Product Code Database
Unforgiven is a 1992 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by David Peoples. It stars Eastwood as William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he turned to farming. The film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris.
Unforgiven grossed over $159 million on a budget of $14.4 million and received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for the acting (particularly from Eastwood and Hackman), directing, editing, themes, and cinematography. The film won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Hackman, and Best Film Editing for Joel Cox. Eastwood was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. The film was the third Western to win Best Picture, following Cimarron (1931) and Dances With Wolves (1990). Eastwood dedicated the film (at the end of the credits) to directors and mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel; "Dedicated to Sergio and Don".
In 2004, Unforgiven was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was remade into a 2013 Japanese film, also titled Unforgiven, which stars Ken Watanabe and changes the setting to the early Meiji era in Japan. Eastwood has long asserted that the film would be his last traditional Western, concerned that any future projects would simply rehash previous plotlines or imitate someone else's work.
In Hodgeman County, Kansas, a boastful young man visits Will Munny's hog farm. He calls himself the "Schofield Kid" and claims to be an experienced bounty hunter looking for help pursuing the cowboys. Formerly a notorious outlaw and murderer, Will is now a repentant widower raising two children. After initially refusing to help, Will realizes that his farm is failing and his children's future is in jeopardy. He recruits his friend Ned Logan, another retired outlaw, and they catch up with the Kid, who they discover is severely near-sighted.
Back in Big Whiskey, British-born gunfighter "English" Bob, an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill's, seeks the bounty. He arrives in town with his biographer W. W. Beauchamp, who naively believes Bob's tall tales. Enforcing the town's antigun law, Little Bill, with his deputies, disarms Bob and beats him savagely to discourage others from attempting to claim the bounty. Bob, humiliated, is banished from town the next morning, but Beauchamp stays out of a fascination with the sheriff, who debunks many of the romantic notions Beauchamp has about the Wild West. Little Bill explains to Beauchamp that the best attribute for a gunslinger is to be cool-headed under fire rather than to have the quickest draw, and to always kill the best shooter first.
Will, Ned, and the Kid arrive in town during a rainstorm and enter Skinny's saloon. While Ned and the Kid meet with the prostitutes upstairs, Little Bill confronts a feverish Will. Not realizing Will's identity, but correctly guessing that he wants the bounty, Bill confiscates his pistol and beats him. Ned and the Kid escape through a back window and take Will to an unoccupied barn outside of town, where they and the prostitutes nurse him back to health. A few days later, the trio ambush Davey. After missing Davey and shooting his horse, Ned falters and Will shoots Davey instead. Ned decides to quit and return to Kansas.
Ned is later captured and flogged to death by Little Bill to learn the whereabouts of Will and the Kid. Will takes the Kid with him to the cowboys' ranch, directing him to ambush Quick Mike in the outhouse and shoot him. After they escape, a distraught Kid drunkenly confesses he had never killed anyone before and is overcome with remorse. A prostitute arrives with the reward and tells them about Ned's fate. Shocked by the news, Will begins drinking and demands the Kid's revolver. The Kid hands it over, saying that he no longer wants to be a killer, and Will sends him back to Kansas to distribute the reward.
That night, Will finds Ned's corpse displayed in a coffin outside Skinny's saloon. Inside, Little Bill and his deputies are organizing a Posse comitatus. Will walks in alone, brandishing a shotgun, and kills Skinny for displaying Ned's corpse. He then aims at Little Bill, but the shotgun misfires. In the ensuing gunfight, Will shoots Little Bill and several other members of the posse with the revolver. He then orders the rest of the men out. Beauchamp lingers briefly to ask how Will survived. Will replies that it was luck and scares him away. Little Bill tries and fails to take another shot at Will while lying on the floor, then bemoans his fate and curses Will, who shoots him dead. Will shouts threats as he mounts his horse and rides out of town.
A closing title card states that Will's mother-in-law found his farm abandoned years later, Will having possibly moved to San Francisco with the children. She remained at a loss to understand why her daughter married such a notorious outlaw and murderer.
By Eastwood's own recollection, he was given the script in the "early 80s", although he did not immediately pursue it, because according to him, "I thought I should do some other things first". In 1984, Sonia Chernus, Eastwood's long time story editor at Malpaso Productions, sent him a scathing memo after reading the script stating that "it doesn't deserve my time or yours" and is "an insult to this company" and that Eastwood should "get rid of it FAST".
Gene Hackman was hesitant to play Bill Daggett, as his daughters were upset that he was starring in too many violent films, but his agent and Eastwood convinced him to do it.
Film scholar Allen Redmon describes Munny's role as an antihero by stating he is "a virtuous or an injured hero who overcomes all obstacles to see that evil is eradicated, using whatever means necessary".
Critic Sven Mikulec called the film Eastwood's "eulogy to the Man with No Name character that made him immortal."
Neither wants to kill for causes from their past (Munny being an outlaw, Achilles being a warrior-king) since they find them unjust. Both are committed to a "higher" cause—Munny to his children and his wife's wishes, and Achilles to the injustice of women-stealing and to Briseis, who at one point he would have had to sacrifice to Agamemnon to stop the war.
