Unforgiven
Unforgiven is a well respected and highly awarded western starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and Morgan Freeman released in 1992. Somehow this film was still on my cinematic bucket list but as I am in the middle of playing Red Dead Redemption (a well respected and highly awarded western video game, 2010) and it was Clint’s birthday recently (May 31st), I decided to head out west. The script had floated around for nearly 20 years before it was made, Gene Hackman even passed on it (for the lead role) before Clint made a push to make it. Filming took place in Alberta including Calgary, Drumheller, and Brooks, (except for one sequence, including an active train in California) and Clint wrote the score of the film himself. Clint selected a great choice as his last western film, as it went on to win 4 Oscars for editing, supporting actor (Gene), directing (Clint), and best picture, (it was also nominated for 4 more, Clint’s acting, sound, writing, and art direction/set decoration). Westerns do not often win best picture Oscars, the only other 3 are Cimarron (1931), Dances With Wolves (1990), and No Country For Old Men (2007).
After a woman is violently hurt and a bounty put on two cowboys, a team set off to get the payday and encounter some challenges of old west justice. Clint’s character could’ve been written about him personally, as he plays a retired gunslinger (I thought of his entire career every time they reference his earlier years, especially during the prologue/epilogue) who tries to do right by his family. He simply needs to stand in front of the camera to appear cinematically, as the weight of the years and squinting into all of those suns carved his rugged good looks. What better friend than a sharp shooting Morgan Freeman, who was retired and extremely dangerous even in the early 1990’s. Sheriff Gene Hackman, who has been in his share of motion pictures, easily made the audience believe he could rival Clint which helps make the film whole by having that balance. I am still learning to appreciate editing in Clint’s films but there is no doubt to the skill of sets built, lighting, and cinematography. The western town which glows at night, some faces lit with candles, and the establishing shots of the mountains and farm house were made for wide screen presentations, (the silhouette scenes would make great screen savers). I watched the film on dvd but there is now a 4k version available in this, the film’s 25th anniversary year.
1992, 14A, 2h 11m
Distributor – Warner Bros.
Budget – $14 million
Cast & Crew
Writer David Webb Peoples cowrote the screenplay for Blade Runner (1982 adapting Philip K. Dick’s novel), Fatal Sky (1990) and would next write Hero (1992 starring Dustin Hoffman). Director and star Clint Eastwood had similar duties prior to Unforgiven in The Rookie (1990 with Charlie Sheen), and would next do both for A Perfect World (1993 with Kevin Costner), and simply star in In the Line of Fire (1993 with John Malkovich). Gene Hackman was previously in Company Business (1991 with dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov) and would next appear in The Firm (1993 starring Tom Cruise). Morgan Freeman was previously in The Power of One (1992 with Stephen Dorff) and would next be nominated for a best actor Oscar for The Shawshank Redemption (1994 with Tim Robbins).
Links
IMDB – 8.2
Spoilers
(please do not continue reading if you have not seen the movie and do not want to read a spoiler)
I appreciated how they acknowledged Clint’s character’s coming out of retirement and giving him challenges to face (drinking, gunslinging) and not making him the perfect killing machine (although he does get it done). They even went so far as to embarrass him when introducing him (falling in mud chasing pigs), repeatedly falling off horses throughout the film, and also say he isn’t the same anymore. Morgan and The “Schofield Kid” (Jaimz Woolvett) both have issues with killing, making this more of a character study of what happens to gunslingers, not something often shown in westerns. Some of the cuts made me feel like I missed a scene, like when you are following one set of characters, then it jumps to the 3 heroes shooting a cowboy, I felt like I didn’t know they were that close and ready to take the next step. The film didn’t always wait to establish every piece of action, it seemed to pop up organically like the film is moving along in real time, much like the shoot outs themselves which always felt so intimate and real. This film takes the time to introduce each (mostly) main character with a scene of their own, like introducing English Bob (Richard Harris). It makes me care about who is populating the film (even if Bob never met Clint or Morgan), sets the pacing (not going to rush, builds interest), and makes the 2 hour plus film feel more epic. With little amount of music playing, (usually just during transitions, you really hear the wheat blowing in the wind) and along with the sometimes brief dialogue, (Clint can convey a lot with a one word response), the tension is built and grows. A celebration of all western movies, it was fitting that this movie was remade in Japan (2013 starring Ken Watanabe) after one of Clint’s most famous westerns, (A Fistful of Dollars, 1964) being a remake of the classic Japanese film Yojimbo (1961).