Unforgiven
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the 1992 film. For other uses, see Unforgiven (disambiguation). For the 1960 film, see The Unforgiven (film)
| Unforgiven | |
 film poster by Bill Gold |
|
| Directed by | Clint Eastwood |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Clint Eastwood |
| Written by | David Webb Peoples |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Gene Hackman Morgan Freeman Richard Harris |
| Music by | Lennie Niehaus |
| Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
| Editing by | Joel Cox |
| Studio | Malpaso Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | August 7, 1992 |
| Running time | 131 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Gross revenue | $159,157,447 |
Unforgiven is a 1992 Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging and retired gunslinger who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming. A dark Western that deals frankly with the uglier aspects of violence and the myth of the Old West, it stars Eastwood in the lead role, along with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek and Frances Fisher.
Eastwood dedicated the movie to former directors and mentors Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. The film won four Academy Awards including Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. Eastwood himself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but he lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. Unforgiven was inducted into the United States National Film Registry in 2004.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten," the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Unforgiven was acknowledged as the fourth best film in the western genre.[1][2]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
 |
The plot summary in this section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (March 2009) |
The film opens with a shot of a homestead in silhouette, and the introductory caption: She was a comely young woman and not without prospects. Therefore it was heartbreaking to her mother that she would enter into marriage with William Munny, a known thief and murderer, a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition. When she died, it was not at his hands as her mother might have expected, but of smallpox. That was 1878.
In 1880[3] Wyoming, in the town of Big Whiskey, cowboy Quick Mike (David Mucci), despite his friend and fellow cowboy Davey Bunting's (Rob Campbell) attempts to stop him, slashes a prostitute's (Delilah Fitzgerald) (Anna Levine) face for laughing at his small penis. The venomous local sheriff and former gunfighter, Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), fines the cowboy and his friend seven ponies, payable to the prostitute's pimp and saloon owner Skinny Dubois (Anthony James). The other prostitutes, led by their madam Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), are furious over the cowboys' lax punishments and conspire with each other to offer a $1000 reward[4] to anyone who kills the two. The prostitutes are reproached by their pimp for offering a reward that could bring more trouble and the pimp goes to Sheriff Daggett to make him aware of the situation and to see if the Bar-T cowboys could be run out of the territory.
Miles away in Western Kansas, the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) approaches a farm owned by William Munny (Clint Eastwood) and his two children, looking for a partner to do the hit. Munny, known in his youth as an infamous gunfighter, murderer and bandit, has since retired having forsworn his criminal ways through the influence of his late wife. After initially declining the Kid's offer to join up and split the reward money, Will reconsiders amidst his financial troubles and recruits a former associate and neighbor, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) as his partner before catching up with the Schofield Kid.
Back in Wyoming, English Bob (Richard Harris) and his biographer W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek), get off a train and ride into Big Whiskey. English Bob ignores the sign that prohibits the possession of firearms and blatantly lies to a deputy about the revolver he carries in plain sight. Following a quick shave, he emerges onto the barber's porch and is confronted by five armed deputies and Little Bill who remembers Bob from his gunfighting days. After disarming the gunfighter, Little Bill ruthlessly beats him in front of the townspeople as a warning to reward seekers, shouting ominous threats about pursuing the prostitutes' bounty. Little Bill then ridicules and insults the jailed English Bob for the benefit of his biographer. Finally, Little Bill deports English Bob with a warning that he will kill him should he return. The humiliated and furious English Bob shouts and curses at the entire town - slipping from his (presumably affected) upper class English accent to a working-class London accent - and the American system as he is taken to the train station in a carriage. The biographer watches English Bob leave, but stays in Big Whiskey to chronicle Little Bill's stories.
After a long ride through wet, frigid weather, Will, Ned and the Kid enter a saloon for a drink and inquire about the reward. Feverish and sick after the long wet ride, Will remains at a table while Ned and the Kid go upstairs to be serviced by the prostitutes. While Will waits downstairs for his friends, Little Bill arrives and confronts him. A town ordinance prohibits guns but upon entering town that stormy night, Will failed (or chose not) to see the warning sign posted alongside the road. Weak from his illness, Will is in no condition to fight back as Little Bill brutally beats him in full view of the patrons. Will manages to drag himself out of the saloon as Ned and the Kid escape through a second-story window. The three partners retreat to a barn outside of town.
Will is nursed by his friends and the prostitutes, and after recovering sufficiently from his injuries, the three men ambush and kill one of the two cowboys in a canyon. The first shot hits the horse, and the cowboy breaks a leg in the fall. Ned realizes he can no longer stomach murder, and Will takes the rifle to finish the job. The cowboy is gutshot, and doesn't die quickly.
Ned decides to head home with Munny's promise that he will still get his share of the money after the final cowboy is killed. Ned rides south, alone with the Spencer rifle used in the ambush. Munny and the Kid find the other cowboy and Will allows the eager Kid to shoot the man in an outhouse outside the isolated cabin where he had been holed up for safety.
Ned is captured and brought back to Little Bill, who beats all the information he can out of him, killing Ned in the process. His corpse is put on display in an open coffin outside the saloon as an example of frontier justice. Outside town, the Kid is shaken by the murder he has just committed. Having previously claimed to have killed five men, he now admits to Munny and himself that this was his first kill. In a moment of self reflection, the Kid realizes that he has been covering up more than his critical near-sightedness and renounces his planned gunfighting career. He tries to justify his guilt by claiming "Well, I guess he had it coming." Munny sets the theme for the movie when he replies "We all have it coming, Kid."
