Unforgiven [Blu-ray]
by Clint Eastwood
![Unforgiven [Blu-ray]](/images/Unforgiven-Blu-ray-B000JLPMPS-L.jpg)
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Blu-ray details
Actor: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Jaimz Woolvett, Morgan Freeman, Richard HarrisDirector: Clint Eastwood
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: David Webb Peoples
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 131 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2006-10-31
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 110811
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired, down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey. Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper, a colorful killer-for-hire called English Bob. And Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand
Blu-ray Reviews of Unforgiven [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: Eastwood's crowning achievement!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had not seen UNFORGIVEN for nearly a decade when I popped in my HD DVD the other night. I'm not sure what made me decide to view it, but I'm very glad I did. Despite all the other "revisionist" Westerns that have come since the time Eastwood's masterpiece won Best Picture at the Oscars...none have managed to equal it.
Recently, critics and audiences alike were saying that Eastwood's role in GRAN TORINO was the culmination of all his previous work and served as a commentary on it as well. I was one of those people. In TORINO, Eastwood's character achieves a kind of grace or redemption. However, one could just as easily conclude that UNFORGIVEN was the final commentary on Eastwood's career, at least in Westerns, by Eastwood himself. And let's put it this way...the film is well named. Eastwood is suggesting that for those with killing in their blood, there is not redemption or grace. Except, perhaps, the grace that comes with acknowledging who you are, no matter how terrible.
In the tiny western town of Big Whiskey, there isn't much to do back in 1880. There's the usual general store, blacksmiths and of course, the local bar/cathouse. Two cowboys from the big ranching organization that is the reason Big Whiskey exists at all come to visit the employees of the cat house, and when one of the ladies makes the mistake of giggling at one of the cowboys, he goes on a rampage and proceeds to cut up her face. The hookers are outraged, and encouraged by their leader (Frances Fisher, in a remarkably fierce performance) scrape their savings together and let it be known to the world that have a reward for anyone who can kill these two cowboys and avenge this brutal act.
One who heeds this call is "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvett), a young braggart with more swagger than experience. His uncle was an old riding companion of William Munny (Eastwood), a "retired" killer...so The Kid looks up this legendary figure to see if he'll go with him on this manhunt. Munny is a widower struggling to raise his two kids on a clearly failing pig farm. His deceased wife had reformed Munny, turning him away from drinking and killing, and towards a calmer more ethical life. However, Munny recognized that he could really use the money, and when The Kid exaggerates the extent of the harm caused to the prostitute...Eastwood uses this as a rationalization to leave his kids behind and join The Kid. They also bring along Munny's old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman)...another killer who has made an effort to settle down and change his life.
Back in Big Whisky, the sheriff Little Bill (Gene Hackman) is obsessed with keeping his town lawful. He has outlawed all guns, yet he metes out justice with the casual cruelness of a psychopath. A well-read, seemingly friendly and reasonable psychopath, to be sure.
UNFORGIVEN is over two hours long, and it allows the inevitable collision between Munny's gang and the sheriff's men to slowly brew. We get to know Munny and Logan during their trek to Big Whiskey in scenes on horseback and around campfires that seem SO terribly clichéd...yet instead, they are full of dry humor, meaningful character development and beautiful scenery. We get to know the terrifyingly bland ferocity of Little Bill as he spends a long, mesmerizing evening with English Bob (Richard Harris), an infamous gun-for-hire who has come to Big Whiskey to accept the prostitutes' challenge. Bob has been accompanied by W.W. Beauchamp, a writer who is serving as Bob's sycophantic biographer. Little Bill crushes the ego of one man (and his body too) and brings the other under his thrall.
In the end, there is much killing and it is in these murders that UNFORGIVEN makes its mark. To say that the film strips the standard western theme of revenge of all its glamour would be to deny the film much of the credit it is due. One scene in particular (I'll try not to spoil it) shows a killing that is as senseless and sad as any you're likely to see. The person killed dies a slow, sad death...and those around him are frankly appalled at the squalidness of what has happened, including the killers.
