DVD Features:
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

Unforgiven

• GoodFellas
• The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• The Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut
• Full Metal Jacket
• Troy (Two-Disc Full Screen Edition)
• The Searchers
• The Fifth Element
• The Road Warrior
• The Fugitive
• 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition)

2) The violence at points went a bit far for me. So cheesy. Not here. And frankly, Clint Eastwood rocks. Yes, it added to the drama and reality of the movie, but how many times does a guy need to get kicked in the bloody face. The movie builds tension wonderfully, creates a magical vibe of reality (minus the rather cheesy acting of the young guy who plays the "Scofield Kid"), is full of flesh-and-blood, fallible characters with whom you can empathize and whom you can hate - or be sickened by, or root for. Mostly Hollywood stinks.

It WORKS. And best of all this movie has QUITE the payoff. Morgan to Clint, set in 1880: "Do you use your hand." WHATEVER.

It's a story of two old retired gunfighters, long reformed in their ways, stepping back into the ring for one last hurrah of badness - assassination for hire. Okay, two more little criticisms:. 1) The scene where Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood discuss sex and masturbation came out of left field and deflated the reality of the moment.

Miller. As far as grandiose Westerns go, this is about my favorite - along with McCabe and Mrs. He plays his part to the T.

Clintwood, as director, shows that his attitudes about who we are may very well parallel those of Sam Peckinpah, as in 'Pat Garret and Billy the Kid' and 'The Wild Bunch.'. Eastwood's character, Muny, is a man with a troubled past. The local sheriff, Little Bill, is, himself, a sadistic man and exacts retribution on Muny's little gang. They are the filthy business that murder always is. His wife, however, tried to set him straight and he makes his life as a poor and simple farmer. The prostitutes couldn't get the law to arrest the culprits so they have raised money and, in so doing, they have taken the law into their own hands.

It's all so very satisfying which, I'm afraid, speaks volumes about our basic human nature. Ron Braithwaite author of novels"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico Temptation comes to him in the form of bounty money offerred for the killing of men who cut and scarred a prostitue in Little Whiskey, Wyoming. All we know is that he was brutalized and committed atrocities. He was a border raider in Kansas and Missouri during the Civil War although we never learn which side he was on.

This is, in my opinion, an excellent film. The killings aren't idealized. The result is a series of brutal killings with one culprit shot to death while sitting in an outhouse. Muny, all veneer of civilization now completely stripped away, exacts bloody vengeance. There are no 'good guys', only different degrees of wrong.

"Unforgiven" is a deconstruction of the classical Western. Muny, at the urging of a very young, very inexperienced wannabe gunfighter, complies.

Hackman is the best thing in the movie. It's all these guys in their later years so kind of goofy to see them as trying to be studs. BR continues to miss on the extras.

The film is violent, but in a repressed sort of way, allowing the majority of the film to ride on the anticipation of bloodshed and only truly rearing its head in short explosions of brutality. The acting is also golden here. I may not be an avid supporter of the genre as a whole, but when a western is done right it can be nothing short of amazing. William Munny, a former murderer turned caring father and widower, hears of the reward and, hesitantly, decides to pursue it in order to better take care of his two children. `Unforgiven' is done very, very right.

Gene Hackman steals the whole show though as Bill Daggett, the ruthless sheriff. I've stated before that westerns were never really my thing, and it's not like Eastwood has a huge draw on me either. He does that here as well. When the sheriff doesn't do anything more than slap the men's wrists the women of the community put out a reward for the men's head. Morgan Freeman seems to just coast through his scenes, but his companionship with Eastwood is unmatchable. `Unforgiven' opens with a sharp pain of brutality as two men victimize a woman. Along with his former sidekick Ned Logan and an overly confident young gunslinger going by the name of The Schofield Kid, Munny makes his way into town with his horse and his gun and the smell of blood.

I was impressed with him in `Million Dollar Baby' because I felt as though he made his harshness work to his advantage. In the end I'm pleased to say that `Unforgiven' stands up as worthy of the praise and attention it has received. I can't say if it was the best film of the year (92 was such a fantastic year for film) but it most definitely ranks in my top ten and surely will stand the tests of time as one of the most effective westerns of all time, defining everything that makes the genre what it is. The overall feel of the film is very gritty and dark and adds weight to the moral that is brought to the full as the curtains close so-to-speak.

Clint has never really sold it for me. This allows `Unforgiven' to become more than just an action film or a bloodbath but creates a film that is as deep and poignant as it is entertaining. Eastwood really went all out with this production. He's serviceable at best in my opinion, only on rare occasions having his overly gruff mannerisms pay off with brilliance. Watching `Unforgiven' has really made me realize that you should never judge a film before you see it, because you never truly know what's in store for you.

Next to `Million Dollar Baby' this has got to be his finest performance. His savagery is embellished by his sick sense of justification and that makes Hackman's character development nothing short of extraordinary. After the amazing year westerns in general had last year (`3:10 to Yuma', `No Country for Old Men' and `.Jesse James.' all making my top ten of the year) I figured that maybe I should research this Oscar winning classic to see if the films iconic status was justified. It's really no wonder it's taken me this long to finally see `Unforgiven'. He just has such a natural talent that even when he isn't doing anything exceptional he is still amazing.

It might make a nice coaster except for the hole in the middle. The "details" in the order indicated this was an "All Region" DVD. It was not & therefore, will not play in my DVD player, Blu Ray player or even my PC.

Somewhere outside of these two countries is the only place these might function. What's even more frustrating is that the cases are marked "Not Authorized for Sale or Rental outside the USA and Canada". I also ordered "the Wild Bunch" in the same format. .

I'll never know through any use of the DVD I received. The movie is probably great. It will not play in any of my machines either.