one else.

EXT. OPEN COUNTRY – DAY

Open country at sundown seen from a low hill, and you can
barely make out a lone RIDER approaching in the extreme
distance.

VIEW ON MUNNY

Standing on the rise and watching the rider in the distance.

THE KID
Is that what it was like, Bill, in
the old days… ridin’ out with
everybody shootin’… smoke all over
an’ folks yellin’ an’ bullets whizzin’
by?

The Kid is behind Bill sitting under a large oak drinking
from a whiskey bottle.

MUNNY
(absently)
Yeah, I guess so.

THE KID
Shit… I thought they was gonna get
us. I was even… scared a little…
just for a minute.
(pause)
Was you ever scared in them days?

Munny turns from watching the rider’s slow approach and walks
over to The Kid who can’t see the rider from where he’s
sitting.

MUNNY
I don’t remember, Kid. I was drunk
most of the time. Give me a pull on
that bottle, will you?

Munny takes a big pull on the bottle, returns it to The Kid,
and walks back to the edge of the rise to resume his vigil.

The rider is a little closer now and the sun is a little
lower. It is very beautiful.

THE KID
(drinking heavy)
I shot that fucker three times. He
was takin’ a shit. He went for his
pistol an’ I blazed away… first
shot got him in the chest…

The Kid wipes whiskey from his chin. He has been working
hard to make the hysteria he feels into a high… but it
won’t quite come.

THE KID
Say, Bill…

MUNNY
Yeah.

Munny is watching the rider and the rider is closer.

THE KID
That was… the first one.

MUNNY
First one what?

THE KID
First one I ever killed.

MUNNY
(preoccupied with his
vigil)
Yeah?

THE KID
How I said I shot five men… it
wasn’t true.
(long pause)
That Mexican… the one that come at
me with a knife… I busted his leg
with a shovel… I didn’t shoot him
or nothin’.

Munny is watching the rider and the rider is much closer but
coming at a walk and Munny goes back over to The Kid for a
pull on the bottle and he’s trying to make The Kid feel okay
when he says…

MUNNY
Well, that fella today, you shot him
alright.

THE KID
(forced bravado)
H-hell yeah. I killed the hell out
of him… three shots… he was takin’
a sh-sh-shit an’… an’…

The Kid is shaking, becoming hysterical, he can’t go on, and
Munny hands the bottle back.

MUNNY
Take a drink, Kid.

THE KID
(breaking down, crying)
Oh Ch-ch-christ… it don’t… it
don’t seem… real… How he’s…
DEAD… how he ain’t gonna breathe
no more… n-n-never. Or the other
one neither… On account of… of
just… pullin’ a trigger.

Munny walks back to the edge of the rise and watches the
rider and it is a lovely sunset happening and he is talking
to no one in particular.

MUNNY
It’s a hell of a thing, ain’t it,
killin’ a man. You take everythin’
he’s got… an’ everythin’ he’s ever
gonna have…

THE KID
(trying to pull himself
together)
Well, I gu-guess they had it…
comin’.

MUNNY
We all got it comin’, Kid.

VIEW on the rider at the foot of the rise and it is Little
Sue and VIEW on Munny pulling the saddle bags off and Little
Sue is still mounted. They are under the oak tree and it is
dusk and The Kid is just sitting there with his bottle.

MUNNY
I was watchin’ you… seein’ if you
was followed.

LITTLE SUE
(scared to death)
Silky an’ Faith, they rode off to
the East an’ two deputies was
followin’ them.

Munny has lit a little candle and spread a blanket and he is
opening the bags to count the money.

MUNNY
(pouring out the coins
and bills)
You wanna help me count, Kid?

The Kid is leaning against the tree in a semi-stupor.

THE KID
I trust you, Bill.

MUNNY
Well, you don’t wanna trust me too
much. We’ll take Ned his share
together so you don’t figure I run
off with it.

LITTLE SUE
(startled)
Ned’s share?

MUNNY
(counting)
Yeah, he went South ahead of us. I
guess we’ll catch him before…

LITTLE SUE
(blurting it out)
He’s… he’s dead.

MUNNY
(counting)
No he ain’t. He went South yesterday.

