Unforgiven

Rating:
Summary: THE LAST WESTERN / DEATH OF A GENRE
Review: "Unforgiven" is a masterpiece, the achievement of Eastwood's career as director. I doubt anyone can direct a real western after this one. The whole american mythology created around the 1830-1890 period is visited by Eastwood and exorcised. Heroes are no more than lousy story-tellers, gunfighters must have glasses to shoot right and there aren't good guys and bad guys anymore : there are only human beings like you and me who kill for money or revenge. If the hero does survive in a fight, it's only because he's lucky and not because he's the good one. Eastwood created a crepuscular world much more impressive than Robert Altman's movie about Buffalo Bill (with Paul Newman). If you should have only one western in your DVD collection, buy "Unforgiven". And, of course, the others Eastwood's movies as well !

Rating:
Summary: Eastwood Shows again how a western is done!
Review: Eastwood after decades in the business still has staying power in the business. With a strong supporting cast of heavy weights and new talent, Clint Eastwood demonstrates that substance is still in style. Eastwood plays the part of William Munny to perfection. The last ten minutes of this movies lines have "classic" written all over it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Westerns EVER! But a really bad transfer....
Review: I can't believe that Clint made such a bad transfer to DVD. I saw the film at the theater when it came out in 92 and was amazed at the cinematography, but it was definately not captured in this DVD. Really crapo! I don't know how the VHS looks but stay away from the DVD unless you really have to have it. The DVD almost looks like it was "filmed" onto the DVD, that is, like a bootleg video. I was almost expecting to see people's heads on the bottom of the frame.

Other than the DVD transfer quality, this is one of the best westerns ever made. The characters are shades of grey or not black and white like other films. Characters are very realistically portrayed.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgiven is an outstanding film.
Review: After veiwing Unforgiven I came away with the impression that this is what a good western should be. It gets beyond the "ride in,shoot'em up and get out of towm mode that plauges most westerns,and looks at a person trying to bury his past, only to end up facing them once again due to the circumstances of the moment. I was impressed by the depth of the characters and the plot of the movie, however I will have to fault the film for getting bogged down toward the mid-way point,otherwise it is an excellent movie, one all westerns past and present should be measured against.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgiven, alright but kind of slow.
Review: Ok, first of all I'd like to make it clear I haven't seen the DVD. I was going to purchase it and thought I would write a review before I did. I watched the Pan & Scan VHS version. I like Clint Eastwood a lot. Mainly his older movies. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. For a Few Dollars More, and Fistfull of Dollars, High Plains Drifter, and of course Hang Em' High.

I watched this movie, and liked it a lot. It had a good story, ok amount of violence. But it just didn't have enough action. I just like his older movies where he is constantly pulling his gun, and fanning his trigger. This movie is more of a realistic look at the 1800's. I did like this movie, but it's just a little slow. It's not like his older movies, but it's a damn good movie. I have to say 3 stars, is because I personally didn't like it. But overall it had great acting and really excellent directing. END

Rating:
Summary: The best western ever made?
Review: This may be the best western ever made. It captures the cowboy spirit like nothing since "Lonesome Dave." The "new" Clint Eastwood (introspective, mortal, even compassionate) is making great movies, and this is one of the best. END

Rating:
Summary: An "unforgiving" look at human nature- with no good guys
Review: This is a brutal, believable tale that at the same time is deeply moral, in a way that no melodrama can be. It's about a temporarily reformed mad-dog killer who's tempted off the straight and narrow. Some prostitutes have offered a bounty for the deaths of two cowboys who mutilated one of their number.

When people are beaten or killed in this movie, it has meaning. Justice doesn't triumph, because that's not what this world offers. For me, it's not nihilism but it's opposite that prompts this exchange between the apprentice killer and Clint Eastwood's character:

"I guess he had it coming." "We all got it coming, kid."

The movie is a little slow to get rolling, and I don't quite believe some of the scenes of Clint as a sod-buster. But when we see characters flinch at killing because they lack the nerve, we really understand what makes it possible for a cold-blooded sociopath- on either side of the law- to face down a crowd. That makes it feel real, and the third act of the movie is the culmination of Clint Eastwood's career in westerns. END

