Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by aikiMac, Mar 4, 2016.

  1. aikiMac

    aikiMac aikido + boxing = very good Moderator Supporter

    We're going back to 1992, here, but wow, the movie still hits me the same as it did the first time. It's a rare pleasure to watch a movie with that much depth. A college professor could lecture for three classes on all the richness in this story. It is absolutely gripping and emotional.

    The title itself, "unforgiven," is what the story is about. Clint Eastwood "ain't like that no more," he says over and over again, but other people don't get it. His inlaws never accepted him because they never saw that wasn't like that no more. A young kid comes looking for him because of the old stories -- because people didn't understand that he wasn't like that no more. At the center of the plot is a group of prostitutes (yes, really) who can't forgive -- "unforgiven" -- the cowboy who scarred one of them, or their pimp who didn't stand up for them, or the town sheriff who didn't issue a satisfactory penalty on the cowboys.

    There's powerful metaphors (e.g., the sheriff is building a house but there's hardly a straight line anywhere because he can't make a straight line), and scenes where the people silently but strongly reaffirm with their actions key lines that repeat (e.g., Eastwood pushing the whiskey shot to the other side of the table, and refusing a prostitute because in his mind his wife is back home watching over his children).

    They just don't make very many movies this good.
     
  2. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Incredible movie which I now must watch again!
     
  3. Prizewriter

    Prizewriter Moved on

    What impressed me when I watched it was the Eastwood sat on this script so long (he got handed it in the 70's) until he felt ready to play the part. It's that level of commitment that helped make it so good.
     
  4. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    terrific movie. well worth repeated viewings.

    he's starred in and directed so many terrific films.
     
  5. aikiMac

    aikiMac aikido + boxing = very good Moderator Supporter

    I didn't think of this on my previous viewings, but only caught it last night: If Bill ain't like that no more, then why'd he accept the mission? And recruit his friend? :eek:

    More depth to the story! :D
     
  6. Mitch

    Mitch Lord Mitch of MAP Admin

    I love a western, and it's one of my favourites :)

    I think the pace of it is important too, modern films often don't get time to breathe somehow.

    Mitch
     
  7. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Because the farm was failing and it was a righteous cause which - in his mind - was a justification..... Note the parallel exaggerations between the tales of what happened to the girl and the myths about the gunfighters themselves
     
  8. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    Going against the grain, I find it a bit dull, doesn't explore the aspects that do interest me, and I think it's vastly inferior to Pale Rider.
     
  9. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    High Plains Drifter > Pale Rider > The Unforgiven
     
  10. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    I was going to say I found High Plains Drifter better (and indeed Outlaw Josey Wales), but I thought I'd just leave it as is.
     
  11. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    high plains drifter has always been one of my favorite movies.

    another great movie which client starred in is hang 'em high.
     
  12. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Now I've finished my vegan carrot sorbet or whatever the hell I was force fed...

    I hated Westerns when I was young. I'd seen I few I enjoyed, Pole...Pale Rider, but I had seen plenty that had put me off the genre (John Wayne etc - Way too much heroic, macho nonsense for my tastes). I saw Unforgiven and that film alone changed my opinion. Not long after that I watched Deadwood and some other classics and I fell in love with the genre.

    Still, none of them are as good as:

    Back to The Future III :p
     
  13. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    High Plains Drifter -Josey Wales - Unforgiven - Pale Rider

    However, Tombstone - all
     
  14. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    You're taking the joke too far.
     
  15. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Blazing Saddles tops everything.
     
  16. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Tombstone is one of the only films not called Star Wars or Enter the Dragon I am in triple figures for
     
  17. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    I like Val Kilmer's performance in Tombstone a lot.
     
  18. aikiMac

    aikiMac aikido + boxing = very good Moderator Supporter

    Jose Wales is already in my Netflix queue, but I'll put the others in it, including Hang 'Em High (Giovanni). :)
     
  19. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    It's good but I wouldn't compare it to the films already mentioned and it doesn't come close to Leone's Dollars trilogy.

    ------------

    Django is awesome as is 3:10 to Yuma.

    El Topo anyone? I haven't seen that.
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2016
  20. Mitch

    Mitch Lord Mitch of MAP Admin

    You're all wrong.
     

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