 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Unforgiven
- Review Date: June 19, 2009
- R
- Genre: Western
- 1992
Common Sense Media says
Violent Oscar winner shatters myths of the Old West.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this movie contains multiple scenes of point-blank gunfire, vicious close-up beatings (including bull-whipping a man's bare back and repeatedly kicking a fallen man in the face), slashing of a woman's face, and a man shot dead while sitting in an outhouse. The language is coarse throughout. The women at the center of this film are prostitutes who are depicted as "property" rather than human beings. One scene shows a sexual act, though the participants are mostly clothed. Other suggestive scenes show the men negotiating for sexual favors. Alcohol is consumed in several sequences.
What's the story?
When a prostitute is brutally slashed in the face and badly scarred, her assailants are discharged without fitting punishment. To avenge their friend, her co-workers offer $1000 reward to anyone willing to kill the attackers. William Munny (Clint Eastwood), a retired outlaw/killer who's trying to go straight and make ends meet for his children on a ramshackle hog farm, joins with his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) and The Scofield Kid, a young braggart, as they head for Big Whiskey, Wyoming to kill the slashers and split the reward. But Sheriff Little Bill Taggart (Gene Hackman) runs a tightly-controlled town. The citizens fear their sheriff even as they respect his authority. Munny and his accomplices arrive and the forces of good and evil collide as justice is sought. But which force is good and which is evil? And, is there purity in either?
Is it any good?
Clint Eastwood's career as a filmmaker and director soared with the release of this movie. Winning Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, among others, UNFORGIVEN offers an original, thought-provoking, and gritty look at the true nature of violence, morality, and justice. Heroes are flawed; villains are complex. The act of taking a life has seldom been examined in action movies and Westerns. In this one, the consequences of that act override the deed itself: "Killing a man... it don't seem real... how he ain't gonna never breathe again, ever." And, "it's a hell of a thing, killing a man -- you take away all he's got, all he's ever gonna have."
Screenplay, performances, direction, cinematography, and music combine to create a different kind of Western, one that made a significant change in an All-American genre.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about how this movie is a departure from traditional Westerns (for example: the good guy is an outlaw; the bad guy is the sheriff). What are some of the other Old West myths that are turned upside down here?
How does the story of English Bob help illustrate what the west was really like?
What do you think the filmmakers were trying to say about the consequences of evil and/or violent behavior?
How do the women in this film stand up for themselves?
What other choices do you think they had?
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AGE
e.g. Perfect for older kids, but not for tweens
It's quite great, and one of Clint's best films (only Million Dollar Baby is better).
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AGE
unforgiven
i asolutly love movie, i saw it at the midnight pemere and it was so awesome
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AGE
The Evil Of William Munny
I'm going to attempt to review this movie as if I'm writing to adults, since I'm assuming that no parent in their right mind would allow a child under the age of 13 to view this picture. If you haven't seen the film, let me say that Eastwood announced in 1992 when the movie was released, that this movie would be his last western. And what a way to go out--with his boots on, so to speak.
First and foremost, there are no good characters in this movie. Every character in this movie is a bad person of some sorts, whether it be a murderer, prostitute, corrupt sheriff, pimp, etc. Eastwood has not portrayed a more evil man in any other film he's been in--including Gran Torino or The Outlaw Josey Wales. William Munny, an ex-outlaw and "man of intemperate disposition", attempts to make a better life for his kids after his Christian wife dies of small pox in 1878. In order to do that, he joins up with The Scofield Kid and Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to chase out of a group of prostitute-assaulting cowboys. Although the movie is not sexually graphic, nearly every female lead is a prostitute looking for revenge on the brutal cowboys.
This is a fine film and at the age of 12-13 years old, I first saw this in the theaters with my own father. But it's not a movie for kids younger than teen age. Even some teens may not be able to fully grasp the evil of the people in this movie. It's one of my favorite films of all time and eons above Bronco Billy and Pale Rider (which I'm also fond of). I would not hesitate to put it in the same category (or above) as the Segio Leone films. Teens and adults enjoy the best picture of 1992. But if you're going to let someone younger than that view it in order to avoid paying for a babysitter, think twice.
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AGE
A true Western Classic. I love this movie, and one to share with progeny when old enough to handle life and death.
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AGE
Unforgiven
A stunning movie that the gods would even have to bow down too. Definantly Clint Eastwood's best western so far (next to Pale Rider). I would give this movie 100 stars if I could, but I guess I have to limit myself to only 5.
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| Studio: | Warner Bros. |
| Director: | Clint Eastwood |
| Cast: | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman |
| Genre: | Western |
| Run time: | 131 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | August 7, 1992 |
| DVD release date: | September 24, 2002 |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | for language, violence and for a scene of sexuality |
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