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Honor and Dignity in the Film Unforgiven: Implications for Sociolegal Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Orit Kamir
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Abstract

This article calls attention to “honor” and “dignity” as two fundamental, antithetical bases of unique value systems, both highly significant to social orders and legal systems in the contemporary Western world. The article argues that in this comparative context, the relatively new dignity-based value system may be better defined and articulated; at the same time, the overlooked, traditional honor-based value system, which underlies much of contemporary reality, can be better identified and replaced or at least modified by a dignity-based one. Rather than look to specific sociolegal realities, the article presents this line of thought from a “law-and-film” perspective, i.e., through the close reading of a single feature film: Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. This contemporary, widely familiar, and immensely popular Western exposes the ugly face of the honor-based value system at the heart of the Western film genre; further, it subversively undermines this value system, replacing it with a dignity-based one. In so doing, the film expresses deep faith in the human capacity to transform, calling on real-world social and legal systems to follow in its footsteps and apply the same critical analysis and reformative activism to Western law and society at large.

Type
Articles of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 193 - 234
Copyright
© 2006 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Rebecca Johnson, Nita Schechet, James Boyd White, and Austin Sarat for warm and generous support and vital assistance throughout; to Herbert Kritzer for his generous and patient collaboration; to the anonymous readers for the helpful comments; and to Jay Surdukowski for critical editorial assistance.

References

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