Amanda, you say it is "lamentable that the only female characters
        in this movie ["Unforgiven"] were prostitutes." Well, yeah, but
        don't overlook the fact that a woman NOT shown on screen, i.e.
        William Munny's deceased wife, has great and positive impact on
        the film. She is responsible for the "humanization"
        of the Munny character, who had been a vicious killer in his
        youth. Sometimes a character can throw a shadow over a movie without
        actually appearing on screen. Another example of this is "Rebecca,"
        in which the title character is dead at the opening of the film
        but her shadow falls over everybody and everything. Ernie.