Movie Review: Unforgiven

Unforgiven (1992, R): *** ½

Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western was a big winner at the 65th Academy Awards, taking home the coveted Best Picture and Best Director awards.  Just as importantly, the western film served as Eastwood’s homage to the two other directors that heavily influenced and actually directed him in his earlier pics: Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.  To make a long story short, Unforgiven is an entirely different western then from what you would expect, but a wholly satisfying one.  It delivers all of the right ingredients that make a good western, but also in an entirely different way.  This is what makes Unforgiven a notable, unique addition to the genre.  It’s dark, hauntingly brutal and violent, and yet there are moments of humor to spice things up. I couldn’t really ever find a really heavily clichéd moment throughout that’s really worth noting.  There are some very minor flaws though, and the one that I think I should mention here is the ending, which is partly ambiguous and does not exactly clear things up like we would expect. Unforgiven is still very entertaining, well-acted, and just plain well-done.  I remained fully connected with everything that was happening on screen, and I understood the motivations for all of the characters.  Perhaps the only thing really missing here is a decent feel for the struggles, quintessence, and ultimate decline of the American Frontier that prevailed in most westerns in their heyday.  But then again, this is an entirely new breed of western.  Directed by Clint Eastwood.