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Unforgiven (HD DVD)
Warner Bros. // R // May 16, 2006 // Region 0
List Price: $28.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Unforgiven opens with 
a silhouette of Clint Eastwood, bathing him in the orange glow of the setting sun as his character stands silently in front of his wife's tombstone. The film, directed by Eastwood, is itself a somber farewell of sorts, produced shortly after the deaths of his mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and almost certainly his last foray into the genre that made him a star.
William Munny (Eastwood) spent much of his younger days killing indiscriminately in a constant drunken haze. He eventually found a woman who compelled him to set the whiskey and six-shooters aside, and he was, for a time, happy. When she passed on, Will continued going through the motions of respectability to honor his late wife but to no great effect. He's a killer, not a pig farmer, and even though a lifetime of regrets led Will to keep the rest of the world at arm's length, he couldn't fully escape the bloodthirsty gunslinger of his past. Despite his best efforts, he's rediscovered by the self-proclaimed Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) who seeks out the elderly Will's assistance in making a name for himself and cashing in on a thousand dollar payday. A whore in the Wyoming town of Big Whiskey was savagely cut up by a brutish cowboy, but well-intentioned, borderline-psychopathic sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Gene Hackman) has decided that a fine of several ponies is a suitable punishment. Incensed, her fellow whores have pooled some of the money they've squirreled away and put out word that a thousand dollars goes to the man who kills these cowboys. The story Will's spun is exaggerated, but he reluctantly seizes hold of this excuse to dust off the killer in him one last time. With his old friend and expert marksman Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) in tow, the three of them set out for
Big Whiskey, a town where the violent Daggett doesn't respond kindly to assassins.
Many of the Westerns in which Eastwood has starred bucked the usual genre conventions, and Unforgiven is perhaps the greatest example of this. There are no heroes or villains, at least not in the old white hat/black hat Western tradition. Little Bill may be a sadist, but his brutal tactics are an element of what he sincerely believes to be the best way to take care of Big Whiskey. A man with the moral certainty that he's doing the right thing is much more interesting than a cackling moustache-twirler. Unforgiven doesn't overromanticize Will and his partners either, all of whom are flawed to the point of being almost completely ineffective for the task at hand. Will is neither a hero nor a once-cruel man who sees this journey as the path to redemption for his past sins; he doesn't want to return to being the killer he once was but can never be an honorable man living a comfortable, mundane life. He's not offered any easy answers. Its female characters aren't passive 'hookers with a heart of gold' but strong, vengeful women who drive the action in the film. Unforgiven also benefits from a richly drawn cast of supporting characters, including a pretentious Englishman with an overinflated reputation as a killer (to quote an even less conventional Western, a sad little king of a sad little hill) and a pulp novelist who feigns an interest in accuracy but is more concerned with how stories of murder and mayhem look on the page. Unlike many Westerns that were largely an excuse to string together action setpieces, Unforgiven's more violent moments are there to unsettle rather than thrill...to serve its characters rather than mindlessly exploit them.
Unforgiven is a well-crafted film that builds on the already remarkable Westerns of Eastwood's past, substantial enough that I had to rein myself in to keep this review from reading like a term paper yet still so accessible and compelling that it remains one of the highest-grossing movies the genre has produced. It
excels in most every conceivable way, benefiting from a tremendous cast, gorgeous cinematography, a thoughtful screenplay grounded in realism and teeming with brilliant dialogue, and a sure, experienced hand guiding the camera.
Video: Presented in its scope theatrical aspect ratio, Unforgiven is another solid effort from Warner. The high-definition image is at its most impressive on the journey to Big Whiskey; the Academy Award nominated panoramic shots from cinematographer Jack Green that were indistinct on DVD are now breathtakingly detailed, with seemingly every individual blade of grass and each piece of foliage clearly visible. As noted in the disc's audio commentary, the interiors were deliberately shot with a naturalistic approach to lighting, leaving the image often leaning somewhat dark. Black levels are appropriately deep and inky, but sometimes the darkness can swallow up detail in the background. That should not be considered a flaw with the transfer, though, and the darker scenes fare far better on this HD DVD than on the original 1997 DVD release. This is a striking looking disc, and the immaculately detailed wide shots ought to silence those who doubt that there's any substantial difference between DVD and HD DVD.
Audio: Though I wouldn't expect that it's a dramatic improvement over the 5.1 track from the previous DVD, Unforgiven's atmospheric Dolby Digital Plus audio suits the dialogue-driven film well. The rears are geared more towards immersing the viewer in the sounds of the Old West rather than offering whiz-bang sound effects; the use of the surround channels is largely environmental, as expected considering its rustic setting, with little in the way of pans or overt directionality. Bass response is reasonably strong throughout, especially when the pistols are unholstered. As it's the aural emphasis of the film, it's worth noting that Unforgiven's dialogue remains clear and discernable throughout.
