From: cal@gsbux1.uchicago.edu (Cal Lott)
Subject: Re: REVIEW: UNFORGIVEN (Spoiler Alert!!!!)
Keywords: author=Stoneheel
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 03:52:20 GMT

kaufman@eecs.nwu.edu (Michael L. Kaufman) writes:

>In article <1993Jan23.174037.7022@midway.uchicago.edu> cal@gsbux1.uchicago.edu (Cal Lott) writes:
>>In UNFORGIVEN, Eastwood gives the entire genre of westerns a very
>>gritty and convinving reinterpretation. 
>
>Definatly. I was really glad that this didn't turn into one more western where:
>
>1) The tough talking new kid turns out never to have killed anyone, and then
>quits after his first kill.
>
>2) The black sidekick decides to quit and ends up getting killed.
>
>3) The hero says he is done killing and then in the end shoots everyone in
>a completely unrealistic gunfight.

	You make it sound as if you have seen these things over and
over, Michael. How many Westerns have you actually seen with these
elements? I'm not (necessarily) disputing your opinion, but I am
curious as to why you think that numbers one, two, and three above are
so hackneyed.

>Wait, sorry, I 'm wrong. This was just another western where all these things
>happened. I am not sure why people keep going on about this film. It was a
>stock western with some great perfomances (Freeman, Hackman) some average
>performances (Eastwood) and a fairly lame storyline. Every time Eastwood said,
>"I'm not like that anymore." I just winced. It just felt like he was coasting
>through the film.

	I think a lot of people are glad that Clint is back after the
dreck he has been in the last few years, for one thing. For another,
it happens to be a terrific film.

>This film in no element compares to Eastwood's best film _The Outlaw Josey
>Wales_. Before you jump on me, think about this: Compare the end of JW to the
>end of Unforgiven. Unforgiven ends with a silly and pointless gunfight and then
>some text about how he went to California. Did anyone care what happened to
>the character?

	I did.

>	        Gone to California, gone back to the farm, whatever. He wasn't
>a real character, so you didn't really care what happened.

	Perhaps *you* didn't really care-- I did.

>							    JW ends with a much
>better gunfight, a moving (for me anyhow) confrontation between two of the main
>characters and then Josey riding off. We don't know where he was going; back to
>the ranch, or off on his own, but we care about him.

>JW is a film about finding reasons to go on living. Unforgiven is a film that
>isn't really about anything.

	UNFORGIVEN is also a film about reasons to go on living.

>Besides just saying how great it is, could somebody explain to me why they
>think _Unforgiven_ is so good?

	SPOILERS FOLLOW . . .


	1) The absoloute squalor of the pig farm that Eastwood's
character is raising his children on. His son's hilarious complaint:
"I can't catch that damn pig, pa!", and his subsequent failure to
catch it. As he sits there in the mud, he realizes that he can't stay
where he is-- he has to get out, to do something different.

	2) The gutwrenching, brutal scene where the whore has her face
cut. The aftermath:

	Alice:    "A whipping? Is that all she's worth?"
	Sherrif:  "A whipping ain't no little thing, Alice."

	Seen on another level, this film is about self-perception and
self-worth. (Note Eastwood's later scene with the slashed whore.) The
whores are attempting to prove that they *are* worth something-- that
no human being deserves to be treated the way that one of them was.

	Those two are just at the beginning of the film, and that's
all I have time for now, Michael. I seriously think that this film is
eminently worthy of your reconsideration. Don't denigrate it just
because it doesn't suit your tastes in a Western or an Eastwood film.

>Michael

>-- 
>Michael Kaufman | I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on
> kaufman        | fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in
>  @eecs.nwu.edu | the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be
>                | lost in time - like tears in rain. Time to die.     Roy Batty 
	Great BLADE RUNNER quote, by the way. That's my favorite one
from the movie. (Perhaps this film would be one that we could agree
on. 8-) )

						Regards,

						-Cal
--
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Cal Lott          "Oh, I see-- I thought 'no' meant 'spoon'!" --Dan
Email me, baby!   cal@gsbux1.uchicago.edu   cjl1@midway.uchicago.edu
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