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90s DISCUSSION


RIPPA

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My Unforgiven review from age ago. In spoiler tags for size.

Sometimes when you re-visit a film your opinion of it can go up, down or about the same. My appreciation of Unforgiven if anything went up second time around which is something because of how well I regarded it the first time I watched it.

Clint Eastwood plays a former brutal outlaw, William Munny who is a widower living with his two children, he has monetary trouble and most of the pigs he keeps have the fever. A young upstart called the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) persuades Munny to collect a bounty on two cowboys who scarred a prostitute’s face. Munny recruits his old partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) as the three of them head out to kill the culprits. Sherriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) of Big Whisky doesn’t take kindly to this and sets out to stop them.

The thing I like most about Unforgiven is seeing what happens to the central characters. William Munny tells The Schofield Kid and Ned Logan repeatedly that he’s changed his ways, he no longer drinks alcohol thanks to his wife who died. The Schofield Kid’s is short sighted and brags that he’s killed five people which Munny and Logan see through as do the audience. When the trio catches up with the targets, we find Ned Logan can’t pull the trigger anymore and leaves Munny/The Schofield Kid to kill the last target. The Schofield Kid kills the target which marks his first ever killing and then says it will be his last so his story has done a full circle. While that was happening Ned Logan is caught by Little Bill Daggett’s men and is beaten to death. William Munny upon hearing the news drinks for the first time in ages and sets out for revenge reverting back to what he once was.

The climax of the film is certainly one of my favourite moments in any film as William Munny returns to the rain and thunder hit town finding Ned Logan’s body outside the saloon with a sign on him warning assassins this is their fate. William Munny enters killing Skinny, the loathsome person who owns the saloon/the prostitutes, Sherriff Little Bill Daggett and those who fire at him. This sequence is excellent for the dialogue, the weather and seeing William Munny return to how he used to be as referenced by other characters in the film.

One of my other favourite scenes is when William Munny and the scarred prostitute are together when she offers her services to him but William declines for his wife, who admires that but doesn’t know until later that she’s actually passed on.

A criticism I occasionally find leveled at Unforgiven is English Bob. I don’t have a problem with English Bob, Richard Harris was fun in the role. Sherriff Little Bill Daggett‘s beating of English Bob had relevance to the story as it acted as a deterrent to those living in Big Whisky but also to those who wanted to collect on the prostitutes reward money.

Unforgiven deservedly won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman) and Best Editing (Joel Cox). Clint Eastwood lost out in the Best Actor category which is a shame.

Unforgiven’s superb for the story, the performances, the film’s cinematography, the main theme, the theme during the memorable climax and not forgetting the film’s poster either. Unforgiven is Clint Eastwood’s best directed film. Unforgiven is also a classic.

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  • 1 month later...

80's were my biggest list, 90's isn't bad:

Saving Private Ryan (1998, Speilberg)
Fight Club (1999, Fincher)
Goodfellas (1990, Scorsese)
Schindler’s List (1993, Speilberg)
Leon: The Professional (1994, Besson)
The Usual Suspects (1995, Singer)
Jurassic Park (1993, Speilberg)
The Big Lebowski (1998, Coen’s)
The Fifth Element (1997, Besson)
Heat (1995, Mann)
The Boondock Saints (1999, Duffy)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991, Cameron)
Office Space (1999, Judge)
Unforgiven (1992, Eastwood)
Dances With Wolves (1990, Costner)
A Few Good Men (1992, Reiner)
Starship Troopers (1997, Verhoven)
Last of the Mohicans (1992, Mann)
Dark City (1998, Proyas)
Falling Down (1993, Schumacher)
Star Trek:First Contact (1996, Frakes)
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999, Jarmuch)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Unpimped so far:

Miller's Crossing (Coen, 1990)
The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991)
Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992)
Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley, 1992)
True Romance (Scott, 1993)
The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
Natural Born Killers (Stone, 1994)
Se7en (Fincher, 1995)
Apollo 13 (Howard, 1995)
Casino (Scorsese, 1995)
Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996)
Fargo (Coen, 1996)
Good Will Hunting (Van Sant, 1997)
L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 1997)
Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)
The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999)

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