Listed as one of
the best Western films ever, Unforgiven boasts a barrel of actors all making
sure that their screen time is not wasted. Clint Eastwood is going to go down
in the record books as one great moviemaker because of this flick. The timing
of the movie is just right at every turn, and the plot is rich with enough
events to keep you glued. The movie also boasts fine shots— I liked the
cinematography, and the thought of a bunch of washed-out old men just trying to
get a whiff of victory again was too much fun to pass up.
It is the third
Western to win a Best Picture award at the Oscars, and it is ranked fourth in
the best American films in the Western genre on the American Film Institute's
"AFI's 10 Top 10" list.
The initial
concept of this film was conceived in 1976, but Eastwood delayed the project,
partly because he wanted to wait until he was old enough to play his character.
This was Eastwood’s last Western, and it was both a critical and box office
success.
The movie's plot
is about a town where Sheriff ‘Little Bill’ (Gene Hackman) is trying to
maintain peace. Some notorious cowboys go to a whorehouse and cut a prostitute.
Little Bill implements justice in the way he feels best, but the prostitutes
want to deal with the cowboys themselves, as they feel revenge is the best way
to handle the situation. Putting money together, they place a bounty on the
cowboys’ heads. Aging gunslinger and murderer William Munny (Clint Eastwood)
hears about the bounty and decides to give killing one more go.
Munny was a
reformed man, who left his murderous ways behind all because of the love he had
for his young wife. But his wife is dead, and Munny is struggling with farm
life and raising two children. So, chasing after the bounty seemed like a good
idea to him, and he called his old comrade Ned (Morgan Freeman), and they went
after the cowboys.
Unforgiven won
four Academy Awards that year: Best Picture (Clint Eastwood), Best Director
(Clint Eastwood), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Hackman), and Best Film
Editing. Clint Eastwood himself was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Al
Pacino for Scent of
a Woman.
If you haven’t gotten a taste of this classic movie, maybe it’s high time you did. Unforgiven is a wonderful movie to have in your DVD collection. The acting was second to none, and the script was as funny as it was thrilling.
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