Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman | Bleak, unsparing, jarring, and brilliant...

Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman | There is nothing to forgive; everything is pitch-perfect...

DVDs:

Unforgiven

	Unforgiven Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman Warner Home Video, 1997 average customer review:based on 268 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired, down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey. Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper, a colorful killer-for-hire called English Bob. And Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand of law enforcement ranges from unconventional to ruthless.

DVD Features:
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

Bleak, unsparing, jarring, and brilliant...

When I first saw this film, I have to admit I thought it was good, but not great. Further viewings (including a recent one) have made me changed my mind and hang my head in shame. This is one of the greatest Westerns ever made, and one of Eastwood's crowning achievements as a filmmaker and as an actor.

The film is uncommonly dark, even for an Eastwood film. It starts off with a brutal rape scene, and ends with a shootout. The cinematography is masterful, arguably the best in any Eastwood film. Eastwood's character, Billy, is really trying to go straight after spending a lifetime of killing, whoring, and maiming. His wife is dead, his farm is failing, and he's worried about his children. He gets a chance to get some money, but he has to find and kill the people who raped and beat up(and got away with it) a prostitute at the beginning of the film. Over the course of the film, Eastwood's quest becomes more brutal and darker, concluding in what has to be the best, most brooding scene in all of Eastwood's work. The final scene takes place in the bar/brothel where the rape/assault took place. The scene starts in a wide shot, then you see Eastwood's rifle make an entrance, but it's only his rifle. It's a brilliant entrance, one of the greatest in Western movie history, and the concluding shootout is as menancing and as cruel as the West could be.

This film won Eastwood his first Oscar, and it's a film that deserved all its accolades. Most Best Picture Oscar winners are rather safe and tame films, but this is one of the exceptions where an uncommonly dark film swept the awards. It also rejuvinated Eastwood's career a bit. He had just directed and starred in The Rookie, a film that is considered his worst film by mostly everyone, including fans (for the record, it's not that bad of a film). The Rookie was a box office and critical bomb. So when this film appeared, it really brought Eastwood back, and he's been there ever since. Unforgiven is considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made, and deservedly so.

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There is nothing to forgive; everything is pitch-perfect...

It's really no wonder it's taken me this long to finally see `Unforgiven'. I've stated before that westerns were never really my thing, and it's not like Eastwood has a huge draw on me either. He's serviceable at best in my opinion, only on rare occasions having his overly gruff mannerisms pay off with brilliance. After the amazing year westerns in general had last year (`3:10 to Yuma', `No Country for Old Men' and `...Jesse James...' all making my top ten of the year) I figured that maybe I should research this Oscar winning classic to see if the films iconic status was justified.

Watching `Unforgiven' has really made me realize that you should never judge a film before you see it, because you never truly know what's in store for you.

`Unforgiven' opens with a sharp pain of brutality as two men victimize a woman. When the sheriff doesn't do anything more than slap the men's wrists the women of the community put out a reward for the men's head. William Munny, a former murderer turned caring father and widower, hears of the reward and, hesitantly, decides to pursue it in order to better take care of his two children. Along with his former sidekick Ned Logan and an overly confident young gunslinger going by the name of The Schofield Kid, Munny makes his way into town with his horse and his gun and the smell of blood.

Eastwood really went all out with this production. The overall feel of the film is very gritty and dark and adds weight to the moral that is brought to the full as the curtains close so-to-speak. The film is violent, but in a repressed sort of way, allowing the majority of the film to ride on the anticipation of bloodshed and only truly rearing its head in short explosions of brutality. This allows `Unforgiven' to become more than just an action film or a bloodbath but creates a film that is as deep and poignant as it is entertaining.

The acting is also golden here. Morgan Freeman seems to just coast through his scenes, but his companionship with Eastwood is unmatchable. He just has such a natural talent that even when he isn't doing anything exceptional he is still amazing. Clint has never really sold it for me. I was impressed with him in `Million Dollar Baby' because I felt as though he made his harshness work to his advantage. He does that here as well. Next to `Million Dollar Baby' this has got to be his finest performance. Gene Hackman steals the whole show though as Bill Daggett, the ruthless sheriff. His savagery is embellished by his sick sense of justification and that makes Hackman's character development nothing short of extraordinary.

In the end I'm pleased to say that `Unforgiven' stands up as worthy of the praise and attention it has received. I can't say if it was the best film of the year (92 was such a fantastic year for film) but it most definitely ranks in my top ten and surely will stand the tests of time as one of the most effective westerns of all time, defining everything that makes the genre what it is. I may not be an avid supporter of the genre as a whole, but when a western is done right it can be nothing short of amazing. `Unforgiven' is done very, very right.

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Review from a first-time viewer...

Before I begin, I would like to give a disclaimer. Although I liked this film, I have only viewed it once and I am also I young man who has not seen many westerns. Therefore, it has not yet grown on me (as many previous reviewers have stated that it does) and also I have very little to compare this film to. With that said, on to the review...

My first impression of this film was that it was very well done. The plot of the film is thick and dark and has many parts, the main segment being the story of Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) and his companion Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). Munny is a retired assassin in from Kansas who has decided to live a life of rationality in tribute to his wife, raising two children and working (and failing) as a pig farmer. One day Munny is confronted by a young assassin-in-training known only as "The Schofield Kid" about going to Wyoming to kill two cowboys who slashed a prostitute (there is a $1,000 reward put up by the prostitutes). The film, in an extremely summarized version of the extremely dense storyline, is the story of Will Munny struggling to come to grips with his haunted past.

Although I enjoyed the suspense of the film very much, there were two aspects of the film that I didnt particularly enjoy. The first was the constant use of shadowed lighting which spread shadows across the face of nearly every character in the movie and which made the film extraordinarily difficult to concentrate on. While I understand this technique is used in emphasis of the darkness of the film, I still don't think it added anything to the emotions running within the movie. The second was the use of Richard Harris' character, "English Bob". I didn't understand how his portion of the storyline was relevant to the rest of the movie other than to allow for an excellent soliloquoy by Gene Hackman inside the town jail. There were many more portions of the film that I did appreciate very much, especially the youthful enthusiasm of the Schofield Kid, who beautifully contrasts Will's bleak denial of his true identity with yearning for adventure.

I will probably watch this film again at some point, but even after one view, I strongly reccommend it for its dark and brutal storyline and excellent acting performances. Watch it several times if you get the chance, and let the film mystique grow on you.

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OVERrated, but still good

It's all these guys in their later years so kind of goofy to see them as trying to be studs. Hackman is the best thing in the movie. BR continues to miss on the extras.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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