Unforgiven (1992)

Unforgiven is a western drama directed by hollywood's own cowboy, Clint Eastwood has tried to stay away from all typical western movie ingredients in this movie and its his treatment of a simple story interwoven with sharp potrayl of moral conflicts in characters which makes this movie a treat to watch.Usually Client Eastwood movies usually allows silence to do most of the talking but director has remained generous with lines exchanged between characters and conversations become highlight of the movie

Story revolves around Bill (Eastwood) and his partner Ned (Morgan Freeman) going after bounty set on two cowboys by bunch of prostitues. They are confronted by Little Bill (Gene Hackman) who rules the town as Sherrif and is against people carrying fire arms in his area and maintains law and order. Whole movie deals with morality and how a person deals with it. Clint Eastwood has scars from his past crimes and he gets haunted by them throughout and he brings them up throughout the movie during conversations. Morgan Freeman has made peace with his past and doesn't allows morals to rule his present actions. Gene Hackman keeps his morals at stake when it comes to delivering the justice.

Eastwood has tried to break all the set norms by western genre movies in this directorial effort and has been very much successful indeed. There are lots of closeups on faces which is very rare and cowboys are humiliated throughout the movie physically. Director has made western more realistic here by showing physical injuries, curses and weakness of high flying cowboys in the movie. There is only one gun fight in the end which is very rare in western classics and director has defied westerns movie making norms by showing abuse of women

Performance wise Gene Hackman is winner with superb dialogue delivery and also potraying a complex character of sherrif who has zeal for defending justice with a dangerous desire to define it at the same time. The tension which he creates is outstanding. His performace bring out wickedness along with a responsibility and in the end we wonder did he deserved to die after all by hands of a person who made mockery of moral values and justice in first place.

Clint Eastwood excels as director but as an actor I feel he should have allowed silence to take precedence and Morgan Freeman doing the talks which he did in his later movie, Millin dollar baby (2004). But still he is successful in bringing out the moral complexity he carries with himself and also brings out sheer rage in his eyes which he has done ample amount of times in other movies. Morgan Freeman is fine and there was nothing for him to excel in the role he potrayed.

Though there are many dialogues in the movie but I liked particualy the one where Gene Hackman says, "I don't deserve to die like this" and client Eastwood responds saying "Deserve's got nothing to do with it". Also when he tells his repenting partner, "It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. Take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have"

Client Eastwood deservingly got an oscar for best director and best movie and Gene Hackman got an oscar for best supporting actor. This movie is in top 100 of all time imdb list and truely deserves its place. 'Unforgiven' will always remain as an refreshing yet different look on life, man and the real west and I rate it as one of the most powerful films of the '90s. It is a true gem exploring moral values and their scars remaining with you.