UNFORGIVEN, Warner Bros, 1992.
Dir. Clint Eastwood. Perf. Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman. Review by Dominic
With his beloved wife deceased and his mad dog days behind him, William Munny (Eastwood) has fallen upon hard times as a pig farmer on the outskirts of Big Whiskey, Wyoming in what may be the darkest of Clint Eastwood's (admittedly pretty dark) Westerns. For a share in the thousand dollar reward and against his better judgment he accepts the offer of a cocky young upstart (Jaimz Woolvett) to help him kill the man who mutilated a local prostitute. Munny's return to the dubious pursuits his wife had turned him from sees him joined by neighbor and old friend Ned (Freeman), a peaceable type who wonders if they've still got the goods (or bads) to complete such a job.
The show-boating sheriff of Big Whiskey, "Little Bill" (Hackman), however, has heard all about the bounty and is hell bent on keeping the town free of the characters it attracts.
Unforgiven's revisionist introspection isn't quite as original as its more fervent admirers claim, and its cynical treatment of old West hero-worship, loyalty, cock-sure ambition and male self-destruction will be familiar to anyone who has followed the Western since 1960. In fact, one of the film's most apparently subversive suggestions, that the victimized women are really as ruthless as the villains but lack the agency or self-regard to put their fury in motion, had already been communicated, and better, by Henry King's The Gunfighter from 1950. Unforgiven's great strength, however, is not its ceaseless, often too clearly spelled out revisionism, but the tremendous sense of desolation it brings to its vision of the West and the failed rushes at identity made by the men who live there. Like Eastwood's other films High Plains Drifter (1973) and Pale Rider (1985), there is something deeply foreboding—apocalyptic, even—about Unforgiven, duly indicated by the religious overtones of its title. Although it is a bigger success than those films for the effectiveness with which it is able to communicate both the humanity and bloodthirst of its fascinating, fully realized characters.
The storm finally breaks toward the film's conclusion, and the final encounter between grizzled gunslinger Munny and the no-nonsense sheriff provides one of the most poignant, dreadful and exhilarating scenes in the genre's history. A powerful, thoughtful film and essential viewing for Western devotees and casual viewers alike.
The storm finally breaks toward the film's conclusion, and the final encounter between grizzled gunslinger Munny and the no-nonsense sheriff provides one of the most poignant, dreadful and exhilarating scenes in the genre's history. A powerful, thoughtful film and essential viewing for Western devotees and casual viewers alike.