There's little to say about this supreme western that hasn't been said already, but I'll try anyway. It's a spellbinding film, and nothing like what you'd expect from the rest of Eastwood's career. This turns out to be both an ode to a dying genre (the central characters are old and regretful) and a film with a powerful, anti-violence moral. Eastwood is at the top of his game both in terms of his screen presence (never has he played such a fragile, human character in a western) and as a director. This is one of the most beautiful westerns I've ever seen, with extraordinary lovely landscape shots which look fine when played in high definition.
The plot is fairly slow and laced with moments of shocking violence – none more so than the opening sequence, in which a cowboy slices up a prostitute's face with his knife. It's this moment of brutality that sets off the chain of plot, eventually culminating in a well remembered showdown between our ageing hero and, well, just about everybody else. Gene Hackman is particularly good here as a sadistic lawman, gloating in his heavy-handed violence and building himself a home in his spare time; Morgan Freeman appears in his ascendancy to fame, doing the kind of quiet dignity that he's so adept at. Eastwood also finds time to give strong roles to the likes of Richard Harris, although I could have done without Saul Rubinek's comical character.
In the end, though, it's the script that makes this the masterpiece which it is. Eschewing the action formula for a quiet contemplation of western themes, it really says everything there is to say about this particular genre of film-making. It says something about UNFORGIVEN that every Hollywood western that's come along since has felt more than a little passé.
The plot is fairly slow and laced with moments of shocking violence – none more so than the opening sequence, in which a cowboy slices up a prostitute's face with his knife. It's this moment of brutality that sets off the chain of plot, eventually culminating in a well remembered showdown between our ageing hero and, well, just about everybody else. Gene Hackman is particularly good here as a sadistic lawman, gloating in his heavy-handed violence and building himself a home in his spare time; Morgan Freeman appears in his ascendancy to fame, doing the kind of quiet dignity that he's so adept at. Eastwood also finds time to give strong roles to the likes of Richard Harris, although I could have done without Saul Rubinek's comical character.
In the end, though, it's the script that makes this the masterpiece which it is. Eschewing the action formula for a quiet contemplation of western themes, it really says everything there is to say about this particular genre of film-making. It says something about UNFORGIVEN that every Hollywood western that's come along since has felt more than a little passé.