Customer Reviews

Unforgiven [HD DVD]

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There are a plethora of reviews of the movie, but my review is mostly a comparison of the BD vs DVD version. I won't discuss its merits as a western, which is a classic and worthy of 5 stars. This BD disk is 3 stars for its technical quality.

The BD version is worth buying if you don't own the 2 disk special edition, which has the better DVD transfer, and cost more, even after discounts! But if you own the better DVD version and are looking to own the best version for home viewing, hold on.

While the audio is crisp and clear, there is no magic in its mastering or imaging, its just clearer sound than the DVD.

The BD transfer is generally sharp, but there are moments so dull, I thought I was running the DVD version. The high resolution of BD removes jaggies seen in diagonal lines and pixelation revealed by DVD resolution projected into a large HDTV, but this BD's colors are often washed out, and edges of objects blurred. This lack of resolution is much worse in the night scenes including the finale scene, and is 80% less during daylight shots. Some of the daylight shots do appear as blurry as the night shots. Unlike better BD out there, overall the background elements do not have more striking detail over the DVD. By comparison, a stellar transfer exists even in old movies. If you are a fan of WWII airplanes, see the 1969 'Battle of Britain' or the classic 2001: Space Odyssey.

However, if you don't own the 2 disk set, this BD disk incorporates all the extras of the 2 disk set into one disk, and a better buy than the original DVD release.

"Unforgiven" is much more than a breathtaking Western, it's an amazing film altogether. With elements of drama and film noir, this is a picture that shows us that there are some demons you can never put to rest, no matter how hard you try.

Clint Eastwood stars as William Munny, a once notorious and violent killer and thief. If Munny didn't like you, chances were that you wouldn't live long enough for him to tell you so. However, that was in the old days. Now, he's just a quiet and tired farmer who is a devoted father still in mourning of his dead wife. He's been straight for years and is trying to put all of his demons to rest, but you still get the feeling that no matter how hard he tries, he will always be haunted. An opportunity comes to him in the name of `The Schofield Kid.' He gives him a chance to be his partner and have him help on a bounty. Knowing that the money could help his family out, Munny finally decides to take the Kid up on the offer. He also brings with him Ned Logan; an old friend and partner. Little Bill Daggett is the Sheriff in town, and the thing he hates most are assassins. He will do anything in his power to take care of them and make sure they do not succeed on their killing. The last remaining part of the film stands out the most and is so well executed that it catches you off guard.

This really is a great film and it surprised me like I would've never expected. I don't like Westerns all that much, but this isn't your typical Western. That is probably why I enjoyed it so much. There is so much story and character development. You really are able to sympathize with Munny, despite his dark and violent past. You want him to be able to get on with his life and forget the past, although you know deep down that things will never be put to rest, and agreeing to go on this bounty only increases the chance of Munny returning back to his old ways. This isn't a Western where the line between good guys and bad guys are clear and the storyline is simple; good guy kills bad guys and gets the girl in the end. No, you won't find any of this here. In this story there are no clear good guys or bad guys, just regular people. This is a real story with real characters that you can feel for. There is a huge issue of morality that takes place, which is something you don't see much in Westerns.

Not only does Eastwood do a terrific job in acting, he also does an amazing job as director. He's a man with vision, and who more qualified to direct a film of this magnitude. I don't think the film would had been as successful had it been done by someone else. The cast is also outstanding. Morgan Freeman really does his role justice. Gene Hackman spreads fear inside of you as the mean and tough Sheriff. Richard Harris also deserves mention for his part as well. (He is sorely missed. He was a very gifted actor.) Everyone really did great in their roles and really knew how to bring the film together.

This new DVD edition really does the movie justice. Though it may not have the most special features, the one feature that stands out the most is the new digital transfer that really makes the picture look crystal clear. The sound is also very impressive as well. Special features included are as follows: Audio commentary by Film Critic and Eastwood Biographer Richard Schickel, Eastwood film highlights, awards list, trailer, and 4 documentaries.

"Unforgiven" is really a spectacular film that deserved the Academy Awards for "Best Picture" and "Best Director." And it is a true masterpiece in my eyes. I think anyone who is a lover of films should give this one a try. Remember, you do not have to be a Western fan to enjoy this, because I am certainly not one. Some people may be disappointed in the lack of action or shoot-outs, but the film is about so much more. It's about morals and trying to put the past to rest. It's also about accepting who you are and that there are some things you will never be able to change, no matter how hard you try. This will end up being one of my favorites in no time. I was very surprised, indeed.