Rating:
Summary: The "Western" Everyman.
Review: The most important aspect of this "Western" is its philospical and spiritual message about the universal condition of man. It is almost biblical in nature like the first chapters of the book of Romans in the New Testament. Man is aware of both good and evil but finally is caught up in evil and unless he is redeemed by the forgivness of God he will die in his sins. The title is very appropriate as the characters in the end are unforgiving and unforgiven. It is a powerful film in that there are certain aspects in the various characters the show they have a sense of what is good but they are unable of themselves to overcome the innate evil of the human heart. There are several classic lines in the film such as the moment the young gunslinger says to Eastwood's character "He has it coming" and the reply is "We all have it coming" The conclusion at the end is that both the man representing the law and the man representing the lawless are both damned. It is not a pretty picture of mankind but a true one and is the reason why the Son of God had to die on the cross that we might be forgiven. There is Evil in man, but goodness in God if we will turn to Him. If this film would have only included the forgiveness of God I would have given it twice five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Sterling and True.
Review: This isn't just a movie, it's a premium study of human nature. "Unforgiven" is a tale straight from the borderlands between good and evil. The plot is interesting but in no way explains the film's allure. The acting is superb and this is particularly true in regards to Gene Hackman and Richard Harris. English Bob is not on the screen long but Harris puts in a tremendous, and very memorable, performance. Hackman's Little Bill is haunting and you'd honestly have to say that Eastwood is nearly as good as his depiction of William Munney is subtle and flawless. The ending blazes and Clint gets in a few top notch oneliners like, "Anyone who doesn't want to die can go out the back." Ah, this film has been great every time I've seen it.

Was this one the last of the great westerns? Yes "Unforgiven" certainly is wonderful, but hopefully it won't be one of the last of its kind. There's still energy in this genre and I'm hoping that more movies like it are made in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Clint Eastwood's great de-glamorized Western
Review: I don't consider myself a particularly big fan of Clint Eastwood, at least as an actor. To me, he always seems to play the same kind of character in nearly every movie he's in. Occasionally, he'll find some fresh notes to play within his narrow range, but, despite his legendary status in Hollywood, I would hardly classify him as one of the finest actors of our time (although that probably won't stop Hollywood award shows from honoring him for Lifetime Achievement awards and such). That said, with the films that he's directed that I've seen, I'd dare to say that he might be a better director than actor. I have yet to see his most recent (and much-hyped) film MILLION DOLLAR BABY, but I was deeply sobered by his near-great MYSTIC RIVER (despite its total washout of a mystery plot), and, seeing this Academy Award-winning 1992 film recently, I was no less impressed by this film.

UNFORGIVEN is as de-glamorized a Western movie as you are likely to see. There is no real nobility to be found in any of these characters the way there was with, say, Gary Cooper's Will Kane in HIGH NOON. Eastwood's William Munny, for example, is not a hero, but a broken-down, desperate man who is trying to escape his troubled past. Visually, there are some beautifully pictorial shots of the wide open spaces of the plains bathed in (rather mild) sunlight, but most of the time Eastwood and cinematographer Jack N. Green light the proceedings in a doom-filled atmosphere that might come off as heavy-handed to some, but is totally befitting its theme: how physical violence can be violent to the human soul. On the level of action, there is no exciting buildup to the final showdown, and even as it occurs, there is no glamor to be found, no catharsis. Instead of exhilaration, there is a profound note of tragedy as this film ends. A lot of action movies make you believe that taking violent revenge on someone is a satisfying way of closure. In UNFORGIVEN, Eastwood makes clear that there is no real satisfaction to be found in any kind of violence, provoked or not. This is perhaps an important film to see simply as a startling corrective to all the soulless spectacles of violence that seem to be the trademark of action films these days, movies that make you cheer violence and gets you in a sadistic mood, whereas Eastwood stresses its ugliness, both physically and mentally.

UNFORGIVEN is helped immensely---for once---by Eastwood's own performance. Technically, he approaches his role in basically the same way he did with his Man With No Name performances in those Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns---tough, gruff, distanced. This William Munny is not much of a stretch for him. And yet there is an extra weariness to his performance here; you get the sense that he is trying to resist his more violent impulses, that he is always trying to tell himself, "I'm just here to get money, I'm just here to get money." Eastwood also has one scene which seems to cut through his steely persona: as he is in the midst of a delirious fever, there is a real, poignant touch of desperate emotion in his voice as he exclaims that he sees his own late wife, among other delirium-induced visions. That one scene is perhaps the closest I've seen Eastwood as an actor approach some emotion other than just anger. The other performances are good, but Eastwood's, in its own way, is rather special.

UNFORGIVEN is admittedly a little plodding, but then Eastwood has never been one of those showboating directors who indulge in style for its own sake. He is more concerned with characters than with mere action here, and his deliberate approach to the material gives his themes room to breathe and grow in the mind of the receptive viewer. This is a powerful examination of the ugliness of violence, and it will certainly stay with you after it's over. Recommended.