UNFORGIVEN
A film review by George V. Reilly
Copyright 1992 George V. Reilly
UNFORGIVEN is a film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, from a script by David Webb Peoples. It stars Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek, Frances Fisher, and Anna Thompson. Rated R for violence.
I went to see UNFORGIVEN with fairly high expectations, having heard that it was Eastwood's best picture--as director or star--in years. I wasn't disappointed.
There are no white hats and black hats in this Western; all of the characters wear grey hats, though some hats are darker than others. No character is without flaws. Revenge begets revenge, and brings out the worst in everyone.
Eastwood is Will Munny, a former gunslinger and drunkard, saved eleven years before by the love of a good woman. Freeman plays his old partner, Ned Logan, another killer-turned-farmer. Hackman is Little Bill Daggett, a brutally sadistic sheriff, none too fastidious about how he enforces law and order in his town. Harris plays English Bob, another old killer, with an ego so large that he travels with his own biographer in tow. Woolvett is the Schofield Kid, a callow, bloodthirsty, myopic, would-be bounty hunter, who lures Will and Ned back to being killers. Rubinek is Beauchamp, the fickle biographer who transfers his allegiance from the Duck, er, Duke of Death to Little Bill after the sheriff beats English Bob to a pulp and discloses his feet of clay. Thompson plays Delilah, the scarred young prostitute whose mutilation serves as the starting point for the story. Fisher is Alice, the tough senior prostitute who puts up a bounty for the lives of the two cowboys who cut up Delilah.
For the first hour, the film is somber in tone, leavened with occasional humour: Munny fumbling in the mud of the pigsty, the old killer who can't even get on a horse or shoot straight anymore, and the young killer who can't see more than a few feet. Thereafter UNFORGIVEN becomes much darker, indeed unrelentingly grim, as death follows upon death. If there's any message to be drawn from all of this killing, it's that violence solves nothing; quite the contrast to most of Eastwood's earlier films.
Those who go to UNFORGIVEN in the expectation of seeing a Dirty-Harry-kicks-ass-in-the-West movie will be disappointed. There is violence aplenty, but it is not glorified. When Little Bill starts beating up English Bob or Will Munny, they go down and they stay down, rolling in agony, taking days to recover. When people get shot, they are hurt, and sometimes they die, often with a great deal of noise.
The rest of us will take pleasure in seeing a dark, moral tale, a story of the West as it probably was instead of the simplistic good guys/bad guys tales that Hollywood used to so revel in.
Eastwood excels, both as star and director. His character is old and often pathetic, a washed-up has-been, and quite unglamourous. He progresses from being a somewhat befuddled pigfarmer who has forgotten all of his old killing skills to being a lethal instrument of vengeance after the sheriff kills his longtime partner, all the while staying wholly believable. As a director, he keeps the film focused. There are no wasted scenes and he coaxes fine performances from the rest of the cast.
Hackman too gives a first-class performance. His competent, brutal sheriff commands attention. Little Bill runs the town of Big Whiskey and has no compunctions about discouraging any killers who hope to collect the bounty on the cowboys who cut up the prostitute.
Freeman and Harris are the other two stars of the film who receive top billing, but neither is on screen long enough for my liking. Indeed, English Bob is run out of town before Will, Ned, and the Kid ever get there and is seen no more. While they are present however, they also give of their best.
Woolvett, a newcomer, has a big role as the young would-be killer who discovers too late that he has no stomach for killing, and he makes a good start. Fisher plays the tough, loyal prostitute to perfection, and Rubinek and Thompson are good in their supporting roles.
The photography is worthy of note, particularly that of the countryside and the high country. The film was shot in Alberta, though the story takes place in Wyoming and Kansas.
Recommended. ________________ George V. Reilly
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