When their best friends are killed—Achilles' Patroclus and Munny's Ned—they allow their rage and desire for vengeance, though, to make them return to their warrior-prescribed fate. Achilles rages against the Trojans and kills many. He gets vengeance by killing Hector and desecrating his corpse, dragging it around the town. Munny rages against Little Bill and his crew. He gets vengeance by killing Little Bill and them, threatening to kill anyone who opposes him.
Relevant differences are seen, though, between Homer's epic and Eastwood's film, namely that Achilles is fated to die in battle, whereas Munny moves to California at the end of the film to become a businessman to provide for his children. Whether Munny has successfully countered his warrior-fate is unclear, as is whether a life in dry goods redeems him as his love for his wife had done.
Jack Methews of the Los Angeles Times described Unforgiven as "the finest classical Western to come along since perhaps John Ford's 1956 The Searchers." Richard Corliss in Time wrote that the film was "Eastwood's meditation on age, repute, courage, heroism—on all those burdens he has been carrying with such grace for decades." Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert criticized the work, though the latter gave it a positive vote, for being too long and having too many superfluous characters (such as Harris' English Bob, who enters and leaves without meeting the protagonists). Despite his initial reservations, Ebert eventually included the film in his "The Great Movies" list.
Unforgiven was named one of the 10 best films of the year on 76 critics' lists, according to a poll of the nation's top 106 film critics.
| 20/20 Awards | Best Picture | Clint Eastwood | |
| Best Director | |||
| Best Actor | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Original Screenplay | David Peoples | ||
| Best Art Direction | Henry Bumstead | ||
| Best Cinematography | Jack N. Green | ||
| Best Film Editing | Joel Cox | ||
| Best Sound Design | |||
| Academy Awards | Best Picture | Clint Eastwood | |
| Best Director | |||
| Best Actor | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Best Art Direction | Art Direction: Henry Bumstead; Set Decoration: Janice Blackie-Goodine | ||
| Best Cinematography | Jack N. Green | ||
| Best Film Editing | Joel Cox | ||
| Best Sound | Les Fresholtz, Vern Poore, Dick Alexander and Rob Young | ||
| American Cinema Editors Awards | Best Edited Feature Film | Joel Cox | |
| ASECAN Awards | Best Foreign Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| Awards Circuit Community Awards | Best Motion Picture | ||
| Best Director | |||
| Best Actor in a Leading Role | |||
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Original Screenplay | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Best Cinematography | Jack N. Green | ||
| Best Costume Design | Glenn Wright, Valerie T. O'Brien, Joanne Hansen and Carla Hetland | ||
| Best Film Editing | Joel Cox | ||
| Best Original Score | Lennie Niehaus | ||
| Best Production Design | Henry Bumstead and Janice Blackie-Goodine | ||
| Best Sound | Les Fresholtz, Vern Poore, Rick Alexander, Rob Young, Alan Robert Murray and Walter Newman | ||
| Best Cast Ensemble | |||
| BMI Film & TV Awards | Film Music Award | Lennie Niehaus | |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Cinematography | Jack N. Green | ||
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| Best Direction | |||
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Original Screenplay | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Best Cinematography | John N. Green | ||
| Best Sound | Alan Robert Murray, Walter Newman, Rob Young, Les Fresholtz, Vern Poore and Dick Alexander | ||
| Cahiers du Cinéma | Best Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Director | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Actor | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Screenplay | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Director | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Cinematography | Jack N. Green | ||
| Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | Clint Eastwood | |
| Edgar Awards | Best Motion Picture | David Webb Peoples | |
| Fotogramas de Plata | Best Foreign Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Drama | ||
| Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Director – Motion Picture | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Screenplay – Motion Picture | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Hochi Film Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| Japan Academy Film Prize | Outstanding Foreign Language Film | ||
| Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Director | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Kinema Junpo | Best Foreign Language Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| London Film Critics Circle Awards | Film of the Year | ||
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Director | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Actor | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Screenplay | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Jack N. Green | ||
| Mainichi Film Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Clint Eastwood | |
| Nastro d'Argento | Best Foreign Director | ||
| National Board of Review Awards | |||
| National Film Preservation Board | National Film Registry | ||
| National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Director | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Actor | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Screenplay | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Best Cinematography | Jack N. Green | ||
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Film | ||
| Best Director | Clint Eastwood | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Gene Hackman | ||
| Best Screenplay | David Webb Peoples | ||
| Nikkan Sports Film Awards | Best Foreign Film | ||
| Online Film & Television Association Awards | Hall of Fame – Motion Picture | ||
| Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures | Clint Eastwood | |
| Sant Jordi Awards | Best Foreign Film | ||
| Turkish Film Critics Association Awards | Best Foreign Film | ||
| Bronze Wrangler | Theatrical Motion Pictures | ||
| Western Writers of America Awards | Best Movie Script | David Webb Peoples | |
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen | ||
American Film Institute recognition
In June 2008, Unforgiven was listed as the fourth best American film in the Western genre (behind The Searchers, High Noon, and Shane) in the American Film Institute's "AFI's 10 Top 10" list.
In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked Peoples' script for Unforgiven as the 30th-greatest ever written.
|
|
