Unforgiven Page #15

NED:

Who, Bill? Who got snake eyes?

MUNNY:

The angel... the angel of death. I'm

scared, Ned. Ned, I'm gonna die.

NED:

Easy, Bill, easy.

The Kid has walked over and is watching and it fascinates

and scares him and he watches and swallows hard.

MUNNY:

I seen her... I seen Claudia too...

NED:

(soothing)

Well, that's good now, ain't it,

Bill? Seein' Claudia an...?

MUNNY:

She was all covered with worms. Oh,

Ned, I'm scared of dyin'...

The Kid can't take any more and he turns and walks away and

Ned tries to comfort Munny and Munny grabs him and pulls him

close.

MUNNY:

Ned... don't tell nobody... don't

tell the kids... don't tell 'em none

of... none of the things I done.

And Ned has tears in his eyes and Munny's eyes are staring

and he is seeing something horrible and we

EXT. SHED - DAY

A VISION, DAYLIGHT and the horse horribly bloody, screaming

silently in agony while the sound is the sound of night and

the shed and the rain dripping but that doesn't diminish the

agony of the bloody animal as the whip falls on the head and

the eyes and we see the YOUNG MAN cruelly wielding the whip.

It is Munny fifteen years earlier and it is a picture of

unbelievable cruelty and viciousness... because that is what

he was like and what he remembers.

INT. SHED - NIGHT

NIGHT in the shed, a little moonlight coming in through the

open wall. The lantern is out and the sound is the sound of

Munny's labored breathing and Ned and The Kid are in their

blankets.

THE KID:

He's gonna die, ain't he?

NED:

Maybe.

THE KID:

Well, suppose he does?

NED:

(after a pause)

We'll bury him.

THE KID:

That ain't what I mean.

NED:

You mean, am I gonna help you kill

them cowboys?

THE KID:

I can't spot 'em myself but you could.

That red-haired one, you could spot

a half-mile off, I bet.

NED:

An' if I spot 'em?

THE KID:

I'll ride up close an' shoot 'em!

NED:

Just like that?

THE KID:

I told you I'm a damn killer. I done

it before.

(pause, you can hear

Munny breathing)

I'm more killer than him.

NED:

Yeah?

THE KID:

Hell, yeah.

INT. SHED - DAY

DAYLIGHT and the cut-whore's face. Delilah is leaning over

Munny wiping his brow. He is lying in the straw looking up

at her and he looks like sh*t... his face ghastly pale and

stubbled and covered with horrible cuts and bad stitching...

but his eyes are clear.

MUNNY:

I thought... you was an angel.

DELILAH:

(embarrassed, getting

up)

You ain't dead.

Delilah goes over to her horse and gets some packages out of

the saddle bags. Munny tries to sit up weakly.

MUNNY:

Some big guy beat the sh*t out of

me.

(feeling his sore

face)

I guess I must look a lot like you,

huh?

DELILAH:

(angry, hurt)

You don't look nothin' like me,

mister.

MUNNY:

I didn't mean no offense.

(she doesn't answer)

I guess you're the one them cowboys

cut up.

(no answer)

Ned an' The Kid, my partners, are

they... ?

DELILAH:

(coldly)

They went out scouting when they saw

your fever broke.

MUNNY:

Scouting?

DELILAH:

On the Bar T... looking for... them.

MUNNY:

Oh. How long I been here?

DELILAH:

(still cold)

Three days. Are you hungry?

MUNNY:

Three days? I must be.

EXT. WOODS NEAR SHED - DAY

CLOSE on robins, four of them in the woods near the shed and

Munny is watching them where he sits wolfing chicken hungrily,

his back against the shed. Delilah is watching him eat.

MUNNY:

I thought I was gone. See them birds?

Most times I wouldn't even notice

them birds much. But I'm noticin'

'em real good 'cause I thought I was

dead.

DELILAH:

I brought your hat. You... left it

down at Greely's.

MUNNY:

That big guy lookin' for me?

As he looks over at her Munny's eye falls briefly on her

exposed ankle and Delilah feels the look.

DELILAH:

Little Bill? He thinks you went North.

Munny can't help it and his eye flicks back to the ankle.

DELILAH:

Are you really going to kill them?

MUNNY:

(unenthusiastically)

Yeah, I guess.

(suddenly)

There's still a payment, ain't there?

She nods and she moves so that more ankle is showing, but

Munny's eye is drawn to her breasts as she moves, then he

looks away quickly, guiltily and they sit there silently

until...

DELILAH:

Them other two, they been takin'

advances on the payment.

MUNNY:

Advances?

He can't help looking at her body and she knows it.

DELILAH:

(shyly)

Free ones.

Her body is getting to him.

MUNNY:

(stupidly)

Free ones?

DELILAH:

Alice an' Silky gave them... free

ones.

MUNNY:

(understanding,

embarrassed)

Oh. Yeah.

DELILAH:

(shy, timid)

You want... a free one.

MUNNY:

(looking away,

embarrassed)

Me? No. No, I guess not.

And Delilah is hurt... crushed. She gets up and covers it by

picking up the remains of the chicken and Munny is too

embarrassed to look at her.

DELILAH:

(covering her hurt)

I didn't mean... with me. Alice and

Silky, they'll give you one... if

you want.

MUNNY:

I... I guess not.

(unusually perceptive

suddenly)

I didn't mean I didn't want one 'cause

of you bein' cut up. I didn't mean

that.

Delilah keeps her back to him.

MUNNY:

(trying to get up)

It ain't that at all. You're a

beautiful woman. What I said before,

how I might look like you... I didn't

mean you was ugly like me, hell no...

I only meant how we both had scars.

He is standing weakly, supporting himself on the wall and

his speech is so sincere and Delilah wants to believe it.

MUNNY:

You're a beautiful woman an'... if I

was to want a free one, I guess I'd

want you more than them others. It

ain't... See... I can't have no free

one on account of my wife...

DELILAH:

Your wife?

MUNNY:

Yeah. See?

DELILAH:

(after a pause)

I admire that, you being true to

your wife. I've seen a lot of... of

men... who weren't.

MUNNY:

(pleased and

embarrassed)

Yeah, I guess.

DELILAH:

She back in Kansas?

MUNNY:

Uh... yeah. Yeah. She's uh... watchin'

over the little ones.

And Munny gives her what for him is his best social smile...

sort of like a pig strangling.

EXT. BOX CANYON - DAY

VIEW on the BAWLING CALF and the red hot iron coming out of

the fire. It is midday in the box canyon and the four cowboys,

Texas Slim, Johnny Foley, Lippy Macgregor and Davey Bunting

are branding strays and Johnny has the calf down ready for

the pigging string but the calf kicks loose and knocks Johnny

into the fire and the other three cowboys are guffawing,

their sweaty faces full of the camaraderie of hardworking

men who might get irritable by the end of the day but not

yet. And then like a flash, still laughing, young Davey is

on his paint and riding like hell after the stray and it is

beautiful to watch because he and the paint are like one.

CRACK! A rifle shot and the pony does a violent somersault

and Davey goes over in a spray of dirt and fifty yards away

Texas Slim, Lippy and Johnny stare in frozen horror.

The downed pony spurts blood from his nostrils, and Davey's

right leg is pinned under the dying paint's flank and they

are maybe fifteen yards from the edge of the canyon and

Davey's first thought is the pony.

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