| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Eastwood's Crowning Achievement.
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Mar 21, 2007
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
Clint Eastwood is an American Icon, a seasoned veteran of film and a legend. Here he comes full circle with this haunting and deeply compelling and heartfelt western. Eastwood at this point in his career has nothing to prove and that may be the reason why he was able to create such a masterpiece and continues to create them even well into the new millenium. Unforgiven is a classic western, true to form and is also much more. A meditation on the true meaning of redemption and of what it takes to kill a man and what it means to grow old and be haunted by the past, a past that refuses to go away. You can't teach an old dog new tricks and sometimes deep down, men don't change as hard as they may try. You are what you are. Clint plays Will Munny, a retired gunslinger who's left his whiskey swilling, murderous days in the past to run a meager farm that he can't keep up and raise his two young children. He mourns his departed much loved wife, who he attests changed his ways. When a young, self proclaimed gunslinging killer named the Scoffield Kid on account of his pistol visits Munny's failing ranch with a proposition, well Clint can't pass it up. A couple Cowboys have raped and disfigured a young prostitute and her associated have put up a thousand dollar reward for their capture and murder. Clint could use the money and with his partner Ned, played by an excellent Morgan Freeman - they head to Little Bill's town to apprehend therapists and the loot. They don't plan ahead on a conflict with the sadistic sherrif Little Bill played beautifully by Gene Hackman. This movie, besides being beautifully shot and chock full of excellent supporting roles is a stunning rumination on violence and on right and wrong. There is a stinging irony here that is impossible not to notice as Unforgiven progresses. It is heartbreaking. This is a painful film and it is also a genuine one. Decieving in its simplicity. It is anything but simple. Deserved every Oscar that was awarded to it. Eastwood's explosion of violence in the finale is one of the most emotional and rousing of his long career. This is possibly his best film ever and also one of the best films ever made, western or otherwise. A modern classic. Four Stars. |
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