The Unforgiven

Plot synopsis:
The film is set in 1880 and 1881 in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, where Little Bill Daggett, the local sheriff and former gunfighter, does not allow guns or criminals in his town. Two cowboys, Quick Mike and "Davey-Boy" Bunting, disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald after she laughs at the small size of Quick Mike's penis. As punishment for the cowboys, Little Bill allows them to pay compensation to the brothel owner, Skinny Dubois. The rest of the prostitutes, led by Strawberry Alice, are infuriated by this leniency and offer a $1,000 reward to whoever can kill the cowboys.
Miles away in Kansas, the Schofield Kid, a boastful young man, visits the pig farm of William Munny, seeking to recruit him to help kill the cowboys. In his youth, Munny was a bandit, notorious for being a cold-blooded murderer. Now a repentant widower raising two children, he has sworn off alcohol and killing. Though Munny initially refuses to help, his farm is failing, putting his children's future in jeopardy. Munny reconsiders a few days later and sets off to catch up with the Kid. On his way, Munny recruits his friend Ned Logan, another retired gunfighter.
Back in Wyoming, British-born gunfighter English Bob, an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill, is also seeking the reward and arrives in Big Whiskey with a biographer, W. W. Beauchamp. Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob, and Bill beats him savagely, hoping to discourage other would-be assassins. The next morning he ejects Bob from town, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill, who has impressed him with his tales of old gunfights and seeming knowledge of the gunfighter's psyche.
Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive later during a rain storm and head into the saloon/whorehouse to discover the cowboys' location. With a bad fever after riding in the rain, Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies arrive to confront him. With no idea of Munny's past, Little Bill beats him and kicks him out of the saloon after finding a pistol on him. Logan and the Kid, upstairs getting advances in kind on their payment from the prostitutes, escape out a back window. The three regroup at a barn outside town, where they nurse Munny back to health.
Three days later, they ambush a group of cowboys and kill Bunting, though Logan and Munny show that they no longer have much stomach for murder. Logan decides to return home while Munny feels they must finish the job. Munny and the Kid head to the cowboys' ranch, where the Kid ambushes Quick Mike in an outhouse and kills him. After they escape, a distraught Kid confesses he had never killed anyone before and renounces life as a gunfighter. When Little Sue meets the two men to give them the reward, they learn that Logan was captured by Little Bill's men and tortured to death — but not before revealing Munny's identity. The Kid heads back to Kansas to deliver the reward money to Munny's children and Logan's wife, while an embittered Munny — finishing Ned's bottle of whiskey — returns to town to take revenge on Little Bill.
That night, Munny arrives and sees Logan's corpse displayed in a coffin outside the saloon with a sign reading "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO ASSASSINS AROUND HERE". Inside, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid. Munny walks in alone and kills Dubois. After some tense dialogue, a gunfight ensues, leaving Bill wounded and several of his deputies dead. Bill promises to "see [Munny] in hell" before Munny executes him. Munny then threatens the townsfolk before finally leaving Big Whiskey, warning that he will return for more vengeance if Logan is not buried properly or if any of the prostitutes are harmed.
A title card epilogue says that Munny moved to San Francisco with his children where he prospered in dry goods.

Tags: revenge

Review:
The neighbors of a frontier family named Zachary (Burt Lancaster , Audie Murphy , Doug McClure and their mother excellently played by Lillian Gish) turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiawa tribe .
As a Kiowa tribe claims that the daughter (it was Audrey Hepburn's only Western) is one of their own , stolen in a raid and she will be excluded for both races .Offbeat Western about racial intolerance focuses an enjoyable family and the dramatic deeds happen when a dark secret surfaces .
Emotive as well as thrilling musical score by the classic Dimitri Tiomkin .The motion picture was compellingly directed by John Huston who saw the film as an opportunity to make a serious comment on race relations, but the company thought anything along those lines should take a back seat to making it a commercial success as action/adventure .
The flick was made in a good time of the 50s and 60s when Huston resurged as a filmmaker of quality films and with the momentum in his favor, as John hung around in Hollywood this time to write and/or direct some of the finest American cinema made including The African Queen , The jungle of asphalt (1950), Red badge of courage (1951) ,Moulin Rouge (1952), Moby Dick (1956), The unforgiven (1960), Misfits (1961), Freud (1962), The night of the iguana (1964) , they were for the most part, well-regarded but certainly not close to the level of his earlier revered work .
Big bad Burt Lancaster broods as the big brother, and it was wonderful to see Audrey Hepburn playing a down to earth character, no glam and glitter here; in fact it was kind of special watching her with rifle in hands firing away.
