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Unforgiven (1992)

tomatometer

96

Average Rating: 8.5/10
Reviews Counted: 56
Fresh: 54 | Rotten: 2

As both director and star, Clint Eastwood strips away decades of Hollywood varnish applied to the Wild West, and emerges with a series of harshly eloquent statements about the nature of violence.

82

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 2

As both director and star, Clint Eastwood strips away decades of Hollywood varnish applied to the Wild West, and emerges with a series of harshly eloquent statements about the nature of violence.

audience

91

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 103,998

My Rating

Movie Info

Dedicated to his mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood's 1992 Oscar-winner examines the mythic violence of the Western, taking on the ghosts of his own star past. Disgusted by Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett's decree that several ponies make up for a cowhand's slashing a whore's face, Big Whiskey prostitutes, led by fierce Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), take justice into their own hands and put a $1000 bounty on the lives of the perpetrators. Notorious outlaw-turned-hog farmer

R, 2 hr. 11 min.

Western, Drama

David Peoples

Mar 26, 1997

Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

All Critics (56) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (62) | Rotten (2) | DVD (31)

Eastwood's meditation on age, repute, courage, heroism -- on all those burdens he has been carrying with such good grace for decades.

October 26, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

One of Unforgiven's assets is the way it overturns conventions, taking the man who is typically the hero and making him the villain, while transforming the traditional bad guy into a sympathetic protagonist.

June 10, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A classic Western for the ages.

February 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There's not much dramatic urgency apart from the revisionist context.

February 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (23)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Unforgiven is a most entertaining western that pays homage to the great tradition of movie westerns while surreptitiously expressing a certain amount of skepticism.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

That implacable moral balance, in which good eventually silences evil, is at the heart of the Western, and Eastwood is not shy about saying so.

August 3, 2002 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (6)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Eastwood's best film -- a compelling study of the shame and guilt that attends violence, of the rule of the mighty over the weak and of courage and cowardice.

September 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer | Comment
Cinema Writer

Violent Oscar winner shatters myths of the Old West.

July 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Unforgiven began Clint Eastwood's current apology tour for his cinematic violence.

May 1, 2009 Full Review Source: What Would Toto Watch? | Comment
What Would Toto Watch?

Arguably the greatest western since Sam Peckinpah hung up his stirrups.

February 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Ironically, the ultimate Western of all was made decades after its hayday. This is captivating for all, not just fans of the genre.

February 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

A rigorous deconstruction of both fictitious violence and Eastwood's own career as a trigger-happy 'hero.'

July 25, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Unforgiven feels authentic, and for a Western there's no greater compliment.

April 15, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Dark and somber in thematics and visuals, this Western is a personal work for Eastwood, in which he desconstructs his own mythic violent image, one that made him a star in the 1960s.

December 19, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

In this dark, timeless terrain, the film achieves a magnificent intensity.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

...among the two or three last great Westerns Hollywood has produced. (HD-DVD Edition)

May 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

A complex and haunting Old-West morality tale...Thanks Clint, for once again making my day.

March 3, 2006 Comment
FulvueDrive-in.com

Conveys the power of the Western genre's myths ... as well as the ugly, unromantic realities that lurk behind them.

May 4, 2005 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

Revisionist Eastwood western is terrific on all counts.

November 1, 2004 Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Unforgiven

An ex-gunslinger comes out of retirement to collect the bounty on a pair of cowpokes who disfigured a young prostitute. Clint Eastwood directs and stars in a deconstruction of the myth of the old west that examines the kind of man who would exist in a society which provides mean drunks and arrogant, prideful boys with

October 29, 2006
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

Not that great. There was some good scenes...but overall it wasn't so good. The final scene was pretty fun (I think I've seen it before). Not Clint at his best. Didn't deserve the best picture oscar.

January 19, 2011
TheGame90
Martin Sahlin

Super Reviewer

    1. Bill Munny: It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away everything he's got and everything he's ever gonna have.
    – Submitted by Todd C (17 days ago)
    1. Bill Munny: All right, I'm coming out! Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him! Any sonofabitch takes a shot at me.. I'm not only gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his damn house down!
    – Submitted by Robert M (29 days ago)
    1. Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett: Duck of death, I says.
    – Submitted by Ross E (3 months ago)
    1. The "Schofield Kid": I shot that fucker three times! Taking a shit, he went for his pistol, and I blazed away.
    – Submitted by Phillip Keith G (7 months ago)
    1. Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett: You just shot an unarmed man!
    2. Bill Munny: Well, he should have armed himself if he's going to decorate his saloon with my friend.
    – Submitted by Fernando C (8 months ago)

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