Unreviewed

When Westerns started they were violent and cruel, like The Great Train Robbery (1911), short sweet and packed with cops shooting bandits, bandits shooting cops, and an explosion here and there. Then dialogue came, and Westerns (like the real west) were tamed a bit. Then a man by the name of Sergio Leone teamed up with a young T.V. actor named Clinton Eastwood Jr. (coming off Rawhide). Leone had an idea, take the samurai classic Yojimbo (1961) and move it to the west. The result, of course, was A Fistful of Dollars (1964), one of the most influential westerns of all time. The same tones and themes would carry on through the rest of the "Dollars" trilogy, and then Eastwood would adopt a similar style for his own directorial attempts, such as High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and then his most acclaimed Western, Unforgiven (1992)


Unforgiven is obviously a post-Dollars, post-Wild Bunch (1969) Western, with real cussing and real violence, no beautiful vistas and "pure hero" John Wayne types riding in to save the day from marauding Indians. The men portrayed here are truer to that of the real west, violent despicable people trying to use the west as a refuge from civilization. And yet, in all this is a man trying to reform from his past: William Munny (Clint Eastwood). If you've read Old Man Logan, you know the character type. A man who used to be violent, meets a nice young lady and reforms... actually, that sounds an awful lot like the Saint of Killers mini from Preacher, now that I think about it.


There are also a few story lines that start separately, but get twisted into one solid yarn. There is that of Munny, hired by a young man to seek vengeance on a violent cowboy who cut up a member of the worlds oldest profession. The girls "lover" comes across Munny and get's him (literally) back in the saddle to serve as gun for hire to get vengeance. But, no man can go it alone in a western, Munny's first stop is to Little Bill Dagget (the demi god Morgan Freeman) the two agree for one last hoorah and are off on the war path.


Then there is the tale of Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman in an Oscar winning role), the sheriff of Big Whiskey. His tale is mainly noted by the English Bob arc, an unnecessary series of scenes with Richard Harris as a gun fighter from England with the reward on his mind. The Bob character could have been omitted, and doesn't serve the plot in any way at all.


The acting is all top notch, with Eastwood receiving a Best Actor nom, Hackman receiving the Oscar, and Freeman being Freeman... but the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) is the weak link. I mean, it's probably not so much his acting as it is the way he was written. But he's very one dimensional. He's cocky, arrogant, plagued with hubris, and a big ego. Yes, I know those all mean the same thing... because that's all he is. I was a little let down by this character, because the rest of the cast is fleshed out beautifully, but he is just a cheeky buggar. Well, let me retract that,with 20 minutes to go in the movie, he does show some remorse and humility... but in a 2 hour movie 20 minutes isn't much.


All in all this is a damn fine movie, probably Eastwood's best (acting) movie. The story (with the exception of English Bob) is superb and ranks high amongst the best Westerns ever committed to film, probably making my top 5.

Dr. Brooklyn says: LIKE this movie (10/10)