This classic film from one of the greatest directors of the 20th century boasts an incredible cast: Audrey Hepburn, Lillian Gish (silent films), Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy (war hero), a young Doug McClure, all of whom show classic acting at its finest.
The girl in "The Unforgiven", Rachel (played by Audrey Hepburn), has only known her adopted family.John Huston once said that a good story should have "excitement, color, spectacle and humor, adventure, high drama, tragedy, good conversation, truth and irony".
Since their father's murder by the Kiowas Murphy has been a violent racist.The film's title refers to the attitude of Abe Kelsey (Joseph Wiseman-later to play Dr. No), a bearded half-crazy avenger who has tormented the family for many years, ever since his son was abducted by the Indians and Ben's father refused to trade Rachel for Abe's son.
But more important, this demonstrates to Rachel that they still consider her their sister, the first sign of this since everyone learned of her Indian parentage.You can quibble that Hepburn is physically miscast, at a minimum they should have made her hair darker, but the story requires that the character look "non-Indian" as she has been successfully passing for a white girl for many years.
The movie is brilliantly cast with especially great performances from Charles Bickford (Zeb Rawlins), Joseph Wiseman (Abe Kelsey), Lillian Gish (Mattilda Zachary)and June Walker (Hagar Rawlins).
The person in question is Audrey Hepburn who's been raised by Lillian Gish as her own daughter and sister to her three sons, Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, and Doug McClure.It was an unwritten law of Hollywood that no one shoots a film in Monument Valley except John Ford.
But apparently Ms. Gish was satisfied with the finished product because she acclaimed Huston as another Griffith when it was over.The story really gets going when some Kiowas come knocking on Lillian Gish's door demanding Audrey Hepburn's return.
and naturally with the impulse and the coming of an old man who know the true, the Indian Kiowa want to rehabilitate the girl.The story is the opposite (inverse), contrary of the searchers (1956) with John Wayne and Nathalie Wood.In the unforgiven the girl make a different choice for the issue of the story.
This film is an atypical western that tells the story of a girl who discovers, after living all her life on a farm, being born in an Indian tribe from where she was stolen as a baby.
When the weird Abe Kelsey (Joseph Wiseman) with his saber appears in the Zachary's ranch threatening the matriarch Mattilda Zachary (Lillian Gish) and her stepdaughter Rachel (Audrey Hepburn), she does not tell to her sons Ben (Burt Lancaster), Cash (Audie Murphy) and Andy (Doug McClure).
The racists' neighbors turn their backs to the Zachary's family, while the Kiowa siege them in their house while trying to bring Rachel back to their tribe."The Unforgiven" is a western about the impressive intolerance between Caucasians and Indians in the beginning of the colonization of North America by the whites.
When a lot of Kiowa get killed during the course of the film it is unsettling, partly because one thinks in real life that their fighting tactics would be better, but mostly because it is upsetting to see so much bloodshed.There are better westerns than this film - Open Range, Valdez is Coming, Destry Rides Again, The Long Riders, The Cowboys - but that doesn't stop The Unforgiven from being a first-rate movie filled with suspense and fascinating characters..
When I first became aware of the cast list (Lancaster, Gish, Hepburn, Murphy, Bickman, Wiseman) & the director (the great John Huston) for this movie, I just knew it was going to be a great Western, but I was sadly disappointed.
If the white settlers were to do the same thing, they would be considered heroes for doing so, & they'd make a movie about it with John Wayne as the hero & call it "The Searchers!" Kidding aside, there is too much injustice here that is left unconsequated (such as the killing of dozens of Indians & the killing of an innocent man who was only attempting to speak the truth) for this to be a satisfactory film for me.
Only Houston could make a western with leading actors like Lancaster, Hepburn, Gish, Murphy, Bickford, Salmi, Hamilton, Saxon, and Wiseman to be believable.
Audrey Hepburn's character is being  called an Indian, and it makes havoc in everyone's life.This is Audie Murphy's best performance.
As it turns out, a local Native American (Kiowa) tribe wants to right an old wrong by taking Hepburn away from her adopted family.
But, the real energy comes from the characters played by Gish and Murphy; both have a couple of great cinematic moments, though, like others involved here, they had off-screen problems during the filming.******* The Unforgiven (4/6/60) John Huston ~ Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Lillian Gish, Audie Murphy.
