Unforgiven (1992)

Must See Movie...

A different way of telling a story

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

After a couple of drunken cowboys cut up a prostitute in the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming Sheriff 'Little Bill' Daggett decrees that they must give the owner of the brothel a few horses as compensation for lost earnings... the other women do not think this is enough so combine their money and let it be known that they will pay $1,000 to anybody who kills the cowboys. A young man calling himself the 'Schofield Kid' hears of this and approaches retired gunslinger and general ne'er-do-well William Munny proposing that they kill the cowboys for the reward. Munny has renounced his wicked past, thanks to his late wife, but needs the money to raise his two children so reluctantly accepts. Along the way he picks up his old partner Ned Logan.In the mythology of the west the sheriff stood up for the downtrodden, the heroes didn't draw first and they certainly didn't have difficulty getting on a horse! That is somewhat different here; our hero was certainly a very bad man in his youth and while he is now a more moral man desperation leads him to kill again. The way the myth and the reality differ are perfectly illustrated during a conversation between Little Bill and a writer working on the biography of a gunslinger when Bill explains what really happened during one particularly famous shootout. We see the West as a cruel place where might is right and the good don't always win. Our 'heroes' don't call out the villains; they ambush them when they least expect it. The story is well presented with Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman doing great jobs as old gunmen Munny and Logan. Gene Hackman is equally impressive as Little Bill. There a decent amount of action and even a few genuinely funny moments. Overall I'd say that this is a must see for fans of the Western genre.

This is most likely the best film ever made. By that, I mean we might all have our individual favorite films, but if we all got together and came to a vote then my bet is it would be this one. Eastwood has surely the most monumental, consistently excellent body of work in the history of cinema. He has both acted and directed at a level that sets the bar for generations to come. Nobody else creates films with the narrative grace and thoughtfulness that seems to come effortlessly to every one of his works. This man is truly a hero and a legend.

Clint Eastwood gets to play Clint Eastwood in a film directed by Clint Eastwood. He gets to be Clint Eastwood during the 90's, a slower less dynamic version of him, with a bit more maturity and humility, and a more flawed vulnerable iteration of the Eastwood character, therefor more realistic. The whole film is really a buildup where the story acts as a framework for his returning to form as the mighty Clint Eastwood gradually throughout the development, the ultimate Western badass with a grin, tough guy one-liners and an attitude every guy secretly wishes he could adopt for just a single situation in their life, once.Morgan Freeman helps the film's cause, so does Hackman and Eastwood does as well as always himself, and in this sort of film the acting and the actors' physiques are at the forefront and essential. The story is actually pretty well told, it's not profound but it's got a couple of relevant life lessons. It's a little long for its own good though, with some slower parts especially in the first half. Two hours and ten minutes for this story is probably a bit too much, although it isn't quite as vacant as some long films are. This has pretty good content and develops into a few scenes interesting in their own right, and relevant sub-pots.All in all, it does seem like a film made by a Western buff a bit infatuated with the style and its atmosphere and details, but it's well made enough that it's a pretty good watch for the more casual movie-goer not necessarily obsessed with the genre.7/10.

Unforgiven, a film directed by Clint Eastwood, holds a dark, brooding atmosphere that instead of holding a glamorizing gloom in the atmosphere of the movie it seems to be a regretful and honest gloom which isn't common with a lot of movies, and this subtle little thing is what makes Unforgiven one of the better films you will watch in your life. William Munny decays through his age as he reflects as a farmer on his regretful, haunting, violent past and whether or not he has changed or not, a cold-blooded killer that used to kill women and children for the sake of cruelty. In this film, William Munny one day has a person named as the Schofield kid entering his farm and asking him to go with him to achieve a 1,000$ reward, but in order to achieve that award the Schofield kid has to kill two cowboys named Quick Mike and "Davey-Boy" Bunting because of them disfiguring a prostitute. William is then told by the Schofield kid that the reason why he was being asked to help him was because of the rumour the Schofield kid heard about him being a cold-blooded killer, but William is convinced that he is not the same person as he was and refuses to help him. But some days later as the thought of returning to his old ways crosses his mind, William decides to achieve the reward of 1,000$ with the Schofield kid and sets off on his horse to find him, and along with him he brings an old partner named Ned Logan in order to achieve the reward. But as William Munny goes in the process of achieving it, he realizes his haunting decay as he sees disturbing hallucinations and remembers innocent people that he murdered inconsiderably, and so William dissolves a recognized darkness into his soul that slowly increases as the film goes along.The performances by Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jaimz Woolvett and Gene Hackman are all according to character and both remain stable and loyal to the characters themselves and fully replicating themselves as if they were them with changes in emotion, posture, voice and personality. The characters that these actors play are incredibly good because they have personality traits that can be considered good or bad depending on what kind of viewer you are, and instead of simply giving them pros and cons they are given realistic traits that people can have an opinion on themselves, and the film itself never forces opinions down our throats and lets us see things our own way. The characters develop the film throughout just as well as the storyline does as we get to know the characters of the film as if they were our own friends, and with every scene we quietly get to know new things out the characters we are seeing with almost each scene they are in. The editing carries the development of the film all through into a carefully patient experience, and the film never uses too much lying sentimentality but with honest yet quiet emotion that unrecognizably gazes into your soul in a subtle yet powerful way. The film contains all of the key ingredients for a drama tone to please Drama movie fans and the key ingredients for a western tone to please Western movie fans, but what makes this film good is the fact that it never uses overused clichés from the genres and the film can work on it's own rather than in a 2$ box set. Some will root constantly for the character of William Munny and some will constantly hate for the character of William Munny while others will not know what to think about him, and in my horrible opinion that is what all film characters should be like: ones that you can discuss over at any time of the day and whether they are good or not. Unforgiven is a real treat and it is a big shame that most movies cannot be like this with golden, crisp cinematography, realistic characters, captivating storyline and tense moments. Before I complemented how the film holds a greatly quiet, shameful dark atmosphere instead of a boasting one, and the problem with a lot of movies is that they boast about the violence in them. If you had to watch your last movie, this would probably be a good one, and I think anybody who says that about a film proves how much of a masterpiece it is. 10/10, well done Clint.