Unforgiven (1992) - 4K UHD Review

Review:

*Originally written November 1st, 2018*

I don't know about you, but I found most of the classic Westerns I've seen painfully dull (Sorry), particularly ones from the '60s with the exception of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I just find them to be like watching paint dry, but for some reason, most of the ones from the '90s and '00s I find incredibly more interesting and increased in quality, with Unforgiven being the peak of Clint Eastwood's Western career.

I will argue that Unforgiven is a film I've had crammed down my throat after a year of film studies at sixth form, but for whatever reason, despite having watched it under the worst conditions possible (On a washed out projector with the teacher pausing it every minute to talk about it), I still find myself loving this.

 Plus with the 30 hours or so I've put into Red Dead Redemption 2 so far, I was in the mood and was happy to see this had a 4K release in the UK. And what a 4K release this is. Another knockout from Warner Bros, blistering with detail and increased colour, making the beautiful landscape shots of the Texas desert look better than they've ever been.

Clint Eastwood's anti-hero William Munny is one of the most fascinating of his career, an aged criminal with a shameful past who only picks up a bounty to have his dying farm he lives on with his two kids after the death of his wife. In many ways Munny feels like the aged character of all his previous Westerns put together, but makes him feel far more human and believable. Like Logan, I have a huge soft-spot for films about ageing gunfighters going back one last time and Eastwood nails this as a finale for his career in westerns.

While this is Eastwood's show, he joined by a cast who all do an excellent job. Gene Hackman is terrifying as the utterly psychotic and intimidating sheriff of the town Bill and Morgan Freeman does his usual reliable thing of being likeable. I honestly thought Saul Rubinek was the father of John Oliver too, I mean, look at him in this.

What I really love is just how restrained and real this feels compared to many other Westerns set in the same period. It runs at a slow pace, but takes it time to give the characters the development they deserve, giving the finale some incredible dramatic weight. There is some action spliced in the middle, which is well shot and feels authentic, but this is all about character and not action. I miss when Eastwood used to be able to direct as well as he did here, his later work is so lifeless and flat, even downright appalling based on his latest film, but it's nice to see him be able to direct something excellent here.


Unforgiven is a triumph, a character driven western that rounds off Clint Eastwood's long foray into the genre in the a way that's close to as perfect as possible. I wish more westerns were like this. Gorgeous 4K restoration too, Warner Bros are knocking it out the park with their releases. 

9/10 Dans 

Unforgiven is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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Sully (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written December 2nd, 2016*

Much like every film Clint Eastwood has directed in the past ten years, Sully left me cold with its flat and lifeless direction of a true life story. It truly was a fascinating true story, but thanks to Eastwood, it all just felt very pedestrian.

Tom Hanks bring some life to Sully, the titular pilot of the film who landed the fated flight into the Hudson river and saved everyone on board. The problem was that Sully just wasn't an interesting person, at all. He's such a bland, straight-laced person. Which I suppose might be the point, but it doesn't make for a very compelling lead character. Either way, it's just impossible to hate Tom Hanks.

The narrative is told through a very weird and non-linear timeline. We jump from pre-crash, to crash. to post-crash in a very messy way with no sense of pace. In the middle of the film we get a half hour flashback to the actual plane crash, which comes out of nowhere. Sully's sitting in a bar, then we get a scene that takes about a third of the film. None of it flowed well at all. Reminded me a little of Batman V Superman.

Aaron Eckhart really does steal the show with his magnificent moustache. It really was a wonder to look at. He gets some of the films funniest lines and brings levity to the situations, although he does have the last line of the film, which was one of the weirdest and most abrupt ending I've seen all year. It ends on this weird punchline and everyone erupts into laughter for what seems like an eternity, like it's the funniest thing they've ever heard, then it just quickly fades to black and ends. It was bizarre.

At the very least, the actual landing scene carries a certain tension and feels real. Although a lot of the passengers were annoying. This was the closest Sully got to the something great, but then they ruin it by showing the crash twice in two separate sequences. It was meant to show one scene from the cockpits point of view and then the passengers, but showing it twice really dragged things out and it lost all its impact the second time. I feel it was only done to drag out the very short 90 minute run-time.


There really is nothing special about Sully, it's not without its moments and Tom Hanks gives a usually reliable performance, but it just felt like another one of those flatly directed, bland and Oscar baity biopics.

5/10 Dans

Sully is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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