LITTLE SUE
They… they killed him. I… thought
you know that. I thought you knew
because…

MUNNY
(looking up)
Nobody didn’t kill Ned, he went South
yesterday. He didn’t even kill nobody.
Why would anybody kill Ned?

Little Sue just looks back at him, scared, trembling.

MUNNY
(realizing)
Who killed him?

LITTLE SUE
Little Bill. The… the Bar T boys
caught him and Little Bill…

MUNNY
He hanged him?
(Little Sue shakes
her head “no”)
Shot him down?

LITTLE SUE
N-no. He… he beat him up. He was
making him… answer questions…
and beating him up… and then…
Ned just died.
(pause)
Little Bill didn’t mean to kill him…
he said he was sorry an’ all… but
he said it was a good example anyhow.

MUNNY
(outraged)
Good example! Good example of what
I’d like to know? He didn’t even
kill nobody… he couldn’t do it no
more.

LITTLE SUE
They got… a sign on him says he
was a killer.

MUNNY
(flabbergasted)
A sign on him?

LITTLE SUE
In front of Greely’s. It says, “This
here is what happens to…”

MUNNY
(incredulous)
They got a sign on him in front of
Greely’s?

The Kid just has his head in his hands, it’s too much for
him and Little Sue is scared shitless of Munny.

MUNNY
The questions Little Bill asked him…
what sort of questions was they?

LITTLE SUE
About where you an’ him
(indicating The Kid)
was… an’ where you was from… an’
what your names was… an’…

MUNNY
What’d Ned say?

LITTLE SUE
L-lies… at first. About how you
was just passin’ through and didn’t
kill nobody… an’ Little Bill kept
askin’ questions, mixin’ him up,
catchin’ lies… an’ then he’d beat
on Ned an’ Ned would cry and lie
some more an’ then… then…

MUNNY
Then… what?

LITTLE SUE
A cowboy come in sayin’ you killed
Quick Mike in the shit house at the
Bar T…

MUNNY
An’ Little Bill killed Ned for what
I done?

LITTLE SUE
Not on purpose. But he started hurtin’
him worse… makin’ him tell stuff.
First ned wouldn’t say nothin’…
but Little Bill hurt him so bad he
said who you was…

Munny looks up sharply. Little Sue is scared, her voice
quavers…

LITTLE SUE
He said how you was really Three
Fingered Jack out of Missouri… an’
Bill said “Same Three Fingered Jack
that dynamited the Rock Island and
Pacific in ’69 killin’ women and
children an’ all?” An’ Ned says you
done a lot worse than that, said you
was more cold blooded than William
Bonney or Clay Alisson or the James
Brothers an’ how if he hurt Ned again
you was gonna come an’ kill him like
you killed a U.S. Marshall in ’73.

MUNNY
Didn’t scare Little Bill though, did
it?

LITTLE SUE
N-no, sir?

MUNNY
Lemmee see that Schofield, Kid.

THE KID
Wha… what f-for?

MUNNY
(sharply)
Lemmee see it.

THE KID
(giving it to him)
Sure. Sure, Bill.

Munny takes the pistol and begins to check it methodically,
inspecting the load first… and The Kid watches nervously,
shifting from foot to foot.

THE KID
You… you could keep it, Bill. I
ain’t… gonna use it no more, I
ain’t gonna kill nobody.

Munny, still checking the gun, glances up and meets The Kid’s
uneasy gaze.

THE KID
I… I ain’t like you, Bill.

Munny looks back at the pistol, checks the sights.

THE KID
You… gonna take… the money?

MUNNY
(to Little Sue)
You better get on back, Miss.

And Little Sue, still mounted, breathes an enormous silent
sigh of relief and turns her horse away hastily and Munny,
satisfied with the pistol, sticks it in his belt and walks
over to the horse and pulls his sawed-off shotgun out of the
bedroll.

THE KID
You could have it. All of it.

MUNNY
I thought you wanted to buy spectacles
an’ fancy clothes an’ all.

THE KID
I’d rather be blind and ragged than
dead, I guess.

Munny looks at The Kid who is behaving bravely but is
trembling anyway, scared, and Munny’s eyes are full of
brutally painful memories.

MUNNY
Shit, Kid. I ain’t gonna kill you.
You’re… the only friend I got.

– Unforgiven starring Clint Eastwood. Script by David Webb Peoples