March Recommendation: Unforgiven

 

            In my latest monthly recommendation I decided to choose a movie that I have not got around in seeing and granted there's a lot of movies I haven't got around in seeing, for which really there's no point in explaining because I got a huge scolding from my own brother, and he dedicated this year of movies I most certainly need to see. Unforgiven is Clint Eastwood's epic and final western masterpiece that's infamous for winning best picture at the Academy Awards but more importantly winning best director for Clint Eastwood. Eastwood through the course of his career has always been doing Westerns in fact the Western gerne was a big part of his career and his best directed movie was basically a way of not giving the epic gunfighter the honorable notion but show more of the cruel environment, 19th Century America was.

            When a prostitute is disfigured by a pair of Cowboys in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, fellow brothel workers post a reward for their murder, much to the displeasure of the sheriff (Gene Hackman), who doesn't allow vigilantism in his town. William Munny (Clint Eastwood), an aging gunfighter having problems with his own farm, decides to take on the reward along with his former partner (Morgan Freeman), comes to town and collects the reward only to have a final showdown with the cruel Sheriff.

            Through the course of cinema, you truly begin to see the Western genre evolving with certain directors like John Ford making the great landscapes with heroic characters as well as great action sequences and Sergio Leone showing the heroic actors as well but also bringing a gritty side to the genre. And Eastwood wanted to show more of a black and white side to the whole Western genre where the outlaws are not always the grand heroes you'd always see, neither the Sherriff as well. So, Eastwood decided to create a Western where all of the gunfighters are not so brave but more evil especially Gene Hackman's character which will get to that later, when seeing this movie twice I begin to see that Clint Eastwood's character represents more of the anti-hero aspect of the movie where he's trying to put a side his past but when he here's the story of the cruelty to a prostitute and decides to take this offer despite the fact that he's way past his prime but he does it anyway just because his farm is not prospering and he needs to provide a future for his own kids. Gene Hackman's character is the definition of evil for many reasons, he claims to be on the right of everything and wants to be the only man carrying a gun, moreover, abuses his power in beating any gunfighters to a pulp whenever they don't follow his rules. Though what shows Hackman's character being evil is that he could have avoided all the chaos by hanging the cowboys that cut up the hooker but instead gives them a slap on the wrist because he looks down on the hookers. And sure, hookers are all righteous, but they were doing what normal women do to survive in a cruel world that is 19th Century America. So, in all honesty what makes Unforgiven such a great movie is that it shows more of a realistic tone to the Western genre and that nobody is pure, and in the final showdown Clint's character hearing about his friend, decides in his own way to put in end of the Sheriff's antics, but even if the Hackman's character didn't kill Munnys friend he could of left and go back to his kids but it's that one thing that Eastwoods character in which pushes him back into the realm of violence. Eastwood is excellent in the starring role as well as directing role I mean the guy received an Oscar for his directing so there's no question how great he was in the movie in fact I would prefer to watch this movie more than Gran Torino. But it's both Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman's acting is what makes this film a hundred times great. Morgan Freeman who plays Eastwood's partner in crime does a great job playing a character who did bad things but just can't muster the energy in killing again and as great and iconic Freeman is as an actor you feel for him through the course of the movie. I forgot to mention that this was another Gene Hackman movie that I'm continuing to honor him by watching even though this is another film in his filmography I haven't seen. But during the development Gene Hackman at the time pledged to not do another violent movie and I'm confident this was after filming Mississippi Burning, moreover both Eastwood and Hackman knew each other through the years and yet never made a movie together convinced Hackman to do this role because this was a different kind of western, for which Hackman gave it another read and decided to accept the role and even him does an excellent job playing the purest of evil in the entire movie, hell even one his second Oscar so what else is there to say about Hackman in this movie other than three years later he went on to film the Quick and the Dead. The film has a tone of great analogies that I can discuss for a long time as well as a ton of great actors lead by a great actor and director. Unforgiven proves the test of time in being the all-time greatest in the Western genre of film as well as deserves my praise to be on my list, in the top five Greatest Westerns of all time.