Unforgiven Memory and the Past Quotes

Will seems aware that his past may come back to bite him in the butt. His first thoughts of the Kid, here, prove as much. He knows there must be a ton of people who are determined to "fix" the past.

The past eventually catches up to you, and Will seems to think this explains why he's having such a hard time with his hogs and horses. They're "getting even" with him, punishing him for what he used to be.

From his vantage point in the film, Will seems legitimately disappointed with how he acted in the past. He realizes that he has done things that he shouldn't have done, which suggests he is feeling at least some regret.

Will is usually quiet about his past, and her we see actively trying to bury it, to eliminate it from the oral-historical record that the Kid embodies. This suggests that Will is trying to change, but we've seen enough movies to know that you can't just bury the past.

The Kid is like Beauchamp here, and the kinds of people who read his books. He clearly has a romanticized view of Will's past, as if the bullets and smoke were part of some movie set and not part of a violent, potentially deadly spectacle.

While Will would love to forget the past, and sometimes he claims he can't remember, here it seems his old whiskey habit is helping him along. He was so drunk in those days, he can't even remember all the horrible things he's done. This is a blessing in disguise in some ways.

This is one of Will's most overt statements about his past. In a way, he's owning what he's done and accepting that he can't change anything about it.