Stars:
Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris
Writer:
David Webb Peoples
Director:
Clint Eastwood
Feature
length: 131 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary By Film Critic And Eastwood Biographer Richard
Schickel, Eastwood Highlights, Awards List, Theatrical Trailer, Documentaries,
Classic “Maverick” Episode “Duel At Sundown”
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French Language Dolby Surround
Sound 2.0
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Digipack Gatefold Within A Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter
Stops: 33
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound 2.0
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1992/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Two
years after Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves” won the Best Picture of
1990 at the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences annual award ceremony
otherwise known as the “Oscars”®, Clint Eastwood directed what many have
said to be one of the best westerns they have ever seen in years.
“Unforgiven” garnered Oscars® for Best Picture of 1992, Best Director –
Clint Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor – Gene Hackman, and Best Editing –
Joel Cox along with numerous other honors. Collectively both films revived the
western in Hollywood films for a short time and inspired numerous writers,
actors, filmmakers, and the audience alike. Outside of “The Man With No Name
Trilogy” I think “Unforgiven” is one of Eastwood’s best westerns.
Eastwood plays a retired outlaw who’s lived a repressed if not puritan
existence taking care of his son and daughter while struggling to survive as a
pig farmer since the untimely death of his wife. Then one day a young man who
calls himself “The Schofield Kid” arrives with an offer to accompany him on
a bounty hunt to kill two cowboys who were involved in the mutilation of a
hooker in Big Whiskey, Wyoming. Reluctant
at first to take the job because of the morality his deceased wife instilled
into him that brought him out of the wickedness of his former self, Eastwood’s
character needs the money to give him and his kids a fresh start so he catches
up to a former partner (Morgan Freeman), who has also traded his gun in for
farming and they rendezvous with the kid and together attempt to collect their
bounty. However the law as embodied in Little Bil (Gene Hackman) is ruthlessly
maintained in Big Whiskey even if it means killing an innocent man. The film
culminates in an explosive climax that questions the very nature of morality.
David
Web Peoples was inspired among other influences by “Taxi Driver,” which when
I come to think of it is also essentially an urban western like “Death Wish”
or “Dirty Harry” and structurally both “Taxi Driver” and
“Unforgiven” do build up to an outburst of unforgettable violence that
defines the film in the end. Well I have to say that Warner Home Video has done
a stellar job with this definitive DVD edition of “Unforgiven” to celebrate
the film’s 10th anniversary. On disc one we get a dynamite
anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio presentation preserving the bleak,
but still beautiful vast prairies and vistas that help to make “Unforgiven”
unforgettable in its intensity and tone. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack is very well rounded and clear and there is a French Language (dubbed
in Quebec) Dolby Surround Soundtrack as well as English Captions and Closed
Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
encoded on to the dual layered DVD as options.
Film
Critic and Eastwood Biographer Richard Schickel provides a very interesting
feature length audio commentary track that focuses on the characters as well as
the subtext of the film rather than the production. The commentary is extremely
enlightening, but there is one element he never brings up. Why is Hackman’s
character called “Little Bill?” Now here is a theory someone told me once
that I found kind of interesting. The reason why the cowboy attacks and scars
the hooker is because she giggled when she saw the size of his penis. Now this
guy’s take on it is that “Little Bill” goes easy on the cowboys later
because he had empathy for the guy who blew his top over the humiliation he
suffered by the whore’s reaction to seeing his little pecker. Now that sounds
like a reasonable explanation for “Little Bill’s” soft dispensing of
justice especially when we see how violent and merciless he can be with other
characters in the film, but my question then is if this guy is essentially a
loose cannon, why would he allow himself to be called “Little Bill.” I mean
come on would any man regardless of the size of their organ ever tolerate being
called “Little” anything especially if it was in reference to the size of
his penis? I mean that would be equivalent to calling a woman who you casually
know “Surfboard Sue” because she has a chest like a man. I just do not think
anyone, especially a guy like “Little Bill,” would tolerate that kind of
nickname without the least bit resentment, and Bill’s character doesn’t come
across as the silent brooding type either. However, it is an interesting if not
twisted observation that I cannot deny is 100% true or false so if anyone has
the answer or an opinion as to why “Little Bill” is called “Little Bill”
and why he let the cowboys get off so easy if the theory I was told is indeed
true, I’d love to read your thoughts.
The
widescreen theatrical trailer along with various text notes on Eastwood, the
awards the film garnered, and cast list wrap up the extra features on disc one.
Disc two contains the new documentary “All On Accounta Pullin’ A Trigger,”
which features brand new videotaped interviews with Clint Eastwood, Morgan
Freeman, Gene Hackman, Writer David Webb Peoples, and Editor Joel Cox discussing
the film ten years later in retrospect. The documentary has a running time of 22
minutes and 35 seconds. “Eastwood & Co. : Making Unforgiven (22:53) is a
1992 behind-the-scenes look at the production while “Eastwood …A Star”
(16:08) also recaps the shooting of “Unforgiven.”
“Eastwood
On Eastwood” (68:30) chronicles Clint Eastwood’s 50-year career, including
rare footage from TV appearances, home movies, and on-set coverage of the
filming of “Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil.” The 1997 TNT
Documentary was produced, written, and directed by Eastwood Biographer and Film
Critic Richard Schickel and has 8 chapter stops. Finally there is an episode of
“Maverick” entitled “Duel At Sundown,” which aired on ABC on February 1,
1959 and features a pre-“Rawhide” appearance by Clint Eastwood in his only
Warner Brothers produced TV series character appearance. The episode has a
running time of 49 minutes and 4 seconds and is divided up into 10 chapter stops
with two-channel English Monaural Sound and presented in a pretty good looking
black and white (1.33:1) aspect ratio.
The
menus on both discs are standard interactive still frames that are easy to
navigate. “Unforgiven: 10Th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition”
is simply one great DVD set and a must for every Eastwood fan’s DVD movie
collection. The set is available now at retailers on and offline from Warner
Home Video.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.