- This article is about the 1992 film. For other uses, see Unforgiven (disambiguation). For the 1960 film, see The Unforgiven (film)
Unforgiven is a 1992 Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging and retired gunslinger who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming. A dark Western that deals frankly with the uglier aspects of violence and the myth of the Old West, it stars Eastwood in the lead role, along with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek and Frances Fisher.
Eastwood dedicated the movie to former directors and mentors Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. The film won four Academy Awards including Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. Eastwood himself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but he lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. Unforgiven was inducted into the United States National Film Registry in 2004.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten," the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Unforgiven was acknowledged as the fourth best film in the western genre.[1][2]
Plot
A group of prostitutes in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, offers a $1000 reward to whoever can kill two cowboys who disfigured one of them. This upsets the local sheriff, a former gunfighter known as Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), who doesn't allow guns or assassins in his town.
Miles away, in Kansas, the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) visits the farm of William Munny (Clint Eastwood), seeking to recruit him to kill the cowboys. In his youth, Munny was an infamous bandit, killer and drinker, but is now a widower raising two children on a pig farm.
Though Munny initially refuses to help with the assassination, he reconsiders a few days later and sets off to catch up with the Kid. On his way, Munny recruits Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), another retired gunfighter who reluctantly leaves his wife to go along on the hit.
Back in Wyoming, gunfighter English Bob (Richard Harris) and his biographer (Saul Rubinek) arrive in Big Whiskey, also seeking the reward. Little Bill and his deputies disarm English Bob and Little Bill savagely beats him in the street, hoping to set an example for other would-be assassins.
When English Bob is kicked out of town, the biographer decides to stay and write about Little Bill, who has impressed him with his tales of old gunfights.
Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive in Big Whiskey amid a rain storm and head to the whorehouse to find out where the cowboys are. Munny has a bad fever after riding in the rain, and is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies arrive to confront him.
Little Bill has no idea who Munny is, but when he discovers his gun, he beats him and kicks him into the street. Logan and the Kid, who are upstairs getting "advances" on their payment from the prostitutes, escape out a window when they realize the law is on to them.
The three assassins regroup at a barn outside of town, where the prostitutes nurse Munny back to health. Three days later, the men ambush a group of cowboys in the canyons and kill one of the targets — though it becomes apparent that Logan and Munny no longer have much stomach for murder. Logan decides he won't stick around to kill the second cowboy and sets off back home.
Munny and the Kid head to the cowboys' ranch, where the Kid ambushes the second target in an outhouse and shoots him dead. After the two men escape from the ranch, the Kid confesses he had never killed anyone before.
When a prostitute meets the two men to give them their reward money, they learn that Logan was captured by Little Bill's men before he got out of the county. He was tortured to death, but not before giving up the identities of his two accomplices.
When he learns of his friend's death, Munny takes a swig from the Kid's bottle of whiskey. An alcoholic in his past life, Munny had until this point refused all offers of drink.
The Kid heads back to Kansas to deliver the reward money to Munny's and Logan's families, while Munny heads into town to get revenge for Logan's death.
That night, Logan's corpse is displayed outside the whorehouse/saloon as a warning to all assassins. Inside, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid.
Munny walks straight into the saloon with a shotgun and shoots the owner/pimp.
A wild gunfight ensues, in which Munny shoots five men, including Little Bill, without taking a hit. When the shooting stops, Munny orders everyone "who doesn't want to die" to leave the saloon, then starts drinking whiskey at the bar, surrounded by corpses.
The biographer crawls out from behind a body and asks Munny details about the gunfight — who he shot first and why. He is obviously more impressed with Munny than either English Bob or Little Bill, but Munny soon sends him out of the saloon.
Little Bill, it turns out, was only wounded. Munny disarms him when he tries to cock his gun.
"I don't deserve to die like this," Little Bill says, as Munny points a gun at his head.
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it," says Munny, then shoots the sheriff dead.
As he leaves the bar, Munny shouts out that he will return and kill everyone in Big Whiskey if they don't "bury Ned right."
A deputy across the street is too frightened to take a shot at Munny as he rides away.
The final scene is a silhouette of Munny's pig farm. Text scrolls by on the screen, telling us that Munny was later rumored to have moved to San Francisco and "prospered in dry goods."
Reception
Critical response was very positive, and the film is 'Certified Fresh' by rottentomatoes.com, with a 96% approval rating among reviews. Many critics acclaimed the film for its noir-ish moral ambiguity and atmosphere.[3] They also acclaimed it as a fitting eulogy to the western genre. However, the film was not without its critics: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, though the latter still gave it a positive vote, both criticized the picture for being too long and having too many superfluous characters. Roger Ebert did, however, eventually include the film in his "Great Movies" list.[4]
The movie poster for Unforgiven won its designer, longtime Eastwood collaborator Bill Gold, the prestigious 1992 Key Art award from The Hollywood Reporter magazine.[5]
Cast
Awards and honors
Academy Awards
Others
The film makes an appearance in the American Film Institute's 100 years, 100 movies. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years.
It was also admitted to the National Film Registry in 2004, and is one of the few westerns to be so honored.
The film trailer music for Unforgiven was composed in 1992 by Randy J. Shams and Tim Stithem.
American Film Institute recognition
Notes
External links
