Unforgiven (1992)

This is The movie that convinced me that "Clint" is indeed from a higher ground. Thoug, I've always considered Clint as a good actor,I didn't know about his capabilities as a director, he really never proved him self to me. This movie does all of that and more. Grovin up whit western movies, I would have to say that unforgiven is about whole new genre among western movies. Unforgiven is really a true statement of man's brutality and what he "or" she is capable of. Religion,marriage,children, doesn't change ones true identity. After all, when the "society" comes on you hard, the steps you are willing to take in real life, are sometimes desperate. I hope that this movie could be a bridge for those who don't like western movies, but do appreciate a decent manuscript and some fine acting.

Fmovies: Saw this in the late nineties on a vhs n revisted umpteenth number of times. Own a dvd of it. Jus revisited few days back on a blu ray. Back in those days, my grandpop was excited to see both his fav film stars, Eastwood n Hackman in the same film. The cast is awesomely strong. Eastwood, Hackman n Freeman. This aint just a great Western. Its a great movie with awesome characters. Eastwood playing a tough guy who has killed women and children in the past but trying to lead a decent honest life with his kids on a farm. He has become more weaker with age. His farm is going thru a loss n he is pulled into his darker side once again. On the other side v have Hackman as a sheriff whos against people carrying guns in his town. He is a bit autocratic n sadist when meting out punishment. We have Freeman as Eastwood's old pal who during a shootout acknowledges that he aint no ruthless anymore. All the performances r top notch. Eastwood's direction is truly mesmerizing from opening shot n the editing top notch. The one liners are also memorable. Cinematography by Jack N Green is wonderful. The film begins and ends with a beautiful wide shot, Eastwood standing at the grave near a tree, with a sunset in the background. As a fan of Eastwood n western genre, i owed it myself to write a review of this film.

I enjoy the transformation of Clint Eastwood's character throughout the movie. In the beginning he reluctantly becomes a gunfighter but as the movie progresses you see how he slides down the slippery slope of wickedness to become the cold-blooded killer needed for the task. Morgan Freeman's reaction to the transformation is well played also. Richard Harris' character is colorful as is his sidekick. Gene Hackman's sheriff is pleasantly atypical of the role. All these actors and their characters effectively leave the viewer with a myriad of directions from which the movie expertly entertains. If you are expecting anything like Clint's "spaghetti westerns" you will be disappointed. If you are looking for an excellent story with characters that all have varying degrees of wickedness, you will be satisfied when its all said and done.

Unforgiven fmovies. For me, it is the greatest Revisionist Western ever made. As per Westerns in general, this is my second most favorite Western of all times, the first one being (obviously) "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (1966). Besides this, this movie is one of the most worthy "Best Picture" recipient as well as one of the most worthy "Best Director" recipient in the history of Academy Awards.

Good : As per Clint Eastwood's direction goes, it could've never been better. In fact, this is the best of Eastwood as a director and one of his bests as an actor, in particular, a Western role. Easily my most favorite Eastwood film. Clint is yet to make a bad Western. He knows how to make Westerns incredible. And in his (supposedly) final Western, both as a director and as an actor, he proves it. This movie has whatever a great Revisionist Western needs. You got some beautiful cinematography of the country side. Perhaps, the most beautiful views of the country side I have ever seen in a Western. All the main characters, William Munny, Ned Logan, Schofield Kid and Little Bill were very good. Little Bill was a very good villain and Will Munny was an incredible lead. Throughout the film, you can see people talking about Will's past time and again. They really helps you to get behind him. You can see the radical changes in him, after all that happened with him in the past 11 years. You can see his compassion and you'll definitely love the way he accepts that he's being evened for all the sins he's committed. And in the entire film, you get to see him feeling guilty for everything and his great transformation. Ned and Schofield Kid provide a very good support to the story, with unique characterizations of their own. Ned is in the same condition as Will is, but doesn't feel too guilty. The kid is just a moron who acts as if he is cool. I am not gonna say anything more about them, but these stuffs are played out very well in the film. Also, Little Bill isn't just your typical bad guy. What he does is pure evil, but he has got his own point of view. He isn't doing the stuff he does because a guy told him to! He did it because he hates assassins and murderers and all the "low lives". Also, he's a badass, and a whole plotline is there to show that. You hate him, but he's not all wrong either. Even we know about Skinny a lot from the first scene he is introduced. He is just a supporting character with a secondary role. Even he doesn't get overshadowed. Alice and Delilah also stand out, too. It wasn't too necessary to the story to point out how humble Delilah was, and the movie would've been completely good, as it didn't really contribute to the story. But that little touch in the character, gave the movie a slightly different and a better vibe. There are some clichéd plot points, but they can be easily given a pass because of the flow and pacing of the story. You get attached to every character in the scene, feel their emotions, feel sad if someone gets killed, horrified when someone is being tortured, and some tension building when Ned and Kid mess with each other. You feel what the characters are feeling, especially William Munny. There are some scenes that are mere plot devices and might have felt quite forced. But Eastwood directed it so cleverly that it doesn't even feel like happening. In the end, the transition to a particular plot device was really smooth and totally unforced. It feels more like a compulsion to the character. Also, notorious and sad

William Munny (Clint Eastwood taking the lead and directing the piece) is an old and retired gunman whose past misdemeanours would make the devil himself seem tame. Widowed and struggling to raise his two children on a paltry farm, he's tempted out of retirement for one last pay dirt job, the consequence of which provides violence - both physically and of the soul.