Unforgiven is clearly among the top westerns ever made. This movie is simple, dark and yet highly complex in its superb script and the outstanding performances by all concerned. Few westerns will draw you into the lead characters as this one does. Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and the sorely missed Richard Harris all deserved awards for their collective performances. What is a western without Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman!

The premise:

Welcome to Big Whiskey Wyoming, where in a small "billiards" saloon, a cowboy gets angry at a whore and, with the help of his buddy, cuts her face up. The other "women" of the establishment, pool their money and start telling everybody that they're offering a reward to whoever kills these two young cowboys. This is precipitated by Gene Hackmans character Little Bill, who essentially doesn't punish them for their crime.

Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, who in his earlier days was every bit one of the worst, meanest gunslingers in the west. Some ten years prior to the events at the beginning of this fine film, William Munny met his wife Claudia, who turned this serious gunslinger into a family man, unfortunately for him and his little children, his wife died three years prior. He is now a poor pig farmer, with two little children.

The son of one of his old riding buddies has heard about this reward and seeks out William Munnys assistance in tracking down these unpunished criminals. After some hesitation, he seeks out his friend Ned, played by Morgan Freeman, one of the finest actors of our day. The three of them head north to seek out the reward.

What follows is clearly a movie that while, for the better part is melodramatic; it is that melodrama that is gripping. All those who received accolades for this fine film, richly deserved those accolades.

This exceptional film that graced the silver screen so beautifully and then the home theater, deserves a hallowed place on ones DVD rack and is perfectly well suited to repeated viewings. I highly recommend this masterpiece to any and all, even those who may not find themselves interested in westerns will find this film highly compelling. {ssintrepid}

Wow, what a transfer. The feature film quality of Unforgiven is flawlessly maintained in this release. The source is perfectly clean; all colors, as well as blacks, are pure and natural. There is a drastic increase of detail from the standard DVD. Every wrinkle on the actors faces shows up and in this film there are quite a few wrinkles to look at. (High Definition never looks so real and stunning as when it is fed all the details of an aging face.)

Unforgiven was shot on film so slight and consistent film grain can be seen throughout and the picture lacks the same perfect clarity that can be found on digitally shot features. But it is as good a reproduction of the film as it appeared in theatres as any I have seen.

Recommended to any fan of the movie who is considering upgrading their standard DVD of the film.

(PS3 - 1080p projector - 92")

Redemption can only succeed if the past doesn't haunt the redeemed. Clint Eastwood stars as former outlaw Will Munny. Munny has changed his ways after meeting a woman who literally helped him turn his life around. Now she's gone and he's a struggling farmer with two small children desperate for money to fuel his last chance at staying honest and straight.

Munny decides along with his former partner (a marvelously understated Morgan Freeman)and a young kid to kill two cowboys that cut up a prostitute for a $1000.00 bounty. The only thing standing between him and the money is Little Bill (Gene Hackman who picked up an Oscar for Best Supporting actor)a brutal Sheriff. Munny doesn't know it but he's caught an express train to hell as the cold blooded killer he was comes to the fore again.

Unforgiven is as much about the inability to escape our past as it is about the violence and bloodshed that was later glossed over in the westerns of the 30's and 40's. Munny realizes that killing is a nasty business for both the killer and his victim. Despite his years of hard work and the saving grace of his wife, Munny could easily tip over into the abyss of alcholism and cruelty that dominated his youth. It's a marvelous portrayal and Eastwood, arguably, deserved the Best Acting Oscar as much as the directing and Best Picture Oscars.

This new 10th Anniversary edition has been digitally remastered and looks beautiful. The opening sequence is a good example of the care taken in the transfer. The smoke from Munny's house during sunset snakes gently against the bright orange sky. Eastwood and his collaborators (writer David Webb Peoples who also wrote Blade Runner and the underrated film science fiction adventure Solider with Kurt Russell)have fashioned a morality play as much about the present as it is about the past.

The cast is filled with Eastwood regulars but two particular performances shine aside from Eastwood and Freeman--Gene Hackman as the sadistic and brutal Little Bill and the late Richard Harris in a glorified cameo as gunfighting legend English Bob. Harris plays Bob as a dandy with a pistol until Bob encounters Little Bill. We then discover how much of his legend is myth designed to gloss over a nasty reputation and dishonorable actions.

The extras included are very good as well. There's a documentary called Eastwood on Eastwood which ran on one of the cable channels. As a performer we get glimpses of Eastwood in early supporting roles (from his first movie the horrible horror film Revenge of the Creature with John Agar)to the television role that gave him enough fame to jump to Leone's A Fistful of Dollars in Rawhide. The clips provide a good summation of Eastwood's performing style over the years. It's also a canny if slightly self serving assessment on Eastwood's themes as a director and smart observations about the true quality of his uneven body of work as a director.

