*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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