Unforgiven - Special Edition
12 years ago there was a film that secured Clint Eastwood as one of the greatest directors in motion picture history.
Unforgiven
This film sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood, Eastwood reinvented the western just as Sergio Leone had 2 decades before.
Film premise:
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman are retired outlaws who, for one last time pick up their guns and set
12 years ago there was a film that secured Clint Eastwood as one of the greatest directors in motion picture history.
Unforgiven
This film sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood, Eastwood reinvented the western just as Sergio Leone had 2 decades before.
Film premise:
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman are retired outlaws who, for one last time pick up their guns and set out on a journey to collect a bounty.
Film Review:
As I watched this movie the thing that jumps out to me every time is the composition.
The whole film has been beautifully composed and shot; this is easily the one of Clint Eastwood’s best directorial efforts.
Eastwood’s character “William Munny” is a retired outlaw who is a widowed parent. He is now a farmer struggling to put bread on the table for the family when he gets a visit from an ambitious cowboy “The Schofield Kid”.
The offer: Become his partner, help kill two no good cowboys and share the $1,000 reward. He decides to join his old partner “Ned” and they both catch up with the Kid. We soon realise that the Kids Blind, Ned can’t kill anyone anymore and William’s fighting his past.
This film is heavily character driven; William Munny goes through a dramatic change throughout the film, from a loving father who works on his farm to a cold blooded killer who he didn’t want to become again. All of the actors are superb, the sound track is great and the cinematography is gorgeous.
This is in my top 3 westerns of all time next to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in The West.
Verdict: 9.5/10
Video Quality:
The image is presented in its original theoretical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, it’s an anamorphic transfer. The colours are beautiful and vivid this DVD contains some of the best colour reproduction that I have seen. The Lighting and shadows are perfectly defined and help make the scenes look all the more enthralling, compared to my VHS version the DVD breaths new life into this movie. The transfer is not perfect through; on multiple occasions dust becomes noticeable, but is not really problematic.
Verdict: 9/10
Sound Quality:
This DVD features a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix which makes Clint Eastwood’s theme tune sound great. Dialogue is crystal clear, pouring rain and thunder, just to name a few make good use of the surround sound channels.
Verdict: 8/10
Extras:
Disc One:
Audio Commentary – The commentary is by film critic and Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel. He gives great insight into the making of this film and he explains in great depth about the characters and their evolution throughout the film. I have listened to a lot of commentaries and I have to say that this is without doubt one of the best, he is very enthusiastic all the way through and is a delight to listened to.
Awards – This is a collection of pages showing us what awards this film gained at various ceremonies.
Trailer - This is the original theatrical trailer and has a running time of 1 minute 51 seconds, quality is average.
Disc Two:
Eastwood on Eastwood – This is a very interesting documentary about Clint Eastwood’s life. This is great for any Eastwood fan (such as me). It contains rare footage from some of his first TV productions and follows him through various films of his career.
In my opinion it is one of the best features on this DVD.
All on Accounta Pullin’ a Trigger – This documentary contains interviews with most of the actors including Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman also from the scriptwriter, David Peoples. It mainly focuses on the script and how it got into Clint’s hands. The cast also talk about the film and what each of their characters roles are and how they change during the film.
Eastwood and Co: Making Unforgiven – This is a making of documentary. It again focuses on Clint Eastwood and his directing ability. It is based on the set of "Big Whisky" and contains some very interesting making of information, such as when they where on their horses talking, they where actually on ladders.
Eastwood…A Star Featurette – This featurette discus what films made Eastwood the star he is today, from the spaghetti western trilogy to Dirty Harry. It also talks about why he dedicated Unforgiven to Sergio Leone and Don Segal.
It contains interviews with Clint Eastwood talking about the films he has made and what attracted him to those projects, it contains brief parts of these films.
Classic Maverick Episode – This is a vintage episode of Maverick starring James Garner. It was also one of Clint’s first successful Television appearances. The picture quality is very good considering that its an old TV program from the 50’s, the sound is also fine with no crackling or any other problems.
Verdict: 8/10
Packaging:
The DVD came in a slim Digipak case which looks and feels very nice.
Final Verdict:
This is a brilliant film that has been given the treatment it deserves on DVD. The picture and sound are great.
The special features are mainly based around Clint Eastwood and sometimes neglect the film completely, so I would say that this DVD is great for any Clint Eastwood fanatic. I am very pleased with this DVD and I am proud to have it in my collection, I think this should be on any self respecting collector’s wish list.
Final Verdict: 9/10
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