Cheap Unforgiven (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD) (Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman) (Clint Eastwood) Price

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Customer Reviews of Unforgiven (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Western Classic
At the time of Unforgiven's release in 1992, Clint Eastwood was a movie icon with most of his most memorable films being westerns. This film though would become his most acclaimed and honored movie. It is a classic western tale of a man with a terrible past who struggles for redemption. Mr. Eastwood plays William Munny who was one the most ruthless and cold-blooded killers of his day. As the film opens, he is now just a lowly hog farmer who is widowed with two young children he can barely afford to feed and care for. Along comes a young stranger known only as the Schofield Kid (played by Jaimz Woolvert) who propositions Munny to join him on a mission to avenge a prostitute who was beaten by some men. Munny reluctantly agrees and the journey back into his former life is a revealing and sobering experience. Along the way they join up with an old cohort of Munny's Ned Logan played by Morgan Freeman and a strange bounty hunter English Bob played by Richard Harris. Gene Hackman is brilliant as a sadistic sheriff Little Bob with whom Munny has a final showdown that strikes at the heart of the film. It reveals the impact that a violent life has on a person's conscience and soul. The film won the 1992 Oscar for best film, best director for Mr. Eastwood (who won his second Oscar of the year as producer of the film) and Mr. Hackman won his second Oscar as best supporting actor twenty-one years after his best actor Oscar for the French Connection.

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All Is Unforgiven
UNFORGIVEN is, without a doubt, Clint Eastwood's finest hour. Retired outlaw now family man, William Munny (Eastwood) and his friend, fellow former outlaw, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) decide to pick up their guns one more time. They plan to collect a bounty on a group of men who raped and cut a prostitute. Another hitman, English Bob, (The Late GREAT Richard Harris) heads out to try and collect the money too. Little do they know that a brutal town magistrate, Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), has ideas of his own on how to deal with the bounty, and anyone who rides into "his"town carrying a gun.

The cast is just amazing in the film. There isn't a bad performance given by anyone. Eastwood's experience in all of his other westerns over the years, is put to good use, he knows what works in the genre. The fine script from David Peoples has everything that a western should, while at the same time, taking the story in unexpected directions. Hackman deserved his Supporting Actor Oscar for sure, as did Eastwood, for Best Picture/Director and editor Joel Cox who also won for his work. The film is as perfect as it can be for a motion picture. A 5 star movie no doubt about it.

The 10th anniversay edition DVD has solid extras, however, they could have been better (hence my rating of 4 and a half stars for the entire package). Film Critic and Eastwood Biographer, Richard Schickel, offers a fine audio commentary. But I would have liked to have had another commentary track by anyone of the filmmakers invoved. As for the quartet of "marvelous" documentaries promised, only one of them is new, the remaining 3, will be familiar to anyone who knows anything about the film or Eastwood. As nice as it is to see one of Clint's early television roles in a Maverick episode on disc 2, it still seems out of place here. The themes of the movie may mirror the episode but so what? Oh well, these quibbles about the extras aside, this film is a must own

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The "Western" Everyman.
The most important aspect of this "Western" is its philospical and spiritual message about the universal condition of man. It is almost biblical in nature like the first chapters of the book of Romans in the New Testament. Man is aware of both good and evil but finally is caught up in evil and unless he is redeemed by the forgivness of God he will die in his sins. The title is very appropriate as the characters in the end are unforgiving and unforgiven. It is a powerful film in that there are certain aspects in the various characters the show they have a sense of what is good but they are unable of themselves to overcome the innate evil of the human heart. There are several classic lines in the film such as the moment the young gunslinger says to Eastwood's character "He has it coming" and the reply is "We all have it coming" The conclusion at the end is that both the man representing the law and the man representing the lawless are both damned. It is not a pretty picture of mankind but a true one and is the reason why the Son of God had to die on the cross that we might be forgiven. There is Evil in man, but goodness in God if we will turn to Him. If this film would have only included the forgiveness of God I would have given it twice five stars.