u/INTZBK

I have watched Unforgiven many times. I often wondered what Beauchamp wrote about after what he experienced in Big Whiskey. He arrived in town in the company of English Bob, a gunman of some repute, who, although apparently quite formidable, was easily taken down ànd beaten bloody by Little Bill ànd his deputies, with Little Bill claiming it is all to enforce the city’s firearm prohibition ànd to discourage anyone else who might come to town to collect the bounty the prostitutes had placed on the two cowboys who had disfigured one of them. Little Bill has a reputation as a hard lawman ànd also is known as à gunfighter. It becomes apparent the Bill is a sadist who enjoys inflicting punishment and humiliation on others. Also, Little Bill exposes English Bob as a liar, a charlatan, and an outright murderer, and somewhat of a coward. Afterwards, English Bob is banished from Big Whiskey, and Beauchamp latches on to Bill as the subject of a new dime novel, spending a lot of time listening to Bill’s pronouncements and watching and eventually even assisting Bill in his sadistic punishments. Little Bill and Beauchamp end up having two encounters with William Munny. In the first encounter, Munny has just arrived in town during a rainstorm, and is sick and is still abiding by his code of reform, refraining from drinking and trying to live his life peacefully, although his poverty has led him to agree to help the Kid kill the two cowboys to obtain prostitutes’ bounty. Little Bill disarms Munny and then gleefully attacks and beats Munny in the saloon and then runs him and his companions out of town. Munny basically sticks to his somewhat warped moral code through the killing of the two cowboys, but after he learns that Little Bill has tortured his best friend Ned to death, he gets drunk and goes into town. When he arrives at the saloon, Beauchamp sees the real William Munny. He is a killer wirh no regard for his reputation, no arrogance, and no fear of consequences or of being killed. He isn’t a legend, and doesn’t crave renown, he kills people because he is a killer, not a gunfighter, not a lawman, and although he is seeking vengeance for the killing of his friend, in reality no excuses or justifications are needed. People that anger or annoy him, or just are in the wrong place at the wrong time are marked for death. He shows nothing but contempt for Beauchamp, and leaves Big Whiskey after threatening to kill everyone residing there. Beauchamp witnesses an event that strips away any sense of adventure or romantic fantasy about the violence of the old west, and shows the destructive horror of it all instead. So, do you think Beauchamp went on to write a dime novel about the hard sheriff and the cold blooded killer, or do you think what happened at Greeley’s saloon in Big Whiskey changed his attitude towards the gunfights and killings he wrote about?