Unforgiven

Now that we have finished the film, I believe I finally know why its called Unforgiven.

Some characters have a certain aspect about themselves that they despise. Munny hates his talent for killing, the Schofield Kid hates that he can't kill, the whores hate that they are powerless, etc. They obviously try to change, yet cannot change that which is impossible. After the Schofield Kid kills the guy who cut up the whore, he decides to stop adventuring. Munny recedes back to his angry killing ways after Ned is tortured and killed. The whores run away from Munny when he goes on his shooting spree, unable to help or stop him. These characters cannot forgive their personalities. Hence why the kid always tries to seem more badass and Munny tries to lessen the nature of his kills.

Other characters, like Little Bill and English Bob hate the world around them. Little Bill dislikes this Western world, attacking assassins and killing Ned. Being the sheriff, Bill believes that he must protect the world from rotten scumbags who come to collect money for kills. English Bob hates America in general. He believes that his mother country of England is better. Numerous times throughout the film, he is seen mocking America. For example, when first introduced, he scoffs at the assassination of the president, saying that if he were a king this would not happen. These characters cannot forgive human society; how they act, the people in it, even their morals.

Essentially all of the characters think something around them is unforgivable. At the start of the film, Munny and Ned think that the guy who cut the whore up was a scumbag. Munny cannot forgive Bill for killing the innocent Ned. Bill hates every assassin on the planet. The whores believe that the man who cut up one of theirs should die. In this movie all of their morals and beliefs clash, ultimately resulting in death and chaos.

Munny's Character

Is Munny really a good person? Several times throughout the film, Munny repeatedly states that his wife set him straight. However, despite this, he goes off to kill, some guy he's never heard of before. Munny is a premier example of moral ambiguity.
When we first see Munny, we see some grey-haired old man trying to herd pigs. He falls into the mud several times, further emphasizing his feebleness. Two seconds later, we figure out he's some cold-blooded killer bandit. At first it seems that he has changed, but when the Schofield Kid arrives and tells him about the reward money, Munny begrudgingly accepts. He grabs his partner and gets onto his task. Before they even reach their target, Munny and his partner start to converse. Munny talks about how he's so different from before, and how his wife helped him with that. While you can assume that Munny is talking to Ned(Morgan Freeman), you can tell that he's really talking to himself. Its like he's trying to console himself, convince himself that he never, ever would do any of that again. However, the fact that he willingly went out to kill some random guy and leave his kids with a woman that hates him for weeks on end, leads me to believe that he might not be all that good himself. Munny claims that he is only doing it for the money, for his kids, yet there is probably some hidden agenda inside him that wants to kill again.

The Seventh Seal

The metaphorical value behind the chess symbolism is really interesting. Although, I have not watched the entire film, there are already numerous instances of its deeper meaning.
Life itself can be described as a chess game between Death. Everyone tries to cheat death. Each player gets a specific set of options to fight against Death. However, Death has his own chess pieces; aimed to kill you. Similar to capturing a pawn or rook, people try to eat healthier, abstain from sex, and work out. This effectively rids Death's options, making his life harder.
This idea is heavily represented in the movie. Antonius Block is literally playing Death in a game of chess. The game however goes on and off; they keep playing at random intervals. This is another representation of life, as we don't constantly try to fight off death. We think about other things. We goes through our lives. Sometimes, we even give in to Death, eating junk food and purposely injuring ourselves. No one person can focus upon a certain thing at all times.
 Death, at one point in the film, pretends to be a pastor and makes Antonius Block give up his secrets of success. This ties into another theme of the film, Block's religious views. That scene shows his views upon God. He immediately saw a priest and confessed his deepest and inner thoughts. He trusts every imagery of God he can see. However, the priest actually turned out to be Death personified. This either foreshadows his eventual death with some religious aspect being at fault, or losing to Death at chess.
All in all, the film is pretty interesting, yet only at a metaphorical level. The film itself has gone pretty slowly. Sometimes I wonder why some scenes were shot at all, like the whole scene where the Jof(the juggler guy, whatever his name is) where he wakes up and wanders around for five minutes. Hopefully more interesting things will happen, like something added to the plot other than Antonius playing chess with Death.

Animals

I have one question after viewing this film: Is Manny an animal or a human (metaphorically speaking)? Is he some soulless husk of a person with savage tendencies, or is does he actually have a heart? 

There are several instances throughout the film in which he can be called an animal; he is at first caged like some dog, his manner of speech is similar to that of growling, he treats Buck as dead weight instead of a friend, he fights like an animal (the scene where he throws blood onto the guy who stabbed his hand), and several times throughout the film, Manny bears his teeth, like when Rankin leaves Manny's cage for the first time, we can see a glint in Manny's eyes and teeth, similar to that of a wolf or dog. Also, near the end, many loses his fingers trying to cut the wires of the train. This leaves him without opposable thumbs,  like several animals. 

However, with all of these scenes exemplifying Manny's animal traits, there is an equal number of humanization scenes. Manny dislikes rape and stops Buck from doing anything bad to the girl, he cares about Jonah and tries to take him with him, he eventually saves Buck and the girl from dying, and he even asks Rankin if  Jonah is safe during his final moments.

The parallels between these two raise further questions. Is it a statement on humanity and how close we are to animals? Is a side more prevalent than the other? Which side is the correct way of living?