The Movie Room

Unforgiven 1992, directed by Clint Eastwood

Rating: 10/10

Unforgiven is the first of two movies directed by Clint Eastwood to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and it is also on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 best American films. It is a Western about how the West is a dying dream told from the perspectives of mostly old and dying cowboys (or cowboy wannabes). 

I grew up watching this movie, so I don’t know what to really say about it beyond just gushing about how much I love it. It was probably my first exposure to Clint Eastwood as an actor (and also director, though that didn’t really matter to me back then), and his portrayal of William Munny is how I always think of him. A lot of his subsequent films have also been about old men contemplating their own deaths after the deaths of their loved ones (Hey there, Gran Torino!) but Munny is not really the prototypical Eastwood grump. Instead of just wanting kids to stay off his lawn before reluctantly giving in and showing himself to have a heart of gold, Munny is admittedly a terrible man who has repented for his sins and saw his relationship as a way to atone and now that his wife has died is using this new avenging task as another way to repent. I enjoy grumpy Eastwood (looking at you, Cry Macho), but this more complex reckoning of age and guilt and regret really sticks with me.

The other characters also are all played to perfection. When I watched and loved this movie when I was younger, I thought some of the supporting cast was unnecessary, but still enjoyed their parts; now I see their thematic value and love them even more. Morgan Freeman is the main partner of Clint Eastwood and he is fantastic as always, and sets the way for their great re-pairing in Eastwood’s next Best Picture winner Million Dollar Baby. Jaimz Woolvett as the Schofield Kid is the youngest member of the main trio, and as an actor he does great along those two heavyweights, even as his characters cracks start to show. Richard Harris as English Bob and Saul Rubinek as W. W. Beauchamp, Bob’s biographer, are the two main characters that I didn’t fully embrace before that now have some of my favorite scenes. They never really interact with the main trio, but their story of how cowboy narratives are told and based on lies and manipulations just really sells everything Eastwood is trying to say—I would gladly watch another movie or a whole TV series about them. Frances Fisher as Strawberry Alice, the spokeswoman amongst the group of prostitutes, and Anna Thomson as the prostitute that needs to be avenged are also great, which is awesome since Eastwood’s films can occasionally fail their female characters (but more on that later…). I cannot end, though, without pointing out Gene Hackman as Sheriff Little Bill Daggett; he is terrifying. Gene Hackman is an amazing actor, but I think that this is my favorite of his many memorable performances. Whenever the sheriff enters the scene, I immediately get tense and worried, no matter how many times I’ve seen this film—he truly is one of the most memorable filmic villains for me.

This blog has just been praising all the directors, but Unforgiven is also a masterpiece in all other departments. But I’m biased—this has been a comfort movie to me since such a young age despite being about old age, as evidenced by how worn the box for my copy is.