There's also an episode of Maverick featuring James Garner where Eastwood plays a character that could have been Munny when he was younger. He plays a cocky young gunfighter with an attitude (although Munny was much nastier based on comments from the characters in the film. Consider his portrayal a G rated version of Munny). It's a beautiful transfer of a classic black and white episode from television's Golden Age. When will Maverick and some of these classic westerns finally make the jump to DVD?

There's also a feature commentary by Time film critic Richard Schickel (although I would have much preferred Eastwood). A new featurette about the making of the film as well as the original featurette on the making of the film.

If you're not interested in the extras and the nearly pristine transfer doesn't appeal to you, the single disc earlier edition of Unforgiven looks very good as well athough nowhere near as sharp as this one. It's about half the cost and might be a good place to start if you haven't seen the film and are unsure about purchasing it.

This film won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman) and Best Editing. Garnering three of the "major" awards is impressive and they are what make the film a memorable and enjoyable experience. Eastwood the director is in top form. He has always displayed a steady hand in directing his stories and actors and he doesn't disappoint here. Nothing flashy but it is his understated direction that leads this film to it's climax. In less capable hands, a director may be apt to moralize or preach. Eastwood capably lets the story (overlooked as an original screenplay) tell itself. His turn as the lead character -- William Munny -- is also an underplayed, nuanced part. I think it is one of his best acting jobs. He carries a grim outlook and those set, steely eyes convey all of the emotions the character feels. In a movie with so much else that is good, his performance is not to be ignored. Gene Hackman is outstanding in his portrayal of Little Bill Daggett, the sheriff of Big Whiskey, WY. His performance is both blustery and low-keyed. It is a credit to Hackman to know how to pull if off effortlessly. The movie itself is the real star. It plays on so many levels and gives a lot of shades of gray that really blow off the Westerns of old. There is no good guy in the white hat. In fact, there is little good to be found in the movie. Most of the men and women are scoundrels or people of ill-repute. However the general theme of reality that Eastwood conveys is what you will have to look for. Things aren't what they seem and this "anti-Western" shrugs off the myths of the Old West.

There are no heroes in Unforgiven. Just the living and the dead. Critics hailed this as a "revisionist western," but if you look back over Clint Eastwood's entire career, you see that Unforgiven is just par for the course. Eastwood's westerns have always been brutally violent, but unglamorously so. From the vicious lynching that opens Hang 'Em High, right on through to Unforgiven, Eastwood has unflichingly looked at violence and seen in it our desperation to live. He rarely has music over violence. Punches are often soft and wet sounding, instead of always sounding like whipcracks. It is brutal. It is difficult. It hurts. So, while I don't sing the praises of this movie for any innovation, I do praise it for two things. First, it embodies and summarizes Eastwood's examination of the Western and American violence. Second, for the absolutely incredible performance of Gene Hackman as Little Bill Dagget. Hackman's performance is one of the best pieces of acting ever captured on film. David Webb Peoples' script is obviously a big part of that performance, but Hackman's portrayal of the man for whom brutality is a mere tool, who wants only peace, order, and to finish his house, is amazing. His character is the only one that has figured out that being a dangerous man IS dangerous. He is the only one of the dangerous men in this film to have found a way out. Or so he believes.

This movie has a lot to say about America. About the Western genre. About our voyeuristic love of violence. And it says it well. It leaves you with much to consider. That's much more than you get from most mainstream Hollywood fare.

Clint Eastwood held onto the David People's script for Unforgiven for over 10 years. Knowing it was something special, he wanted to be mature enough, as both an actor and a director, to do it justice. It was a wise decision.

Eastwood aged into the character of William Munny, chiseled, worn-looking, and I was quite surprised at how well he did with the role. Munny is a haunted man, burdened with the memories of a violent past and the ghosts of many murders. His denials "I was drunk" or "I don't remember" are belied by the guilty flicks of his eyes or the thousand yard stare when memory does come back "remember that drover I shot...whose teeth came out the back of this neck? He didn't do anything....". It is all there in Eastwood's face and eyes when later in the film in his fever delirium William Munny sees the Hell he fears is waiting for him for his sins.

Reformed by a beloved wife, now dead, and raising 2 children on a failing pig farm, Munny and his old partner Ned (Morgan Freeman) are lured out of retirement for one more killing for money. But these old outlaws are different men now, older & tired and domesticated, and it seems unlikely they can do the job. We, like their young gunsel partner, the Scofield Kid, can't see the legendary hell-raiser and killer Munny in this haggard old man.

I note that some were put-off by Unforgiven, expecting a Clint Eastwood type western. Unforgiven really isn't a typical Western...it is more a character study wrapped in a meditation on violence.

