Unforgiven is the best western ever made. I have rarely seen a movie that can make its characters, good, bad and ugly, as real, flawed and complex people the way Eastwood’s Unforgiven did. Even Little Bill is rendered as a flawed man with real depth. You understand why Munny has every right to kill Little Bill even though you kinda feel bad for Little Bill. The perfect scene humanizing Little Bill is when his henchmen mock Little Bill’s self-built house and his carpentry skills.
No way. Mediocre at best.
Unforgiven is great movie but I love the scope of Wales. It is like this giant epic that covers a really messed up period in US history.
Not hijack the OJW thread, but I tend to agree with you. Hackman did a great job with that character.
The writer guy was a little cliche but like you say, quirks and flaws; His flaw was cowardice, even though he sought out outlaws and heros, and his quirk was that he was gullible and believed English Bob’s stories.
English Bob’s flaw was arrogance, but his quirk was that he wasn’t as good as he thought, and I liked his Richard’s Harris’ performance (many would know him as Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator or the first [better] Dumbledore).
What I particularly enjoyed was the shoot-out at the end of the movie.
So, so, so many movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s had a formula which included fist fights, gun fights, and car chases, ALL OF WHICH were drawn out and strung out by repeated exchanges and changes in advantage. I roll my eyes at the fist fights in so many movies with dozens and dozens of hits, back and forth. Real lift fists between men don’t last long, even the ones that degrade into wrestling matches. BUT in Unforgiven, Munny got his revenge without any notable obstacle. Such a satisfying reprieve from anything done before where gunfights always had missed shots with ricochet sounds and so many backs-and-forths.
Bill Munny’s main flaw was alcholism. His quirk was that he was an amazing gunfighter when he was drunk.
Gene Hackman told Clint that he wasn’t going to do anymore westerns or cops or whatever due to all of the violence in them. He was done with that - it had gotten so over the top and he felt like he was promoting it.
“Gene - just read the script.”
Agree. Unforgiven is a movie I’ll always stop and watch if I stumble across it while channel surfing.