Unforgiven [4K Ultra-HD] [1992] [Blu-ray] [2017]

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.

`Unforgiven' (1992) rightfully won a batch of Oscars. It's a magnificent Western so much of the old fiery action but with a distinct twist of the new style. This is not a film of `Bang! Bang! You're dead!'. Here you see the pain, the damage caused by firearms - even the impact on the killer. It is a film dominated by the gun - even the ever-present stormy weather with its thunder-claps reminds you of the gun. Weapons are unloaded and loaded, loudly cocked and fired with an echo to underscore the mayhem inflicted. The story is simple. A whore (Delilah) is badly slashed and her friends collect money to get revenge of the two cowboys responsible. The tale of the bounty spreads but first they have to get past Sheriff Little Billy Daggett (Gene Hackman), a tough enforcer of law if a bad carpenter. English Bob (Richard Harris) tries, is out-manoeuvred and ridiculed before being driven out of town. Meanwhile far away in Kansas Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) ,a universally feared `assassin' straightened out by the love of his wife (Claudia Feathers), now dead, is tempted, because of poverty, to join the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) in search of the bounty. They are joined by Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) and ride into town during an horrific storm. So what happens next? See the film and, if you like Westerns, you'll love it: if you don't love Westerns admire the direction by Eastwood, the crisp dialogue, the costumes, the sets ...... You name it and you can admire it. One feature you might miss are the expressions on some of the minor characters -e.g. Sally Two Trees as Ned rides away, Deputy Andy Russell in the last gunfight and Delilah Fitzgerald at the very end - which show how much Eastwood learned from Sergio Leone, the master of the spaghetti western. This film spawned a few excellent Westerns (`Open Range' and `The Broken Trail' are but two I've seen recently) but none are as good as this masterpiece. Certainly it's definitely in the top 5 Westerns of all time.

Easy to play, Easy viewing, good product

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.

Perhaps an out and out favourite-Western for many over the past 30 years, seeing the legendary Clint Eastwood both direct and star in the film. After an incident in Big Whisky, Wyoming which saw a whore badly cut-up by two cowboys and go virtually unpunished by Little Bill Doggett (Gene Hackman) the town sheriff, the working girls club together to raise a bounty on the head of the two offenders. Well $1000 was a lot of money back then and was sure to attract interest, among them a young would-be gunman calling himself the Schofield Kid ( Jaimz Woolvett ) seeks out former gunslinger and thief Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) t help him kill the cowboys and claim the reward offered. Well, these days Will has hung-up his guns and become a struggling pig-farmer and since the death of his wife ,looks after their two youngsters William Jnr and Penny,, in fact a reformed character in his words ''I'm not like that anymore'' However, Will needing the cash changes his mind, digs out his guns and struggles to get back on a horse to catch-up with Schofield, along the way he'll enlist the help of his old partner and ace rifleman Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) The two chase down and join the nearly blind as it turns out Schofield Kid. Meanwhile back in Whiisky Brit gunman English Bob (Richard Harris) along with his biographer have turned up in town, but reluctant to give up his guns Bob will be beaten and run out of town by Little Bill. After travelling for some time in heavy rain, during which both Ned and the Kid take whisky whilst Will believing the drink to be the cause of his wickedness in days gone by does not, Will is suffering from the weather, the three turn up in Whisky visiting the saloon/whore house. Whilst there Ned and the Kid take advantage of what's on offer upstairs whilst Will is slumped, ill downstairs, Little Bill and his deputies turn up, Will is still wearing a gun belt for which the sheriff deals out a beating to send Will on his way, the two upstairs escape. It takes Will three days to recover after which the three go after the cowboys that had attacked Delilah, one of the cowboys are killed, however, Ned, a sharp-shooter had not been able to ma2ke the shot, Will does instead. Realizing that returning to killing was not for him, Ned heads for home. Will and the Kid go after the second offender, turns out that the Kids boast that he'd killed five men before was simply not so, killing the cowboy was his first. The two when receiving the reward money are told that Ned had been captured and killed and was on display outside the whore-house. The Kid, has no stomach to kill again, Will tanked up with whisky sets out to avenge his old partner/friend...the whisky returns Will to his lethal best. Have to say, not only a great Western that has several superb performances on-board especially that of Clint and Gene, the bonus is the sharpness of the picture quality of the 4k format....a must own for Western-Fans.

Great movie, great print, great to own a physical copy

"Unforgiven" is one of my favorite movies of all time. This release is really great - picture quality is pretty amazing. Sound is 5.1 but is sound very good. Overall, I highly recommend it to those who appreciate this movie to own it on 4K - it's worth it.

When a prostitute is mutilated by two cowhands, and justice is not seen to be done, her friends and fellow prostitutes offer a $1000 reward for the murder of the two cowhands as an act of revenge. Amongst those who travel to the town to collect the reward are an English gunman (with his own biographer), and a widowed farmer who sets out with an old friend and a reckless teenager. Seeing himself as the nemesis of these would-be assassins is the town sheriff, who uses increasingly brutal methods to prevent the $1000 being claimed. The simple story does not do justice to the compelling power of this movie - like The Searchers before it (and to a lesser extent, The Outlaw Josey Wales), this is the story of a man in search of his identity and his soul. Eastwood looks suitably grizzled and tormented as a man haunted by his violent past - and the love of the woman for whom he gave it up to become a husband and father. The end of the movie mirrors the beginning, and is especially poignant because we now know both sides of the main character. Eastwood the director gives this movie the look and feel of the Anthony Mann/James Stewart Westerns from the 1950's, and also draws out some superb performances from his cast (Hackman, Harris, & Freeman). Gene Hackman deserved the Academy Award for his performance as the malevolent town sheriff - watch the two set pieces with Richard Harris as "English Bob", when Hackman goes from smug humour to pure evil in the blink of an eye. The DVD I have is the older 1998 release and it shows up a lot of the flaws of early DVD masters - artefacts, motion-ghosting, and lip-sync problems. On the 5.1 sound, the central area sounded "phasey", not giving full dynamic range to the voices (so bad at one point I re-ran the THX calibration to check it wasn't a problem at my end). The 2003 re-release (10th Anniversary) has been remastered and fixes the sound & vision problems - suggest anyone looking for a copy this movie on DVD sticks with the later version