The violence in Unforgiven is not stylized or glamorized. When the gunfighter English Bob (Richard Harris) gets the living tar kicked out of him by the sheriff Little Bill Dagget (Gene Hackman), he doesn't pop-up all fine an hour later. Instead he is layed-up in a jail cell, bloody, swollen, and in pain. When Little Bill dishes out the same to Eastwood later, William Munny is out for days and is scabbed and scarred afterward. When Eastwood ambushes a cowboy, he dies slowly, in thirst and in pain. When Little Bill starts in on Ned, we and he know that it will be a long night of torture and pain. When the Scofield Kid shoots a man in the privy, he is sickened by it and so should we be.

Violence begets more violence. From the initial cutting of the prostitute that sets it all in motion, to the beatings and shootings, the violence here only causes more violence and most of it out of proportion to the crime and most of it, even the sanctioned violence of the Law, has little or nothing to do with justice.

Gene Hackman's Little Bill Dagget is a sadistic bully with a badge, his amiable facade masks a ruthless and mean killer. The bemused twinkle in his eye can turn to a savage taunt in an instant. He enjoys beating people just a little too much, and he has the town cowed under his benevolent tyranny. Hackman is great and deserved his Oscar.

The only nod to the conventions of the Western is in the last act, but we are ready for it. As William Munny swigs the first whiskey he's had since his wife reformed him we watch him become distant, stronger, icier and resolved, the legendary stone-cold killer we've been hearing about throughout the movie is now before us and out for revenge.

The rainy ride into town and the total surprise of the laughing and confident posse-in-the-making, the cool malevolence... "he better arm himself if he's going to decorate his saloon with my friend"... and the chaotic, awkward, chance and luck shootout that kills the guilty and the innocent indiscriminately, caps the theme of the film... "deserve's got nothin to do with it". Violence is just violence, it is haphazard and unfair. It isn't pretty and it isn't justice.

And killers leave death in their wake and go on to "prosper in Dry Goods".

This is a beautifully realized film with a great cast. Eastwood's direction is fine. His pacing here is deliberate, but may be off-putting to those expecting a more action-oriented film. This is a mature work, it improves on repeat viewings. Each scene fits to lay the foundation for the climactic confrontation,which is one of the best ever. The dialogue is nuanced and revealing of character and motivation. This is first-rate filmaking.

It was this movie that lead me to become an early DVD adopter. I bought the original DVD before
I even had a player! That being said, the original transfer was really poor. I have read that
the transfer was done again on the 10th anniversary edition and it was MUCH better. This version
(Blu-ray) is excellent. I never noticed the smoke coming from the chimney in the opening scene.
Or the dirt flying in the wind as he shovels away. The landscapes show immense detail compared to
the original transfer...in all, it was definitely worth buying again to get this version. This is
the way I want to remember this movie whenever I watch it.

This is great filmmaking. The acting of Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris and Clint Eastwood is as good as these four greats can get and they are supported by a highly dedicated cast. The screenplay is perfectly written with as much memorable dialogue as some of the greatest films ever made. Quite simply, this is one of the greatest films ever made.

The entire film draws a clear definition of William Munney as perhaps the evilest man to ever live and what we the audience sees is a person we can relate to on many levels. In Eastwood's character we see our own darkest sides, our own mistakes and the unintended consequences that unknowingly follow our decisions.

At the beginning we see a struggling man looking to avoid the ways of his past, something which he may have seen as the easy road at the time but now is or has been in his self administered rehabilitation with his farm and his children. Here the struggle may be too much to handle and he justifies his decision in returning to his old ways to make it through the impoverished times that have followed his wife's death. The psychology is not obvious in this film but runs far deeper than most films by a mile. We set the stage to see an efficient assassin that has turned around return to the world he did everything to avoid, and return he does.

The most incredible dynamic here is that Munney is the clear villain in perspective, but that Hollywood cliche is more blurred here than any other movie I have ever seen (even the Godfather). The man we essentially find ourselves rooting against (Hackman) is a man of the law but ironically we find ourselves caring for the killer played by Eastwood. He is an anti-hero in which we must question our justification in liking him. The idea of revenge seems as natural as breathing in this setting, so we cheer as this killer steps onto his stage one last time to show his would be contenders who is the baddest cowboy of them all. It is what Westerns are all about.

In addition, the film appreciates the beautiful North American landscapes like very few films do and does so with brilliant artistic photography and the soundtrack's emotional one string notes add to the raw style of the film. Eastwood's direction suggests a man who truly loves the Western and he is the king of that genre...sorry Duke.