Thursday, August 30, 2012

Western #4 - Unforgiven (1992)

Unforgiven is another Western deconstruction, staring Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. It's about how the bloodshed caused by gunslingers, and by extension all bloodshed and violence, can't be made up for or forgotten. Will Munny is a retired hired gun, but when he goes in for one last job he proves that he is, in fact, unforgiven for his previous life. See? Makes sense. Interestingly, Shane has the same themes, but Shane is terrible and Unforgiven is not. Unforgiven is great. Morgan Freeman's in it and everything - There's not much more you can ask for.

Unforgiven really is probably the best movie I've seen so far in the Westerns. It knew what it was trying to say and it said it, all the characters were nuanced and watchable, the was some humor, which I like, and the cinematography was great and it wasn't boring. This movie is nearly three hours long but it didn't seem like it at all. It just zipped by.

I liked when the writer would introduce himself and people would say, "What, of letters and such?" That's great, I'll say that all the time.

The funny thing about this movie is that nobody's wrong - Or rather, everybody's wrong. We're not really on anybody's side is the point. You sort of root for everyone, even they're opposing each other. Part of the point of the movie that nobody's justified and that violence and justice are complicated things with two sides, and that Westerns and the culture that embraces Westerns forget that.

Also, the poster is really, really cool.

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