Clint Eastwood signed off from the Western genre with this magnificent 1992 picture, the appropriation and irony of which is in itself a majestic point of reference. After the script had been knocking around for nigh on twenty years (written by Blade Runner scribe David Webb Peoples), Eastwood seized the opportunity to play William Munney and lay bare the mythologies of the Wild West.

It's striking that the makers here have lured us in to being firmly on Munney's side, we are, incredibly, influenced by Eastwood's part in the history of the Western. In spite of Munney's obvious murky past (despicable crimes they be), we wait (and hope) for Munney to make a quip and way lay the bad guys - in fact salivating at the prospect is probably closer to the truth. So it's with enormous credit that Eastwood, and his magnificent cast and crew, manage to fuddle all our respective perceptions of the West and the characters we ourselves have aged with.

It's not for nothing that W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) is one of the critical characters on show, this even though we didn't expect that to be the case. Beauchamp is a writer of penny pulpy novels that tell of derring-do heroics, gunslingers with a glint in their eye who deal death as some sort of heroic encore. This gives Unforgiven an excellent sleight of hand, for this West is grim and a destroyer of all illusions and it's not controversial to say that this is indeed a good thing.

Eastwood is greatly served by the actors around him, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman (winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for a script he turned down many years before!), Rubinek, Frances Fisher, Anna Thomson, Jaimz Woolvett and an incredible cameo from Richard Harris. Along with Hackman's win for his brutally tough portrayal of Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett, Unforgiven also won Oscars for Eastwood for his clinically tight direction, Best Picture, Best Editing and it was nominated in another five categories. One of those nominations was for Jack Green's cinematography, which now, in this age of High Definition enhanced cinema, can be seen in all its wonderful glory. The Alberta location is magically transformed into the Western frontier, with the orange and brown hues a real treat for the eyes.

Ultimately though, Unforgiven is a lesson in adroit film making, where across the board it works so well. Why? Well because the man at the helm knows this genre inside out, he was after all the sole flag bearer for practically 25 years. He learnt from his peers, and thus Eastwood has crafted a thematically complex piece that for all its violence, debunking and melancholy pulse beats, is a film that is as beautiful as it is most assuredly stark. An incredible and true highlight of modern day cinema, regardless of being a genre fan or not. 10/10

Ford, Hawks, Leone, Peckinpah, all of them big names who have defined the Western genre in one way or another across the history of cinema, transforming what started as low-budget action films into an art itself where the American Old West served as setting for tales of mythical heroism, classic tragedies, and legendary adventures. Actor and Director Clint Eastwood is probably one of the most knowledgeable artists about the Western genre, as his acting career began as the legendary "Man With No Name" in the Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns of the 60s. As a director, he somewhat continued this legacy through movies like "High Plains Drifter" and "Pale Rider", but finally in 1992, Eastwood released what many consider his final ode to the Western, and his ultimate masterpiece of the genre: "Unforgiven", an epic saga about the deconstruction of the Western myths.

Clint Eastwood himself plays William Munny, a former gunslinger who is now living a peaceful life as a farmer with his two children. However, life is very difficult for Munny's family, as since the death of his wife the family has been facing financial problems. One day a young man calling himself "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvett) appears looking for Munny. The Kid tells Munny about a bounty offered in the town of Big Whisky, and offers him the chance to join him as hired gun and split the reward between them. While Munny's days as a murderer are in the past, he decides to join him after thinking about the farm's problems, but not without calling his old friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to join them. However, Munny's past as a notorious thief and murderer will return to haunt him in this last mission, as the Kid shows a true and honest admiration for Munny's fame as a gunslinger, even when Munny himself considers his past as villainous.

While better known for his work in science fiction, David Webb Peoples' screenplay proves to be a very accurate description of life in the American west, particularly concerning the aspects of the uses and abuses of violence in that era. It is in fact the use of violence what comes as the main theme of the story, as Munny is escaping from his past's violence while the Kid is eagerly awaiting the next chance to prove his masculinity by the use of violence. The duality between man and myth is explored not only via the relationship between the Kid and Munny, but also in the shape of a character who writes novels about the wild west, and sees the figure of the gunslinger as an idolized modern hero. Peoples' screenplay is remarkably well written, as the many characters and their relationships are exhaustively explored, resulting in a character driven revisionism of the western, that in many ways criticizes the genre's origins as violent "Shoot 'em up" films.

Peoples' script is definitely the movie's backbone, but it is Eastwood's masterful direction what transforms this meditation of violence into a unique revision of the Western. With a gritty and realistic approach very in tone with the script, Eastwood portraits the Wild West without romanticism and leaving out the mythic aspects of the genre, taking the revisionism of the Western one step beyond. Using Peoples' script, Eastwood takes a critic view on the figure of the "hero" in Westerns, focusing on the image of the gunslinger and the use of violence to solve problems. Visually, Eastwood has crafted his most impressive movie since "Bi