# Unforgiven (1992)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    Unforgiven (1992)

    Grade: 95

"Unforgiven" was a long time in coming. The script was written by David Webb Peoples in 1976. Eventually, the rights were acquired by Clint Eastwood, who waited to film it until he had aged enough to match the lead character. Certainly, "Unforgiven" was worth the wait: Eastwood won both Best Picture and Best Director, and was nominated for Best Actor.

Eastwood plays William Munny, formerly a notorious drunk, train robber and killer. He later married a woman who reformed him. Smallpox left him a widower, and he struggles to raise two adorable children (Shane Meier and Aline Levasseur) by scratching out a living as a pig farmer.

Meanwhile, two cowboys (David Mucci and Rob Campbell) disfigure a young prostitute (Anna Thomson) in the town of Big Whiskey. The tough local sheriff Little Bill (Gene Hackman) merely fines the men, with the fine payable to the prostitute's humorless owner (Anthony James). Outraged, the other prostitutes pitch together a $1,000 reward payable upon the murder of the two cowboys.

With his farming enterprise failing, Munny is enticed to collect the bounty by a near-sighted, boasting, would-be gunman (Jaimz Woolvett). Munny also convinces his old friend Ned (Morgan Freeman). The three arrive at Big Whiskey, but have a run-in with Little Bill, whose definition of law-and-order does not include roaming hired gunmen. The brutal sheriff has already disposed of one mercenary, English Bob (Richard Harris), taking his pulp writer sidekick Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) for good measure.

"Unforgiven" was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning four. Gene Hackman won Best Supporting Actor, and Joel Cox won for editing. The screenplay, the cinematography (Jack Green), the sets and the sound were also nominated.

For once, the Academy had picked a film fully worthy of Best Picture. "Unforgiven" not only revitalized the Western epic, but gave it a human face and memorable characters. Except for the climatic showdown, "Unforgiven" depicts a West filled with characters who are neither heroes or villains, and with flaws that are all too obvious.

The film also makes a statement about personal redemption: despite the protestations by Eastwood's character that he is reformed, his actions prove otherwise. The conversations between Little Bill and the pulp writer dismiss the myth of the West, which is restored by Eastwood in his big showdown.

kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

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