Unforgiven [DVD] [1992]

Clint directs his modern 1992 western, that is both poingant and entertaining, a great cast ( Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris plus Clint) makes the whole thing very real and visceral in it's depiction of an 1870's wild west that is both violent and unjust. A woman is cut up by a cowboy and becomes the focus of a revenge movie, which is pulling a man who has given up the ghosts of a previous violent life, back to his most base talents. The portrayal of an assasins trade is well done, as there are often moments of deep regret, fear and a human rejection of the killers trade. English Bob, Little Bill and William Munny sparkle with historical character and a dark back story that sits poorly with the idea of good old boys in white or black hats doing a high noon. A movie I often re-visit that always delivers. Well worth your time.

Unforgiven is a movie released in 1992. The film is the baby of the one and only Clint Eastwood. The man with the stare not only starred in the film but he also directed and produced the thing. The story was written by David Webb Peoples, also known for his work on Blade Runner and Twelve Monkeys. Alongside Clint is a number of top stars including Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. The film was a huge success, grossed a heck of a lot of money and won a fair amount of awards.The film follows William Munny (Clint Eastwood) as a burnt out old farmer with two kids. His choice of life has left him skint and the family needing. All of a sudden, The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) comes knocking. He's looking for an ex-criminal known for his mean temper and ability to shoot on sight without a care in the world. As it turns out, this is our dear William. He's got a bounty on two cowboys who slices up a prostitute. William initially refuses after getting out of that life. But with two children in need of a good meal, he eventually takes up his old ways alongside his partner Ned (Morgan Freeman). The story sees us between this group and "Little" Bill (Gene Hackman), sheriff of the town Big Whiskey. A man determined to keep gun play out of his town with the two sides eventually butting heads.As a film, Unforgiven is by far the best of the late period westerns. The western trope was well out of fashion and I don't recall many being made in the 90s onwards, with a few exceptions including the magnificent Tombstone. I love the fact that this is a western that doesn't fall into the usual stereotypes. We don't see fancy trick shots, chase scenes, cheesy one liners and so on. The film generally stays clear of those things and it remains grounded.The fact Eastwood plays an older man, someone who has been well out of the game for so long makes it even better. It's not a romantic portrayal of the wild west and is fairly grounded in that regard. Gene Hackman is absolutely fantastic too. His character Bill Daggett is ruthless, intimidating and it's easily my favourite role of his. That's saying something considering his previous work. Eastwood and Hackman don't have many scenes together by my god, when they're face to face, it's intense. It's a shame they never did anything of the sort again. Morgan Freeman is as charming as ever and Richard Harris has a great small part. The only weakness in the cast for me is Jaimz Woolvett. I have never liked his acting here but it's serviceable and only a small part next to the previously mentioned acting legends.The actual transfer of this 4k disc is pretty good. It's a noticeable upgrade to the previous Blu-ray transfer with good clarity, colour and depth. The sound is also very good. Having this movie cranked up in a surround sound system is fantastic. The scenes in which the characters traverse through the storm etc all sounds magnificent and some of the best use of weather I think I've heard so far. I'm not sure it's worth the usual £20 asking price for a 4k disc not being the best transfer out there but by all means, it's well worth the discount price. I picked up this sucker up for around £12 and that was worth every penny.

