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Unforgiven

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman
Director: Clint Eastwood
Genre: Western
Year: 1992
Rating: 4 / 5

Clint Eastwood was a Hollywood legend, well into the twilight of his career, when Unforgiven stormed through the Academy Awards in the early nineties. A career that took off three decades prior with A Fistful of Dollars reached its pinnacle with Unforgiven's Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, not to mention a nomination for Best Actor. Eastwood has always been a "guy's guy," and his westerns are the legacy that he will leave for his devout fans. This 1992 offering might not be his best achievement - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly tops many critics' lists - but it is certainly one of his finest. Eastwood returns to what he does best, and the sterling results speak for themselves.

Clint Eastwood made his reputation as The Man With No Name, a role her perfected in his earliest spaghetti westerns and carried through the years. Even though he did receive considerable fame for his Dirty Harry films, Eastwood will forever be considered - along with John Wayne - as a pioneer of the western. In Unforgiven, Eastwood takes his trademark role to the next level. William Munny is a widowed father and a retired gunfighter, raising his two young children on a quiet farm. Into his life rides a young gunfighter, spreading tales of an assaulted woman and a huge reward. Before long, Munny decides that the quiet life is not for him, so he saddles up and heads after the young gunslinger.

Munny's journey is meant to show that one's inner self cannot be denied, that one's true nature will invariably reveal itself. He speaks often of how his late wife got him to turn away from "wickedness," be he seems to say it more from repetition than belief. Given the chance to resume the life he left behind, Munny leaves his young family and unleashes his true self. Along the way, Munny reunites with riding buddy Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), another grizzled veteran who wonders if he still has a mean streak in him. When the three men finally track down the pair of men responsible for assaulting the aforementioned woman, they run into Little Bill (Gene Hackman), the local sheriff. He is not about to let a gang of hired guns disrupt the fragile peace in his quiet town.

Star / director / producer Clint Eastwood is truly in his element here, choosing a more sobering perspective rather than the usual glamorization of the gunfighter lifestyle. The days are long, the nights wet and rainy, and the killing anything but easy. William Munny is a man who once lived this lifestyle, one who returns not for fulfillment, but because it is the only way he has ever known. Gene Hackman's Little Bill is a strong-armed lawman, willing to exert a little extra force in order to maintain order. His gruff performance earned him a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Unforgiven is a journey into the mind of a screen legend, taking one last ride across the cinematic landscape he helped shape.

Cast:

Certification: Rated R for violence.
Running Time: 131 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
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