John Huston's least satisfying movie turns out to be a pretty good western.It tells about Rachel Zachary, played by the lovely Audrey Hepburn.Joseph Wiseman plays an old man called Abe Kelsey who carries a saber.He keeps telling that Rachel was stolen from The Kiowa tribe as a baby.The Kiowas demand Rachel back to her own kinds.Her "brother" Ben (Burt Lancaster) and her "mother" Mattilda (Lillian Gish) will not allow it.It's hard for the white folks to tolerate Rachel after they find out the truth about her.There were all kinds of problems while filming The Unforgiven (1960).Audrey Hepburn fell off a horse while rehearsing a scene and so on.But it got made and the result is a good western, even though the late John Huston may have felt the other way.Burt Lancaster in the lead is fantastic as always.He and Hepburn make a nice team.The legendary Lillian Gish, who became a star in the silent era is just wonderful.Audie Murphy plays the part of Cash Zazhary and he's great.And John Saxon as Johnny Portugal.Albert Salmi, the son of Finnish immigrants is terrific as Charlie Rawlins.Zeb Bickford is Zeb Rawlins and he's brilliant.The cast and the story told there make a good movie.The Unforgiven is a must-see for all you western lovers out there..
First off, it is loaded with A list or former A list performers such as Audrey Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, Audey Murphy, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish, John Saxon, etc.
I've read the film's reviews, explaining that Director John Huston and Producer/Star Burt Lancaster were meaning to honestly portray the conflict between Whites and Native Americans.
The movie is very well made, the story is heartfelt, and Lancaster and co-stars Audie Murphy and Audrey Hepburn are fantastic.
Audrey Hepburn and Burt Lancaster head the cast as brother and sister holding the family together on the frontier and trying to survive both with other settlers and the very much hated Kiowa Indian tribe.
The acting is mostly strong, obviously from Hepburn and Lancaster, as well as silent star Lilian Gish as the haunted mother and Audie Murphy as the fierce and racist younger brother Cash.
Directed by John Huston, featuring Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Lilian Gish and Audie Murphy with a soundtrack by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Even the Native Americans in the film are seen in a slightly empathetic light, willing to make amends for past mistakes, but the hatred between them and the 'white man' is too great to overcome in the end.This is a good western and I am surprised that I had never heard of it before.
Cattle rancher in post-Civil War-era Texas, still embittered over the murder of his father by Kiowa Indians years ago, has to face down local gossip and new attacks by the tribe after word gets out that his adopted sister may in fact have "a red hide".
Its attempts to unveil the truth surrounding a 20 year-old secret that, due to one man's spite, is finally brought to light, is mean-minded and nasty.This grave secret directly involved the real heritage of Rachel (the Zachary's adopted daughter) who, now 20, was taken in by these well-respected ranchers when she was just a small baby.This film seemed to go out of its way to put Native Americans into a very bad light.
The name-calling even escalated to the point where the white citizens referred to the Indians as "n-i-g-g-e-r-s" on a few occasions.The Unforgiven abounded with plenty of over-acting, especially from Burt Lancaster who played Ben, one of Will Zachary's 3 grown-up sons.
Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Lilian Gish, and Charles Bickford kept the movie watchable, but the background music was nauseous!!.
Ben Zachary (Burt Lancaster) with brothers Cash (Audie Murphy), Andy (Doug McClure), and adopted sister Rachel (Audrey Hepburn) live with their mother (Lillian Gish) on a dusty ranch.
I watched this film because I like westerns and I love Audrey Hepburn.
Audrey Hepburn plays a potentially half-white half American Indian girl living on a ranch with her adopted family.
Otherwise, spend your time seeing either a better western or a film where Audrey Hepburn is more realistically caste..
Rancher Burt Lancaster adopted a half Native American daughter (Audrey Hepburn) years ago, and the local tribe wants her back now that she's old enough to marry, and none of the local white people will defend a mere half-breed.
Every actor does a great job and all are believable  - even Audrey Hepburn as an adopted Native American -- Lillian Gish is superlative and John Saxon and Audie Murphy buy-in so well they seem to become the characters they portray!
The movie is stolen by the supporting actors who give marvellous performances, especially the one playing the madman: a disturbing and realistic portrayal of someone gone crazy.The story is about a close knit family and community when it is discovered that one of the family's children is the off spring of a red Indian.Super scenery, sets and direction, this film held my attention throughout:7/10..
Audie Murphy gives a forceful, complex performance and Gish gives a solid performance as Ma. Obviously there are some legendary actors and a legendary director involved in this production, however the legendary moments are mostly Wiseman's.This movie features excellent cinematography and a pretty good slam-bang ending.
It starred Lillian Gish (Ma Zachary), Burt Lancaster (Ben), Audrey Hepburn (Rachel), Audie Murphy (Cash).
Really good western featuring the lovely Audrey Hepburn and the charismatic Burt Lancaster.
Then, appearing out of the blue one day comes an old sword wielding saddle tramp (James Wiseman) who begins to spread the story that the Zachary brothers sister Rachel (Audrey Hepburn) is in reality an Indian who was adopted by Ma Zachery (Lillian Gish) as an infant.
Terrific John Huston western with Burt Lancaster and Audie Murphy.