Clint Eastwood is always someone you can rely on to entertain, be it in front or behind the camera, and 'Unforgiven' proves no exception to that rule (here he features on both sides of the camera). Having said that, the degree of success he achieves doing that for me is variable, as all too often I find his direction leads to films which are superbly constructed and laden with messages of morality but ultimately leave me feeling they total less than the sum of their parts.For me, 'Unforgiven' is far more successful as a cinematic vehicle for story-telling than his more recent work that I have seen, which usually (eg 'Gran Torino', 'Million Dollar Baby' or 'Changeling') left me feeling slightly under whelmed and thinking the presentation a little pretentious, but still of course extremely well-produced....I think in the case of 'Unforgiven' success is achieved because the plot has more 'strands' to it than other later work, so the 'messages' within are more numerous and varied.The film, which is often extremely violent and rightly has a '15' viewing certificate, earned Eastwood 'Oscars' for Best Picture and Best Director. On Blu-ray it looks and sounds superb, with terrific clarity and detail. There is an improvement over an upscaled playback of the newer remastered 2-disc DVD - the Blu-ray has greater sharpness/detail (eg background trees are perfectly clear whereas on the DVD they're a bit mushy) but overall the improvement is slight, a real testament to how good DVD can still be if given the right 'treatment'.So to the plot, which despite being multi-stranded is not complicated:"A once very violent and ruthless gunman (played by Eastwood), now a widowed-father of 2 young children, is drawn back to his old habits after receiving an invitation to team-up with a much less 'experienced' gunman, who is seeking the financial reward on offer to kill the man responsible for the violent maiming of a local-working prostitute. The significant other aspects of the story include enticing an old 'colleague' to join the two bounty-hunters (who then proceed to hunt their prey) and, most significantly, dealing with the sheriff of the town (played by Gene Hackman, on Oscar-winning form) where the prostitute lives/works, who makes great efforts to maintain a safe neighbourhood and is not best pleased with the whole ransom-affair, mostly since it threatens to destabilise the largely peaceful community he has created."I've been careful to properly detail the significant personalities in the film, not just because their attributes are core to the themes of morality and good vs bad which I think Eastwood is aiming to convey (in a screenplay inspired by American author Glendon Swarthout's book 'The Shootist'), but also because if you read the Amazon synopsis there is a massive error in it. It labels the Sheriff character as 'corrupt' when he is anything but - he is actually very much the 'good guy' (the author of that piece clearly needs to watch the film again !), despite some of his law-keeping being rather robust ! And that is actually quite a pertinent point, since Eastwood doesn't usually play the true 'villain'; but here in 'Unforgiven' he most definitely is the bad guy, despite any impressions you might form to the contrary by virtue of him seeking to revenge a violent act.The story then plays out as the bounty-hunters seek their 'prey' and the law-abiding nature of the town 'sheriffed' by Hackman is upset by other villains visiting to get in on the bounty 'action' (courtesy of a marvellous 'cameo' from Richard Harris), as guns are banned and violence very much frowned upon....Aside from the morality tales, for me the real star of 'Unforgiven' is the performance of Hackman. His character dominates almost every aspect of the film, and despite being credited as a supporting part it is the actions and dialogue of the sheriff which drive the story along - and Hackman delivers his piece in spades, beautifully portraying massive personality swings and an overall sense of being a dominant force. No wonder he won that Oscar.....The ending, which I think is unexpected, is just as ruthless as the violent aspects which precede it and can take a while to properly appreciate, very much like the film as a whole which I did not care for on my first viewing but have since come to like much more. The Blu-ray presents the film to perfection (the DD5.1 might appear to be a bit 'ungenerous' but is perfectly adequate for what is a largely dialogue-driven film), includes a commentary/several featurettes and is well-worth getting to experience this unusual 'Western' at its best; however, if you've already got the newer remastered 2-disc DVD/cannot play Blu-rays then, if upscaled, the DVD is most definitely worth keeping/buying instead as it presents things almost as well.

Selling DVDs with Playback prohibited by area limitation.Got Scammed.

Intèressant , nous Tiens en haleine, et surtout : ce film n' est Pas du tout ' fait ' : reflexion derrière

En mi opinión, uno de los mejores westerns de la historia, un título imprescindible en toda videoteca del buen cinéfilo.Trae subs castellano.Otro 10 para Amazon

Premetto da subito che le 5 stelle sono solo per il film, ed è stata una fortuna trovarlo in edizione UK. Un capolavoro assoluto che in nessuna collezione di Blu Ray deve mancare. Purtroppo mi sono imbattuto in circostanze sfortunate. La custodia del Blu ray presentava al suo interno una spaccatura proprio dove va a poggiarsi il disco. Assolutamente reso fatto ad Amazon, ma capisco anche che il problema sarà stato creato durante la spedizione. Infatti già è in arrivo il prodotto sostitutivo. Se capiterà di nuovo, sarò costretto a non comprare più da Amazon, quindi spero non succederà più.

The region that the dvds will work needs to be identified. I have bought a few movies that doesn't work in a USA dvd player so I wants able to watch the movie.