For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Revenge Movies, here’s a review of Unforgiven (1992) by me.
Thanks again to Gavin of Mini Media Reviews for choosing this month’s genre.
Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Robb of Red Bezzle and it is Remade Movies.
Love or hate, compare and contrast, and dare to say they’re better. It could be a relocated remake a la The Magnificent Seven, an Animation to Live Action remake similar to The Jungle Book or straight forward reimagining such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Please get me your submissions by the 25th of September by sending them to remaderobb@movierob.net
Try to think out of the box! Great choice Robb!
Let’s see what I thought of this movie:
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“Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it. ” – Will
Number of Times Seen – Between 5 and 10 (Theater 31 Oct 1992, DVD, 10 Jul 2013 and 27 Aug 2017)
Link to original review – Here
Brief Synopsis – Two retired outlaws join up with a young cowboy to avenge the scarring of a woman perpetrated by to drunk cowboys.
My Take on it – Before the early 90’s, most people would never have considered Clint Eastwood as a serious Actor or Director and very few people would have ever expected him to be nominated for Oscars for both roles, multiple times.
This all changed in 1992, when he made this movie.
He was able to transition from being known as just a great western or detective film actor to being seen as one of the best Directors of his generation.
This film is superb is so many ways from the casting choices, the pacing, the cinematography, the minimal use of dialogue and of course for its story and moral.
This is really the anti-Western of all Westerns and the realism resonates the whole way through.
The cinematography is amazing to watch because it is stunning and beautifully shot.
The casting of both Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman in important supporting roles was a great idea.
Both men ended up garnering Best Supporting Oscar awards for films that Eastwood won Best Picture and Director Oscars for; Hackman for this film and Freeman a decade later for Million Dollar Baby (2004).
The deliberate slow pacing of this film works really well to convey storyline as being so important while also allowing us to get to know all of the characters and learning why their paths are necessary for us to want to follow.
The way that this film shows us how the west probably was is great because we get to see so clearly how just like real life, there isn’t always a clear cut right or wrong, just or unjust, it’s all just a mixture of them all.
Bottom Line – Excellent film which is among Eastwood’s best as both Director and Actor. The anti-western aspect of it all plus the realism help make this so enjoyable and stunning to watch. Freeman and Hackman are also both amazing here in supporting roles and its ironic that Eastwood ended up helping both of them eventually win Best Supporting Actor Oscars for roles he directed them in. The slow pace works really well here to help establish the story and the necessity to follow through with the job they agreed to fulfill. Loved the way that they show how the west probably really was and we see that not all is just or unjust but just like real life, it is a mixture of both. Highly Recommended!
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This film put to rest Clint Eastwood’s longstanding statement why he would never win an Oscar. Eastwood reckoned he would never be in the running because “first, I’m not Jewish. Secondly, I make too much money. Thirdly, and most importantly, because I don’t give a f*ck”. Since his double Oscar win for Unforgiven (1992), Eastwood has gone on to win two more Oscars, as well as an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, and has been nominated an additional six times. (From IMDB)
Rating – Oscar Worthy (no change from original review)
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I love this movie. Seen it a number of times myself. Kudos to David Webb Peoples for his terrific script. It has more memorable lines than I can remember (I do remember: “he’s hangin’ onto his shit like it was money”). Never heard that quote from Eastwood. Kind of hoping it’s not all that accurate. If it is – some rather stupid reasoning if he really believed it when he said it. Scorsese’s not Jewish either, made a lot of money – and Eastwood ended up winning Best Director before he did.
The script was around a long time. Always well regarded. At one point, Francis Coppola was interested and had the rights. They lapsed and the screenplay ended up with Eastwood who didn’t want to change a thing – other than wanting to play Bill Muny and thinking he was too young (at the time). So he put the script into a drawer – waited years – and when he thought he had aged properly into the role – took it out – made it – and the rest is history.
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