This literate, first-class, philosophical western about racial intolerance on the frontier from "Maltese Falcon" director John Huston, "Asphalt Jungle" scenarist Ben Maddow, toplining Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, and Audie L.
The racist town quickly begins to turn against the Zachary's, and even the family itself begins to question their loyalties.As you read above, the film had a tough time making it through production, and Huston and Lancaster were constantly at odds.
It sounds like a failure, but it feels like what it is: a western.The Unforgiven, 1960, Starring: Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn and Audie Murphy Directed by John Huston 7/10 (B)This is part of an ongoing project to watch and review ever John Huston movie.
Burt Lancaster here reprises Gregory Peck's role of a strong but obsessed cowhand in "Duel in the Sun" (a film that also starred Lillian Gish, with a role for Walter Huston), this time with his obsession focused on Audrey Hepburn but bottled up even tighter.
Even so it is an interesting and offbeat tale of Indian racial prejudice and warfare among the white settlers, set in the Texas Panhandle of the late 1860s...Lancaster clicks as the 'terrible temper charmer,' the stepbrother of Audrey Hepburn who turns out to be a full-blooded Kiowa, the Indians claim for their own...
The story has its moments of excitements, but it moves a little too deliberately across the screen to create the suspense needed to hold audience interest taut through a two-hour film...Audie Murphy plays his role convincingly as Lancaster's hot-headed brother whose hatred of Indians pushes him to desert his family...
Audrey Hepburn plays Rachel Zachary, a Kiowa Indian girl stolen during a raid on a Kiowa camp.
Ben Zachary (Burt Lancaster) and his brothers, Cash (Audie Murphy) and Andy (Doug McClure) have made themselves and their neighbors rich by rounding up the plentiful supply of wild cattle that roamed Texas after the end of the Civil War and driving them to the railheads in Kansas.
Now, the Kiowa turn up to buy her back, but the Zachary family refuses (Ma Zachary, played by the great Lillian Gish knows that Rachel is not white).
Identity, after all, is a very personal thing  and the implication is that it should remain so.The cast, apart from my observations about Hepburn (whom I greatly admired as an actress) is very good: Lancaster bares his ivories with great gusto as usual; Charles Bickford shows how well he could act  again; a very young John Saxon infuses a small role with dignity and competence; Joseph Wiseman is perfect as the mad soldier wandering the desert; Lillian Gish shows steely determination, as befitting a settler matriarch; and Audie Murphy gave maybe the best performance of his too short career.Overall, however, I have a feeling that Huston's heart wasn't in this one, although the direction is competent, as you would expect.
Two things I find good about the film is one that it stars Audrey Hepburn and Burt Lancaster who are the best actors of their generation.
Nice Civil War tie in here, which I always like to see in a Western.Lillian Gish turns in a nice performance as the family matriarch.Here's some of the things that dragged the movie down:It's bad enough that Hepburn is horribly miscast as uneducated West Texas settler, but even more preposterously, we find out she is secretly a full blooded Kiowa Indian.
Hepburn plays a Kiowa Indian raised by a white family.
Unlike the mansionlike ranch homes seen in John Wayne films, Lancaster and family live in an adobe hut with a thatched roof.The movie boasts fine cinematography, though Huston's choices of extreme long shots could have been better.
BURT LANCASTER, a normally fine actor and film producer, created many a 4-star movie; but when he donned his hat as Mr. Super Liberal he was apt to create a dazed and confused mess such as The Unforgiven.Lancaster's sister (Audrey Hepburn) is not really a white girl like she and everybody thinks -- you see -- she's a full blooded Kiawa Indian; and this is the focus of the entire movie.When preaching to the audience (at the audience's expense) the first place a liberal ought look for prejudice is not down his nose but in the mirror.
And despite Huston's reservations the film does have something significant to say about race relations; the position of people like Rachel, Indian by blood but white by culture, is something rarely explored in Westerns.
Rachel Zachary is the adopted brother of Ben, Cash and Andy; their late father rescued her after the local Kiowa Indians killed her parents; at least that is what they all believe.
Not long afterwards the Kiowa return and a battle ensues; ultimately Rachel must decide whether to return to the tribe with her real brother or stay with the adoptive brothers she has known all her life.This was an interesting western; I thought it was well acted although I couldn't buy for one minute that Audrey Hepburn could be a Native American...
RELEASED IN 1960and directed by John Huston, "The Unforgiven" is a Western starring Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy and Doug McClure as brothers of a fatherless ranch family near the Texas panhandle.
If the filmmakers would've made her a half-breed it would've worked.The reason old Westerns like "Apache" (1954) got away with having a white guy (Lancaster) play a full-blooded Native is because everyone in the cast knew he was an Indian and treated him accordingly.