UNFORGIVEN First Time Watching Movie Reaction

Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. Three absolute gods of American cinema. Such a fantastic cast and film

He shoulda armed himself if he’s gonna decorate his saloon with my friend

'English Bob' is played by the inimitable Richard Harris. He played the Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator and the first Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter. One of the best actors ever.

"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it."

One thing to notice is that Will’s horse is constantly being unruly when he is sober and trying to be a nice guy. Almost like the horse doesn’t recognize him. However, once he becomes his murderous drunken self, the horse is calm. It knows its true master has returned. Will is Death and his steed is the pale horse.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is Eastwood's best Western imo this is a close second.

Clint Eastwood bought the rights to the screenplay and held onto it for 10 years until he looked older and more believable. Now, that's someone who takes filmmaking seriously. Unforgiven won the Best Picture Oscar and Best Director (Clint Eastwood).

This was the grand finale for Clint Eastwood's westerns. This story was essentially the conclusion of the western gunslinger archetype that he portrayed in all his previous Westerns. Its why he purposely waited over 20 years after writing a script, just to give the character the age necessary for such a story. Btw, one thing i really love about your reactions is that you don't talk over key lines. You have excellent attention to detail and seem to pause for commentary rather than talking over the next line or scene. Its a mistake so many other reactors make that you've avoided.

The scene of Clint appearing in the darkness inside the bar is iconic. A Masterpiece

To fully appreciate this movie, you have to understand how it is responding to the tradition of westerns in cinema. Westerns had celebrated violence and killing, as long as it was done by the "good guy." This movie deconstructs the Western Myth. It says, "Killing is never heroic, never glorious; it is always an ugly, disgusting thing." In classic movie westerns, the good guy shot the bad guy, and he fell down dead in an instant. When they shoot Davy in this movie, his death is a slow and ugly thing, which is, in fact, the way it happens with death by gunshot. As Gene Hackman's character explains, the myth of the quick draw is just that, a myth. In reality, a lot of it comes down to luck, and the rest of it has to do with how steady a man's nerves are, which has more to do with how much alcohol he has consumed than anything else. Like Will says, in the days when he did all his killing, he was drunk the whole time. There's nothing heroic or glorious about that. William Munny says it all in his perfect line, which summarizes the theme of the whole movie, "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man; you take away all he has, and all he's ever gonna have."

We can debate which Western has the best single scene, but rather than do that, let's just acknowledge this Western contains one of the best... ever.

Clint Eastwood's masterpiece. One of the few films I've seen in a theater where the audience stood and applauded as the credits rolled.

Saul Rubinek (Beauchamp) was interviewed and said Clint bought the script and held onto it for 10 yrs. Saul said when a script is re-written, colored pages indicate the re-writes. Saul said when he received the script, all script pages were white - no re-writes. It was that good.

My favorite western. I just love how much this film challenges your senses of morality and justice. There is no clear hero or villain. Everyone is just a different shade of gray.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance should be your next western. It is not Clint Eastwood but it is John Wayne. It also depicts the myth of the west versus reality.

The film is the opposite of the stereotype. It absolutely refuses to glorify the killing. Will becomes the Will Munny of old when he receives the news that Little Bill killed Ned and he takes that first sip of whiskey in a decade. He was terrible until he drank, because his muscle memory was tied to being drunk. Great reaction, a real joy to rewatch it with good company like you.

This is one of those movies that if it's on, you always watch...even though you've seen it 100 times. Love this movie.

To me this is the best western of all time. Its like an amalgamation of all the gunslinger characters that Clint ever played just trying to redeem themselves and have some kind of good life after all of the killing. His speech at the end, that whole scene in my opinion is one of the best in film history. A masterpiece.

Clint Eastwood is synonymous with Westerns. High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, The Good The Bad and The Ugly... all legendary films. Eastwood wanted to keep the sets pristine so all camera equipment and such had to be brought to the set on horse drawn cart to keep from making modern tire tracks in the streets of the town.

"We all have it coming, kid".