About Unforgiven (1992)
Unforgiven is a modern classic that “summarizes everything I feel about the Western,” director/star Clint Eastwood told the Los Angeles Times. This American Film Institute Top-100 American Movies selection rode off with four 1992 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman) and Editing (Joel Cox). Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty. Richard Harris is an ill-fated killer-for-hire. And Hackman is a lawman of sly charm…and chilling brutality. Unforgiven is “a Western for the ages” (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times).
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Runtime: 131 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
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Review: Unforgiven
Clint Eastwood has become better known behind the camera in recent years and remains one of Hollywood’s enduring legends. Back in the early nineties he directed this Oscar-winning Western, one I had heard heavily praised but shamefully one film I had never seen before. My favorite Western is Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West so I was eager to see if Unforgiven could surpass that masterpiece.
The film begins in a brothel in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, where prostitute Delilah (Anna Levine) is brutally attacked and knifed across the face by two cowboys Quick Mike (David Mucci) and Davey Boy Bunting (Rob Campbell). Rather than have the men killed, local law enforcer Sheriff Daggett (Gene Hackman) stuns the prostitutes by having the cowboys compensate the brothel owner with livestock. The prostitutes, led by Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), put up a reward of $1,000 to any man that will kill Mike and Bunting. A trio of men step forward to claim the reward, one of them being William Munny (Clint Eastwood), a former outlaw now retired family man who is lured into picking up a gun one last time for the reward.
The opening reels offer some brief background to Munny and how his wife tamed his savage heart and made him a family man before leaving him a widower. When we first meet Munny he is struggling to keep his livestock alive despite the help of his two children. Munny is visited at his Kansas pig farm by the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) who tells him of the reward in Wyoming. Munny refuses to join the Kid but he later changes his mind at the thought of how the reward money can help his family. Munny invites his friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) along and they hook up with the Kid to claim the reward money.
Big Whiskey is not the easiest place to visit for our intrepid trio. Sheriff Daggett is keen to maintain order whatever the cost and makes short work of another opportunist, English Bob (Richard Harris), who is humiliated after being forced to surrender his weapons to the local authorities as all cowboys have to. It turns out that Munny, Logan and the Kid are not the most ideal candidates to take out the two notorious cowboys. Though Munny has a violent past, he now steers clear of alcohol and struggles to fire a gun given the many years since he was a criminal. The Kid, confident at the outset, soon reveals that he is a novice at this game, while Logan is also far from at his peak. The question is can the trio complete their task and bag the reward money or will they fall foul of Sheriff Daggett?
Unforgiven is a solid tale of justice and revenge as the prostitutes defy the law to avenge their scarred friend. A great cast are on offer here with Eastwood a standout as Munny whose violent past comes back to life as he is immersed deeper into the deadly task of killing the two cowboys. Hackman is also good as the strict but sometimes corrupt Sheriff Daggett. The ending is somewhat abrupt, which is a shame and the ease with which Munny goes from an uncertain and struggling old man to an accurate and bloodthirsty killer may be a bit of a stretch but it’s still worth watching.
I’m not sure I would have given Unforgiven an Oscar. It’s a solid Western that ticks many of the boxes and Eastwood is great as leading actor and director. I still prefer Sergio Leone in the Western field but Eastwood is a valuable part of this genre and Unforgiven simply cemented his reputation.
Verdict: 4/5
(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)
Film Review: Unforgiven | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
