Unforgiven

Rating:
Summary: ....and now I'm here to kill you Little Bill.......
Review: Clint Eastwood held onto the David People's script for Unforgiven for over 10 years. Knowing it was something special, he wanted to be mature enough, as both an actor and a director, to do it justice. It was a wise decision.

Eastwood aged into the character of William Munny, chiseled, worn-looking, and I was quite surprised at how well he did with the role. Munny is a haunted man, burdened with the memories of a violent past and the ghosts of many murders. His denials "I was drunk" or "I don't remember" are belied by the guilty flicks of his eyes or the thousand yard stare when memory does come back "remember that drover I shot...whose teeth came out the back of this neck? He didn't do anything....". It is all there in Eastwood's face and eyes when later in the film in his fever delirium William Munny sees the Hell he fears is waiting for him for his sins.

Reformed by a beloved wife, now dead, and raising 2 children on a failing pig farm, Munny and his old partner Ned (Morgan Freeman) are lured out of retirement for one more killing for money. But these old outlaws are different men now, older & tired and domesticated, and it seems unlikely they can do the job. We, like their young gunsel partner, the Scofield Kid, can't see the legendary hell-raiser and killer Munny in this haggard old man.

I note that some were put-off by Unforgiven, expecting a Clint Eastwood type western. Unforgiven really isn't a typical Western...it is more a character study wrapped in a meditation on violence.

The violence in Unforgiven is not stylized or glamorized. When the gunfighter English Bob (Richard Harris) gets the living tar kicked out of him by the sheriff Little Bill Dagget (Gene Hackman), he doesn't pop-up all fine an hour later. Instead he is layed-up in a jail cell, bloody, swollen, and in pain. When Little Bill dishes out the same to Eastwood later, William Munny is out for days and is scabbed and scarred afterward. When Eastwood ambushes a cowboy, he dies slowly, in thirst and in pain. When Little Bill starts in on Ned, we and he know that it will be a long night of torture and pain. When the Scofield Kid shoots a man in the privy, he is sickened by it and so should we be.

Violence begets more violence. From the initial cutting of the prostitute that sets it all in motion, to the beatings and shootings, the violence here only causes more violence and most of it out of proportion to the crime and most of it, even the sanctioned violence of the Law, has little or nothing to do with justice.

Gene Hackman's Little Bill Dagget is a sadistic bully with a badge, his amiable facade masks a ruthless and mean killer. The bemused twinkle in his eye can turn to a savage taunt in an instant. He enjoys beating people just a little too much, and he has the town cowed under his benevolent tyranny. Hackman is great and deserved his Oscar.

The only nod to the conventions of the Western is in the last act, but we are ready for it. As William Munny swigs the first whiskey he's had since his wife reformed him we watch him become distant, stronger, icier and resolved, the legendary stone-cold killer we've been hearing about throughout the movie is now before us and out for revenge.

The rainy ride into town and the total surprise of the laughing and confident posse-in-the-making, the cool malevolence... "he better arm himself if he's going to decorate his saloon with my friend"... and the chaotic, awkward, chance and luck shootout that kills the guilty and the innocent indiscriminately, caps the theme of the film... "deserve's got nothin to do with it". Violence is just violence, it is haphazard and unfair. It isn't pretty and it isn't justice.

And killers leave death in their wake and go on to "prosper in Dry Goods".

This is a beautifully realized film with a great cast. Eastwood's direction is fine. His pacing here is deliberate, but may be off-putting to those expecting a more action-oriented film. This is a mature work, it improves on repeat viewings. Each scene fits to lay the foundation for the climactic confrontation,which is one of the best ever. The dialogue is nuanced and revealing of character and motivation. This is first-rate filmaking.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie
Review: This was Clint Eastwoods best. People say it was horrible because of Gene Hackman. He was great. Eastwood did a great job directing this. Also Morgan Freeman is good too. People think that this movie has no redeeming value.

