Unforgiven places Clint Eastwood precisely in his element. I haven’t even seen that many Clint Eastwood films, but I can say without a doubt this is his type of movie.
The 1992 Best Picture winner also directed by Clint Eastwood is the Clint-essential( see what I did there?) western depicting a retired gunslinger who wants a new life, but is still needed for his particular set of skills. This precise role is one Clint has played time and time again, yet with each turn brings something new, yet very Eastwood to the role.
Everything is going fine in the town of Big Whisky, a domesticated place in the new Old West full of people working for a living, ready to leave the vagabond days of the old Old West in the past. That serenity was disrupted when an injustice occurs that cannot be ignored. One young vigilante The’Schofield Kid’( Jaimz Woolvett) enlists the help of retired widower Bill Munny( Clint Eastwood) . The kid finally convinces Munny to help him seek revenge under one condition; Bill never does any gunslinging without his lifelong partner, Ned Logan( Morgan Freeman) . The three then march on with murder in their eyes to right the last wrong in Big Whisky.
The cinematography is always a treat when a film is centered largely outdoors. The shots of hills and valleys of Canada were a wonderful backdrop to our hero’s tale. The acting was never really stretched, as it was what you’d expect from the two male leads. The story was a little tired, with a very been-there-done-that feel to it. I can’t really attest to how well this does or does not stack up to the rest of the 1992 Best Picture nominees, as I have not seen any of them, although my initial assumption is to guess that it was a slow movie year.