Unforgiven (1992) Review

 

Unforgiven (1992)

Unforgiven follows William Munny, a former gunfighter, who, after a prostitute is left disfigured by a couple of cowboys, comes to collect on a bounty posted by the woman’s fellow workers, clashing with the local sheriff in the process. 

With the 90s came a renewed interest in the Western, a genre practically left to time in 80s. With the release of Unforgiven however, Clint Eastwood takes the well-trodden themes of the Western and infuses them with a grim dose of reality, particularly the elements in which made Eastwood a star to begin with. It’s as if he used the film to rewrite much of the imagery  and bullshit of past Westerns, while also looking for a finality after such a long run of cut and dry stories where there is a clear distinction between good and bad. And it’s at the base of this, beginning where most Westerns end and the credits have rolled, that we’re set up for a redemption tale about a ruthless killer who lost his wife and must come to terms with the life he left behind. 

In many ways, this feels like Eastwood penning a letter to his own past (very meta) one of love and admiration, but also one of growth, mirroring his own life in a way for him to unravel and make amends for the sins of his past. It’s exploration of the aftermath of death and consequences is honestly unheard of because for once, death has repercussions. There isn’t a nameless death in this movie and each meaningful death (or murder) only further defines what will become of these men. Will they change? Or will they revert back to the only thing they’ve ever known and kill because it’s simply what comes easiest? That’s the question that burns far past the rolling of the credits and make this such a thought provoking film. 

We get a fantastic cast here as well, starring Saul Rubinek, Anna Thomson, Frances Fisher, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and Clint Eastwood. While this is clearly Eastwood’s movie (and a swan song of sorts), it’s Hackman who steals every scene in sadistic, riveting fashion, in what would deservedly win him an Oscar for his efforts. 

Unforgiven, directed by Clint Eastwood, is a beautiful ode to a genre of old, shattering the ideals and myths that we have been sold over the years and acting as an anti-violence love letter of sorts, in what is still heralded as one of the greatest revisionist Westerns of all time. 

8.9/10