In Clint Eastwood's acclaimed Western, Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), a sadistic, dictatorial sheriff, enforces gun control on a tiny frontier town, doling out his own brand of due process as he sees fit. When he denies justice to the prostitutes of the town brothel, one of whom has been slashed by a client, the women hire Bill Munny (Eastwood), a reformed gunslinger, to gain vengeance. However, Munny must contend with his new moral code in the face of revisiting the life he left behind. Eastwood's directorial masterpiece also stars Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris.
Clint Eastwood's tenth western and sixteenth directorial effort explores the darker side of the myths of the old west. When retired gunslinger Bill Munny accepts a $500 offer to shoot two men who viciously knifed a prostitute, he discovers just how difficult it is to escape his past as a notorious outlaw.
Filmed in Brooks, Drumheller, Stettler, and Longview, Alberta, Canada, and Sonora California. Shot in Panavision using Technicolor.
Eastwood dedicated UNFORGIVEN "to Sergio [Leone] and Don [Siegel]," two directors who served as his most important mentors.
Released theatrically in the USA August 7, 1992.
Named to the "Top Ten" lists of 243 film critics.
Available to buy in the UK (widescreen version).
Clint Eastwood was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the March 27, 1995, Academy Award Ceremonies. It was presented to him by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Excerpt: "I ain't like that no more."--Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood)
DVD Features:
Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Surround 5.1 English
Dolby Surround Stereo 2.0 French
Director of Photography
Jack N. Green: Director of Photography, SERENITY (2005)
Production Designer
Henry Bumstead: Production Designer, MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004)
Review 1:
"...Time has been good to Clint Eastwood....The cast is splendid..."
Source: New York Times
p.C1 08/07/1992
Review 2:
"...The film is full of sly or amusing touches....Deftly placed emotional moments..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars
Source: USA Today
p.1D 08/07/1992
Review 3:
"...Engaging....Enjoy it for the handsome wide-screen vistas, the interplay of the actors, the classical sweep of its story line..."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.36-7 08/14/1993
Review 4:
"...The screenplay by David Webb Peoples has dialogue as spare and evocative as Hemingway..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.3 12/27/1992
Review 5:
"Eastwood's a true icon..."
Source: Total Film
p.9 03/01/2004
Review 6:
"[An] intense, complex meditation on the corrupting nature of violence."
Source: Uncut
p.106 02/01/2003