Unforgiven (1992)

Retired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner and a young man.

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writer:

David Webb Peoples

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman

Top 250 #97 | Won 4 Oscars. Another 39 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Will Munny
Gene Hackman	...	Little Bill Daggett
Morgan Freeman	...	Ned Logan
Richard Harris	...	English Bob
Jaimz Woolvett	...	The 'Schofield Kid'
Saul Rubinek	...	W.W. Beauchamp
Frances Fisher	...	Strawberry Alice
Anna Levine	...	Delilah Fitzgerald (as Anna Thomson)
David Mucci	...	Quick Mike
Rob Campbell	...	Davey Bunting
Anthony James	...	Skinny Dubois
Tara Frederick	...	Little Sue (as Tara Dawn Frederick)
Beverley Elliott	...	Silky
Liisa Repo-Martell	...	Faith
Josie Smith	...	Crow Creek Kate

Storyline

The town of Big Whisky is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff 'Little Bill' tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town whores just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Unsatisfied with Bill's justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as 'The Schofield Kid', and aging killer William Munny. Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is gone. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned, saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth.

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Plot Keywords:

cowboy | sheriff | gunslinger | one last job | prostitute | 

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Genres:

Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, and violence, and for a scene of sexuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 August 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

The William Munny Killings

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Box Office

Gross:

$101,157,447 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Malpaso Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby (as Dolby Stereo)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Most of the rain in the film was specially created because Calgary, where it was shot, was experiencing a dry spell, though the snowfall that is featured when William Munny is recovering from his beating was unexpected (and unscripted).

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Goofs

Little Bill says that the Walker Colt blew up in Corkys hand, "a failing common to that model" but the Walker Colt did not have this problem. One of its successors, the 1860 Army Colt with fluted Cylinder, had this problem due to thinner material in the cylinder.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Quick Mike: Dammit! Come a-running, lad!
Delilah Fitzgerald: Stop it!

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Crazy Credits

Instead of the usual Warner Bros. closing logo, it shows the Warner Bros. shield in black and white without a banner.

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Connections

Featured in Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Claudia's Song"
Written by Clint Eastwood and Lennie Niehaus

User Reviews

Eastwood & Hackman shine

Unforgiven is about as far from the fantasy mythos of A Fistful of Dollars as Clint Eastwood could get. No pin-point accuracy with 19th century technology, no desire to 'play fair' and face the enemy on even terms. If you can shoot him in the back...then do it.

Eastwood puts in an astonishing performance as the retired killer Muny, saved from his life of thievery and murder by his late wife. Now, desperately trying to support his children with no income, he is tempted back to his killing ways by the bounty offered by the women of a brothel, one of whom's number has been savagely beaten and disfigured by a drunken ranch-hand.

The film follows Eastwood as he wrestles with his desire to honour his wife's memory and his need to feed his children by returning to the killer that, he fears, is his true nature. Meanwhile word of the bounty has spread and the events spiral out of control as the sheriff (Gene Hackman) deals with the guns for hire that ride into town.

While all the supporting cast are excellent Gene Hackman's Oscar winning performance even manages to eclipse Eastwoods as the brutal Sheriff. He beats one of the bounty hunters, English Bob (Richard Harris) almost to death and then explains to a journalist, in one of the film's stand out scenes, how men like he and Muny are so successful at killing. The mood moves from light banter to life threatening seriousness...and back again, with just one move of his head.

One of the greatest Westerns ever made? Certainly. Although the fact it's a western is really secondary. In truth it's a tale of the nature of evil and the nature of man. Eastwood uses the gap between the western myth and reality as an arena to play out his story and does so with consummate style.