Rating:
Summary: "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man"
Review: This is hardly 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', but 'The Unforgiven' does rank among Eastwoods best works. If anything, it's somewhat misunderstood. On the one hand, it's easy to see how one might dismiss this film as a politically correct appeasment with a gun control political subtext. Indeed, some parts get a little too moralizing and condescending. But no less than Clint Eastwood himself has stated quite clearly that he wanted to make a statement about the modern glorification of violence in movies (and presumably television!). He wanted to show the painful reality of men who use violence freely and easily, that their casual disregard for human life rapidly corrodes their soul. To claim that this theme of Unforgiven is meant to support gun control misses the point. His point is aimed at those in Hollywood who have made a lucrative career out of their hypocrisy, churning out movies loaded with casual violence while claiming to be gun control freaks -- Richard Donner, anyone? Also, the liberal gun control nuts who use this film must have forgotten that Big Whiskey is shown to have a no-exceptions firearm ban within its city limits. Not only does this give a de jure monopoly on force to an unfit government (in the personage of Little Bill Daggett), but this gun ban is utterly ineffective. Now, I will say the end was a little dissapointing. Retired gunslinger William Munny (Eastwood) has fought long and hard to shed his wicked ways, but we see him slowly get sucked back into the hatefulness and nastiness he used to display. The consequences of his actions ultimately don't present a satisfying end. Man, it's really hard to discuss this without spoiling the conclusion, so I guess I'll just have to leave it at that; I just thought the coda didn't quite match the message of the rest of the movie. Munny isn't exactly a stretch for Eastwood, but he portrays the gunslinger with an effectively flawed quality missing from many of his characters. In the end, despite a few flaws here and there, The Unforgiven is a rather haunting piece of work.

The DVD itself appears in both its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and in a fullscreen version on this double-sided, single-layered DVD; the letterboxed image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Sharpness usually seems crisp and well-defined, though some vague softness can creep in at times. Less satisfying are the supplements on Unforgiven since Warner Bros. crammed two versions of the film on this DVD, that didn't leave much room for extras, so all we get are perfunctory biographies of Eastwood, Freeman, Hackman and Richard Harris, a few screens that detail the awards the film won, and one brief page of text production notes. It's a pretty useless collection that doesn't even have room for a trailer!

Rating:
Summary: the most overrated film of 1992
Review: Unforgiven is a dark, grim film that doesn't stand out in any particular area. Clint Eastwood's performance of the grim, aging gunfighter is typically one dimensional. The subject matter -- taking revenge for a prostitute whose face was slashed -- is about as grim as it gets. The cinematography couldn't possibly be more dark and depressing. It's not a particularly bad movie, but certainly not a particularly good one.

Rating:
Summary: 2 1/2 Stars: Does not deserve the hype
Review: I have seen probably all of Eastwood's westerns and as several other reviewers have stated, this is at the bottom of Clint's barrel. First, this cowboy flick rides a very tired old poney - the theme stolen and copied from Shane by so many other westerns of former gunfighter retires to lead normal life, must unretire to take on evil character set on running the county. Second, the acting and the script are both flat and uninteresting. There have been too many lifetime achievement awards given out lately for artists of various sorts who deserved but never received honors in the past and whose recent work is mediocre at best. Unforgiven falls into that category. If you are looking for a great Eastwood western, check out the Outlaw Josey Wales, Fistful of Dollars or the more recent and much better Pale Rider.

Rating:
Summary: Best work of Clint's life? Maybe...
Review: Possibly Eastwood's best role (and with Good the Bad and the Ugly, White Hunter/Black Heart and Josey Wales under his belt, that says something). This film has been called the Gun-control-western. It is sharp, gritty and dirty... killingis horrible and at no point glorified, but shown as painful and desperate...

It is the story of a man... a good man, a bad man... a man... which really says a loyt, because so few people are willing to make a movie that shows the truth about us all.

Rating:
Summary: I understand the negative reviews, but...
Review: Clint Eastwood's career in Westerns has pushed the envelope, for the style of cinematography, the moral indifference of its hero, and the way that each one has taken the dominant paradigm of the Western and reversed it to say something significant about the genre.

