Unforgiven Scene 10 Summary

  • It's daylight, and a train is passing by.
  • Inside the train, a bunch of men are talking about the assassination attempt on then President James Garfield by one Charles Guiteau.
  • (Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, so the film is taking place sometime shortly thereafter. He'd eventually die of his wounds, but not until September 19th.)
  • A British bloke chimes in, speaking in a stereotypically British way: "I believe the would-be assassin to be a gentleman of French ancestry…I don't wish to give offense when I observe that the French are known to be a race of assassins."
  • The British man suggests that the United States shouldn't elect presidents, but a king and/or a queen.
  • His interlocutor is annoyed, and begins to talk a little smack before his friend quiets him down.
  • This could be English Bob, a guy hired by the railroad company to "shoot Chinamen."
  • (The reference here is to the very large number of Chinese immigrants employed to construct the Transcontinental Railroad.)
  • A different guy smiles, gets up, and goes and sits next to the Englishman.
  • It is clear that this is English Bob, legendary gunslinger.
  • Bob proposes to his interlocutor a shooting contest: pheasants. $1 for each pheasant.
  • The scene shifts, and the boys are outside on an open train car.
  • Bob shoots down several pheasants with a pistol. He collects his money from the other man (he's shot eight, the other man one).
  • The scene shifts again, the train has stopped, and Bob and some others are in a small, departing carriage.
  • Inside the carriage, Bob is talking to the man who sat next to him on the train.
  • He continues to talk about the attempt on President Garfield's life.
  • The men pass a sign for Big Whiskey, which says firearms are prohibited.
  • Soon, the carriage enters Big Whiskey. Alice and the girls watch it pass.
  • The carriage stops at a hotel or saloon of some kind. A lawman has been watching the carriage's arrival, and notices Bob's gun.
  • He approaches Bob and his companion and tells them they need to surrender their firearms for the duration of their stay.
  • Bob makes a few funny remarks, says they don't have any firearms, and ultimately refuses to surrender his weapon.
  • He and his companion enter the saloon-hotel.