One of the prostitutes brings the reward money to Will and tells him of the death of Ned and that his friend is propped up in front of the saloon with a sign on him. This enrages Will who, finally giving in and breaking his ten year vow of sobriety, begins to down the whisky which the Kid had been drinking. In fear of the man's reputation, the Kid attempts to refuse his share of the loot, to which Will replies "I'm not gonna kill you, Kid, you're the only friend I've got." The Kid gives his pistol to Will who rides into town to confront the sheriff after giving the money to the Kid to deliver his and Ned's share to Ned's widow and Will's children.
That night, Will quietly walks into the crowded Greeley's Saloon. Inside the saloon, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Will and the Kid. Will demands to see the saloon's owner while holding them all at bay with a double barreled shotgun. When Skinny, the owner, identifies himself, Will shoots him with one of the two barrels. Little Bill curses him, pointing out that Skinny was unarmed, but Will retorts that "he should have armed himself, if he's going to decorate his saloon with my friend."
Munny trains the other chamber of the shotgun on Little Bill, and Little Bill commands the others to shoot him as soon as he fires his second chamber. But when the shotgun misfires, a wild gun fight ensues where Will pulls out a pistol and kills three posse members outright and seriously wounds Little Bill and another deputy. Will has a short encounter with Little Bill's erstwhile biographer, who being scared witless is nonetheless amazed and admiring of Will's cool dispatch of five armed men. Beauchamp leaves having finally, after false starts with English Bob and Little Bill, found the real western anti-hero he has sought to document in his penny pamphlets. Munny is standing at the bar when he hears Little Bill cocking his pistol. Munny steps on Little Bill's hand and points Ned's rifle directly into his face. Little Bill realizes what is to follow and tells Will that he'll see him in hell. After a twenty second glare into Little Bill's beaten eyes, Will shoots Little Bill dead. Munny then heads to the door, shooting the last injured deputy without bothering to aim. He then announces threats to anyone who might be outside the saloon door waiting for him, promising not only to kill anyone who shoots at him, but also the man's wife, all of his friends, and he'll burn down the man's house. A deputy in the shadows draws a bead with a shotgun, but is too afraid to pull the trigger. Will leaves the saloon and rides away on a gray horse, his last threat being that he will kill everyone in the town if they do not bury Ned "right", unmolested by the frightened townspeople, who recoil in fear, glad to see him ride out. (The possible exception is the disfigured prostitute, who watches Will leave perhaps with something approaching gratitude/compassion but could also be shock at the transformation he has undergone).[5]
The film ends with an epilogue that echoes its introduction: Some years later, Mrs. Ansonia Feathers made the arduous journey to Hodgeman County, Kansas to visit the last resting place of her only daughter. William Munny had long since disappeared with the children... some said to San Francisco where it was rumored he prospered in dry goods. And there was nothing on the marker to explain to Mrs. Feathers why her only daughter had married a known thief and murderer, a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition.
[edit] Reception
Critical response was very positive, and the film is 'Certified Fresh' by rottentomatoes.com, with a 96% approval rating among reviews. Many critics acclaimed the film for its noir-ish moral ambiguity and atmosphere.[6] They also acclaimed it as a fitting eulogy to the western genre. However not without its critics, Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert both criticized that the picture was long, and that there were too many characters in the film for little reason. Roger Ebert did however eventually include in his great movies list.
The movie poster for Unforgiven won its designer, longtime Eastwood collaborator Bill Gold, the prestigious 1992 Key Art award from The Hollywood Reporter magazine.[7]
[edit] Cast
- Clint Eastwood as William 'Will' Munny
- Gene Hackman as Little Bill Daggett
- Morgan Freeman as Ned Logan
- Richard Harris as English Bob
- Jaimz Woolvett as The Schofield Kid
- Saul Rubinek as W.W. Beauchamp
- Frances Fisher as Strawberry Alice
- Anna Levine as Delilah Fitzgerald (as Anna Thomson)
- David Mucci as Quick Mike
- Rob Campbell as Davey Bunting
- Anthony James as Skinny Dubois
- Tara Frederick as Little Sue (as Tara Dawn Frederick)
- Beverley Elliott as Silky
- Liisa Repo-Martell as Faith
- Josie Smith as Crow Creek Kate
- Shane Meier as Will Munny's Son
[edit] Awards and honors
[edit] Academy Awards
[edit] Others
The film makes an appearance in the American Film Institute's 100 years, 100 movies. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years.
It was also admitted to the National Film Registry, and is one of the few westerns to be so honored.
The film trailer music for Unforgiven was composed in 1992 by Randy J. Shams and Tim Stithem.
American Film Institute recognition
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #98
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #68
- AFI's 10 Top 10 #4 Western
[edit] Notes
- ^ American Film Institute (2008-06-17). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". ComingSoon.net. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46072. Retrieved on 2008-06-18.
- ^ "Top Western". American Film Institute. http://www.afi.com/10top10/western.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-18.
- ^ The film title states 1880 for the attack. The rest of the movie takes place in 1881 President James A. Garfield's 1881 assassination is discussed in the film, thus setting the year.
- ^ equivalent to about $21,000. in the present day http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/
- ^ http://www.filmsite.org/unfo.html
- ^ http://www.montrealfilmjournal.com/review.asp?R=R0000575
- ^ The Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Unforgiven |
- Unforgiven at the Internet Movie Database
- Unforgiven at Allmovie
- Unforgiven at Rotten Tomatoes
- Unforgiven at Box Office Mojo
- Unforgiven at Filmsite.org
- Unforgiven at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list
- Psychoanalytic review of Unforgiven
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Silence of the Lambs |
Academy Award for Best Picture 1992 |
Succeeded by Schindler's List |
| Preceded by Death Becomes Her |
Box office number-one films of 1992 (US) August 9, 1992 - August 23, 1992 |
Succeeded by Honeymoon in Vegas |
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||