Eastwood's character, William Munny, is as unremarkable a man as he has ever portrayed: a failed pig farmer who turned away from a life of robbery and murder for the love of a wife who died and left him with two children. Nothing about him suggests the sort of unholy strength which is the one trait all his characters had in common. It is fully possible to pity Munny as a broken man whose best chance for happiness passed with his wife's death, and whose children's future depends on him returning to his former life as a killer. When he sets out with Morgan Freeman and Jaimz Woolvett, you wonder if he won't be killed within the first few seconds of a confrontation.

Over the course of the film, the events suggest no clear relationship between what people receive and what they deserve. Even with the cowboys that maimed her dead, the prostitute that they scarred for life will never reclaim her beauty, and her employment at the bordello will be for the little wages she can get as a maid. Morgan Freeman, who killed no one and gave up his wages for partial absolution of his guilt, is tortured and killed. In the words of Eastwood's character, "we all have it coming," it being misery out of proportion to our failures and sins in this life.

Arguably, the climax of this film is as powerful as any he has ever done: the mild-mannered farmer of the past is replaced by a feral hardness as Eastwood drinks the first whiskey he has had since his marriage. He rides into town, and finds Gene Hackman and his entire posse celebrating with Morgan Freeman's body on display in front of the bordello. Like a force of nature, he kills them all in turn, which is not what should happen with the sheer weight of numbers against him. As the sheriff gasps his last few breaths, he protests angrily that he didn't deserve it, and that he had built a house. Eastwood restates the theme with a terse, "Deservin's' got nothin' to do with it," and kills him for the cruelty that his job demanded of him.

Virtually every other Western, even if the hero dies in the end, reinforces some meaning for the hero's life; Josey Wales gains closure with his past, Shane died protecting the lives of other people, Will Kane stands up alone for the town that he believes in. This film advances the dangerous idea that nothing needs to matter or make sense, and that hell has room enough for all of us whether or not we deserve to go.

Well worth seeing, even for people who dislike the genre.

Rating:
Summary: I've Seen Better
Review: I really don't get what all the hype is about with this movie. I was stunned it even won best picture. As far as Clint Eastwood westerns are concerned, this was near the bottom of the barrell. The story was difficult to follow and believe, and too pathetic for a western. The whole movie lacked the teeth of Clint's other gritty westerns. As far as modern Eastwood westerns is concerned, "Pale Rider" was better and that isn't saying much. The ending is farfetched and the only good acting in it was done by Gene Hackman. As far as an Eastwood movie, he's done much better.

The academy awards people began a sad trend of giving cheesy-boring movies best picture when they awarded "Unforgiven". The only other sad awards to top this one were the ones for "Shakespeare in Love", "English Patient" and "American Beauty". Rent a good-old, Eastwood, spaghetti western from the 60s and skip this drivel.

Rating:
Summary: One of the better Best Pictures of recent years
Review: Personally i've never been a big fan of westerns because the characters (oft times) seemed too made up rather than real. Not so in this brilliant film. What we get to see here are real people with real frailties, shortcomings, regrets, and struggles to overcome.

And I have to say hat's off to Gene Hackman who was beyond outstanding as Little Bill. It was totally unexpected at least by me anyway. I thought that Hackman was a terrible casting choice for a western sheriff but I was happy to be wrong. To me his character was the most dispicable of the entire cast. And he was the lawman. 'I guess you think i'm kickin' ya Bob' Just histerical.

Clint's direction was perfect. Subtle but poignant. The scene where he and the kid had just killed the two protagonists was outstanding. Viewing that open expanse put the indivduals burdens in the proper perspective in regard to how alone and singled out someone who commits murder must feel. And he also created an ominous feeling for the final scenes when Ned had been captured and the finale. Bravo.

The film has it all comedy, intensity, savagery, drama and ultimately humanity. An enduring tale.

Rating:
Summary: for your information...
Review: This message is for the last guy who reviewed this disc, (see below). Hey genius, turn your disc over, the widescreen edition is on the other side. For everyone else: see this movie.