When two rowdy, cruel cowboys beat up and disfigure
a prostitute, a retired gunman, William Munny, his former partner,
Ned (Morgan Freeman) and "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz
Woolvett) are hired by a madam to kill them for $500.00. Because
times are hard, and he desperately is trying to support his
children, Munny reluctantly leaves his farm and children, and
hunts them down, along with the other gunmen out to do the deed
and collect the bounty. The film builds to a showdown between
an evil sheriff and the almost as evil gunman.
Eastwood and Hackman are particularly good. Eastwood's dour
killer shows a depth and maturity that only comes with growth
and age.
Hackman, as Little Bill Daggett, the evil, brutal sheriff, delivers
one of the best of his smiling villain characters, a character
type he's perfected over the years. Hackman, who won a Best
Supporting Oscar for his performance, had to be strongly persuaded
by Eastwood to take the role. It is said that the violence in
the script originally turned Hackman off.
The rest of the cast is uniformly good. Morgan Freeman, as Ned
Logan, and Francis Fisher, as Strawberry Alice, makes particularly
strong impressions.
My favorite scene is Eastwood's climactic shoot out with Hackman.
The action is quick and fatal, the room dark and crowded. The
scene, playing like a morality fable set in the Old West, is
powerful, with mythological undertones.
"Unforgiven" offers great filming of the stark Western
scenes. Jack N. Green is the responsible party.
The film is a future classic because of the moving way the film
examines the morality, and repercussions, of violence and death.
"Unforgiven" is a great memorable Western. In addition
to the specific story it's telling, it, in some ways, is a commentary
on all film Westerns that have come before.
Eastwood has said the film IS in some ways a response, and a
reflection, upon the ease with which characters he played in
the past, like The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry, killed
people without blinking. As Eastwood has matured as a filmmaker,
so have his films, focusing on such personal subjects as jazz
("Bird") and romance for the older set, ("The
Bridges of Madison County").
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