Clint Eastwood and company employ the finest Hollywood craftsmanship to unmask the classical western trope of redemptive violence. Eastwood demythologizes even the morally ambiguous revisionist take on the western genre that Eastwood himself helped establish, showing the true soul-destroying weight of killing a man.
There are no heroes here and no justice, because violence is nothing but a curse from which no forgiveness is possible. But it’s not a nihilistic vision of humanity. Goodness is real and love is powerful, even if the past has enduring consequences and some men have put themselves beyond the reach of redemption by a lifetime of violence.
