The Unforgiven (1960)

When the weird Abe Kelsey (Joseph Wiseman) with his saber appears in the Zachary's ranch threatening the matriarch Mattilda Zachary (Lillian Gish) and her stepdaughter Rachel (Audrey Hepburn), she does not tell to her sons Ben (Burt Lancaster), Cash (Audie Murphy) and Andy (Doug McClure). Later, when Rachel comments about him, Ben and Cash unsuccessfully chase him in a sand storm. Meanwhile, Kelsey poisons the relationship of the Zachary's family with their neighbors and the Indians Kiowa disclosing that Rachel would be a Kiowa baby stolen years ago in a raid by Kelsey himself and Mattilda's husband, when her parents were killed. Later, he wanted to trade Rachel per his son, captured by the Kiowa, but the old Zachary did not accept his proposal. The racists' neighbors turn their backs to the Zachary's family, while the Kiowa siege them in their house while trying to bring Rachel back to their tribe.

"The Unforgiven" is a western about the impressive intolerance between Caucasians and Indians in the beginning of the colonization of North America by the whites. The story is very well developed, with the usual outstanding direction of John Huston. Joseph Wiseman has a magnificent performance in the role of a despicable villain, a revengeful man capable of destroying many lives. Burt Lancaster is also great in his leadership, while Lillian Gish is amazing in the role of a protective mother. Audrey Hepburn and John Saxon are convincing as Indians. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Passado Não Perdoa" ("The Past Does Not Forgive")

Fmovies: The unforgiven is a nice movie, western. That is a good story which find in this movie a good adaptation for the cinema. This story is about a Indian woman who live since she was baby with a white farmer and cattle and horse breeder family. and naturally with the impulse and the coming of an old man who know the true, the Indian Kiowa want to rehabilitate the girl.

The story is the opposite (inverse), contrary of the searchers (1956) with John Wayne and Nathalie Wood.

In the unforgiven the girl make a different choice for the issue of the story. The story is good because the mystery and a little suspense appear, and it is on the top with the Indians.

One of assets in the unforgiven is the photography. We have beautiful pictures in this film.

And we find a great Audrey Hepburn, who give something magic and mysterious anytime she is on the screen.

A nice western to see.

jelios jelios@hotmail.fr

'The Unforgiven' has a lot in common with 'The Searchers' , both were written by Alan Le May and both are westerns that deal with racism. They also show the lonely life of the pioneers, how hard it must have been to live with so few people around you, how important the few social contacts must have been and that is why it is much more painful to see racism taking over and destroying relationships that were so important. The locations and scenery that Huston show us are much more primitive and far from being as beautiful as 'The Searchers' and that much describes the whole mood of the film. Audrey Hepburn, cast against type gives a good performance. As long as an actor can incorporate the character and show his true emotions, you can even accept Laurence Olivier as Davy Crocket. Audie Murphy is a revelation as Cash, it is his best performance ever. Joseph Wiseman is the eerie crazy man who threatens to reveal the unbearable truth. Burt Lancaster accepts his destiny with courage, unlike his brother (Audie) who is a weaker person. There is a great scene where Lilian Gish plays the piano outside the house when the Indians are about to attack. The Unforgiven is an excellent film, it is one of the best of John Huston, but it does not achieve the greatness of 'The Searchers'.

The Unforgiven fmovies. I believe this western to be one of the most overlooked western films of the period. When one looks at the westerns made before 1960 it is difficult to find many that come close to comparing with the realism, adult themes and complex characterisation of this film. I have viewed this film multiple times over a period of years and enjoy it more with each viewing. The movie is brilliantly cast with especially great performances from Charles Bickford (Zeb Rawlins), Joseph Wiseman (Abe Kelsey), Lillian Gish (Mattilda Zachary)and June Walker (Hagar Rawlins). This western has it all; uniformly wonderful performances from the entire cast, excellent dialogue, and a real look and feel of the western frontier. I give this film a 9 out of 10.

This film, The Unforgiven, as opposed to Clint Eastwood's classic is taken from a novel by Alan LeMay who also wrote The Searchers. Both stories are about the post Civil War Texas frontier. But in this one we have the Indians seeking out one of there's who's been taken by whites and raised as one of their own. The person in question is Audrey Hepburn who's been raised by Lillian Gish as her own daughter and sister to her three sons, Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, and Doug McClure.