As the film nears its conclusion, Munny observes: "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have." On paper, this statement sounds true but not particularly brilliant. Trust me, in the film, it resonates and pierces the heart. Never has one line in a film so perfectly captured its own theme. In UNFORGIVEN, when people die, we feel the consequences. Wives that will never see their husbands again. Guilt that will never be washed clean. Words that can never be forgotten, even with the help of booze. Simple pleasures of living a life that will never be enjoyed. Dignity that will be forever lost. Stains that will never clean.
The film holds such power, because Eastwood the Director holds total command of his tone. He fully understands the standard development of a Western and seldom deviates far from it. He shows that simply showing the events of a standard Western through the lens of what it REALLY would have been like strips away all the "good vs. evil, white hats vs. black hats" and leaves you in a murky world where all is shades of gray, and the "good guys" are just a breath away from being the "bad guys." The film has a leisurely pace...it is not an action film. The scenes of violence are quick and blunt. But if you enjoy a film with a strong statement to make and a love of characterization...you'll appreciate UNFORGIVEN. There are moments of wonderful humor, whether around Little Bill's efforts to build his own house or The Kid's efforts to be tough. But for the most part, it is stark and bleak. Never has being stuck in a rainstorm felt so miserable. Yet the land is always beautiful, and it's easy to remember what would have drawn men to this part of the country...the promise that beauty held.
Everyone is outstanding in the film. Richard Harris, for his few minutes on screen, is riveting in the way he absolutely does NOT blend in with everyone around him. Woolvert strikes the right tone of annoying yet somehow sympathetic. Morgan Freeman gives one of his best supporting turns in perhaps the most sympathetic character of the film. Eastwood and Freeman sure have an easy, believable chemistry on film (see MILLION DOLLAR BABY). Gene Hackman certainly deserved his Oscar for this film...what a toweringly great actor he is...yet he never seems to be acting. He's one of the slyest performers we have, an actor who inhabits his characters with seemingly no effort, yet the results, even in poor films make him stand out. And Eastwood gives a performance that is every bit the equal of his work in GRAN TORINO. Over the years, some of his work as an actor and director hasn't always been great. He's got a comfort zone probably shouldn't stray from (yet, as I say that, I remember how remarkably credible he was in BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY)...but when he's in the zone, his work is not only mesmerizing, it is iconic. He has a face that is perfect for the modern western, whether that western takes place in 1880 Big Whiskey or in current day suburbia. Eastwood is an American classic, and UNFORGIVEN ranks among his crowning achievements.
(I mentioned my HD DVD earlier...if you're watching this again someday, please try to treat yourself to the hi-def version if you can. The scenery is absolutely spectacular.)
Description of Unforgiven [Blu-ray]
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired, down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey. Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper, a colorful killer-for-hire called English Bob. And Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand of law enforcement ranges from unconventional to ruthless.Winner of four Academy Awards, including best picture, director, supporting actor, and best editing, Clint Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece stands as one of the greatest and most thematically compelling Westerns ever made. "The movie summarized everything I feel about the Western," said Eastwood at the time of the film's release. "The moral is the concern with gunplay." To illustrate that theme, Eastwood stars as a retired, once-ruthless killer-turned-gentle-widower and hog farmer. He accepts one last bounty-hunter mission--to find the men who brutalized a prostitute--to help support his two motherless children. Joined by his former partner (Morgan Freeman) and a cocky greenhorn (Jaimz Woolvett), he takes on a corrupt sheriff (Oscar winner Gene Hackman) in a showdown that makes the viewer feel the full impact of violence and its corruption of the soul. Dedicated to Eastwood's mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and featuring a colorful role for Richard Harris, it's arguably Eastwood's crowning directorial achievement. The digital video disc offers standard and widescreen formats and a remastered soundtrack. --Jeff Shannon
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