It was an unwritten law of Hollywood that no one shoots a film in Monument Valley except John Ford. So John Huston made due with Durango in Mexico which had become a favorite western location site also. Huston got some good performances out of his cast although he had many problems.

Audrey Hepburn fell off a horse and was injured for a few weeks. Audie Murphy nearly drowned in a river. Topping it all off, according to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster was the fact that Lillian Gish served as a kind of back seat driver to John Huston. She was forever telling him that D.W. Griffith did this or that a different way. But apparently Ms. Gish was satisfied with the finished product because she acclaimed Huston as another Griffith when it was over.

The story really gets going when some Kiowas come knocking on Lillian Gish's door demanding Audrey Hepburn's return. When it's discovered that Hepburn in fact is an Indian, the reaction of the neighbors and some of the family is to send her back. Lancaster, Gish, and McClure aren't having it though.

The Unforgiven was butchered in the editing department. One role that was mostly left on the cutting room floor apparently was John Saxon as a halfbreed named Johnny Portugal. Standing out though is Joseph Wiseman as the crazy ex-cavalryman now turned preacher who has a hate for Audrey Hepburn. Why he does you'll have to see the film, but it's an interesting problem.

Its parts, its individual performances make The Unforgiven an uneven film where the whole is not greater than the sum of those parts.

Not to be confused with Clint Eastwood's 1992 film "Unforgiven", "THE Unforgiven" is a 1960 John Huston film that is almost worthy of joining Eastwood's as one of the top ten westerns of all-time. That it falls slightly short of that status could be because Huston withdrew from the project in post-production, after the studio insisted on toning down his message of racial tolerance to give the film more commercial appeal. Although this tampering tends to cloud his political message, it is still there if you do conduct a little analysis. "The Unforgiven" does lay claim to the distinction of being the most ambitious western of all time.

Based on an Alan LeMay novel, as was John Ford's "The Searchers", "The Unforgiven" presents the flip side of the search for a missing sister. Here it is an Indian looking for his sister who was abducted as a baby by a white man and then adopted by his family. The obvious complaint is that the Indians are the villains in both films, by a kind of damned if you do-damned if you don't logic. But there is a distinction as the little girl in "The Searchers" was abducted when she was nine years old and she retained a desire to be reunited with her white family. The girl in "The Unforgiven", Rachel (played by Audrey Hepburn), has only known her adopted family.

John Huston once said that a good story should have "excitement, color, spectacle and humor, adventure, high drama, tragedy, good conversation, truth and irony". Even the studio version of "The Unforgiven" does a pretty good job of bringing all these elements to the screen. The most obvious sign of studio tampering is the inconsistency in John Saxon's character (Johnny Portugal), a half-breed who is often harassed by the local cowboys and is meticulously set up to be Ben's (Burt Lancaster) rival for Rachel's affections. But Portugal mysteriously disappears from the film by the half-way point and there is no attempt to resolve his situation with Ben and Rachel.

Ben is the eldest son of a ranching family. Audie Murphy is the middle brother Cash. Doug McClure is Andy, the youngest brother. Lillian Gish is their mother Mattilda. Since their father's murder by the Kiowas Murphy has been a violent racist.

The film's title refers to the attitude of Abe Kelsey (Joseph Wiseman-later to play Dr. No), a bearded half-crazy avenger who has tormented the family for many years, ever since his son was abducted by the Indians and Ben's father refused to trade Rachel for Abe's son. The twist is that only Wiseman and Gish know that Rachel's biological parents were Indians, everyone else (including Rachel) believes that she was the only survivor of a massacred settler family.

Rachel has grown up to be a loving and happy young woman. Huston's intention is to demonstrate that one race is not inferior to another; that while cultural differences are very real, there is no biological reason for racism. When Rachel's actual parentage is revealed it divides the family; Cash leaves to go on a wild bender, the other two brothers distance themselves from Rachel and she from them, and the surrounding settlers shun the family.

One scene is absolutely riveting, Rachel is comforting the mother (played by June Walker) of the boy she was to marry. Walker slowly looks up at her and then suddenly goes absolutely ballistic. Hepburn's stunned reaction appears to be absolutely genuine, as if Husto