Stereo tracks are also provided in Quebecois French and Spanish, and subtitles are included in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: This HD DVD doesn't offer anything new for owners of the the 2002 anniversary edition of the film, but the extras on that two-disc set have all found their way here. Although several of the featurettes are fairly lightweight, the quality of the remaining extras makes for an overall strong assortment.
Film critic and Eastwood biographer
Richard Schickel provides running audio commentary for the film. Part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is that it's not from a filmmaker's perspective; rather than provide the usual onslaught of technical notes and behind the scenes stories as heard on most audio commentaries, Schickel's comments are largely thematic and delve into the minds of the film's characters. It's not purely an academic exercise, though, as Schickel was on the set during filming and is able to incorporate some of those experiences into his discussion. I come away from most commentaries with a better understanding of how a particular film was made, but Schickel's gives me a better appreciation of the film, period. Considerably above average and, despite the sizeable pauses between his comments, well-worth setting aside some time to give a listen.
The most recent of the video-based extras is "All on Accounta Pullin' a Trigger", a collection of interviews catching up with some of the key cast and crew a decade later. Dangerously close to half of its twenty or so minute runtime is wasted on clips from the movie, putting a damper on how much insight Eastwood and company can really contribute. I understand the need for an EPK to be anchored around lengthy excerpts, but on something produced exclusively for a DVD...? The fourteen-year-old "making of" promotional piece seems a little more substantial largely because of the amount of on-set footage it offers.
Many of the extra features on this disc don't center their
attention on the making of Unforgiven so much as celebrate its director and star. It's a welcome break from the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, one that begins with the 1997 TNT special "Eastwood on Eastwood". Narrated by John Cusack, the lead in Eastwood's then-latest film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the hour-plus documentary is a comprehensive overview of the actor/filmmaker's career. "Eastwood on Eastwood" consists largely of sizeable clips from many of the films in which he's appeared alongside brief comments from the man himself. Although I wince a bit at the fact that these clips are often too revealing, giving away a few too many endings for my tastes, it's nice to see that it's not anchored around The Man with No Name or Dirty Harry; many of Eastwood's lesser-known films spend more time in the spotlight than the familiar ones that made him a household name.
The vintage sixteen minute featurette "Eastwood...a Star" attempts to do the same in a fraction of the time, but its ridiculous music and horrific narration make it tough to stomach. Both it and "Eastwood on Eastwood" feature clips from the actor's appearance on the 1959 Maverick episode "Duel at Sundown", and that nearly hour-long episode is also provided on this disc. Eastwood guest stars as a greedy, hot-headed gunslinger whose scheme to cash in on his lover's future inheritance is threatened by card shark Bret Maverick. It's an unexpected but welcome inclusion. An anamorphic widescreen trailer for Unforgiven rounds out the extras.
Conclusion: Unforgiven was among the first DVDs Warner released in 1997, and it's a welcome sight as one of the earliest launch titles on this new high definition format as well. Unforgiven is a remarkable achievement, and those who have yet to see this unconventional spin on Western mythos are encouraged to give the film a look on HD DVD. Highly Recommended.
Please note that the images in this review were lifted from Warner's Unforgiven site for the 2002 DVD. They're just meant to break up the text and aren't representative of the way this HD DVD looks.
a silhouette of Clint Eastwood, bathing him in the orange glow of the setting sun as his character stands silently in front of his wife's tombstone. The film, directed by Eastwood, is itself a somber farewell of sorts, produced shortly after the deaths of his mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and almost certainly his last foray into the genre that made him a star. William Munny (Eastwood) spent much of his younger days killing indiscriminately in a constant drunken haze. He eventually found a woman who compelled him to set the whiskey and six-shooters aside, and he was, for a time, happy. When she passed on, Will continued going through the motions of respectability to honor his late wife but to no great effect. He's a killer, not a pig farmer, and even though a lifetime of regrets led Will to keep the rest of the world at arm's length, he couldn't fully escape the bloodthirsty gunslinger of his past. Despite his best efforts, he's rediscovered by the self-proclaimed Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) who seeks out the elderly Will's assistance in making a name for himself and cashing in on a thousand dollar payday. A whore in the Wyoming town of Big Whiskey was savagely cut up by a brutish cowboy, but well-intentioned, borderline-psychopathic sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Gene Hackman) has decided that a fine of several ponies is a suitable punishment. Incensed, her fellow whores have pooled some of the money they've squirreled away and put out word that a thousand dollars goes to the man who kills these cowboys. The story Will's spun is exaggerated, but he reluctantly seizes hold of this excuse to dust off the killer in him one last time. With his old friend and expert marksman Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) in tow, the three of them set out for
Big Whiskey, a town where the violent Daggett doesn't respond kindly to assassins. Many of the Westerns in which Eastwood has starred bucked the usual genre conventions, and Unforgiven is perhaps the greatest example of this. There are no heroes or villains, at least not in the old white hat/black hat Western tradition. Little Bill may be a sadist, but his brutal tactics are an element of what he sincerely believes to be the best way to take care of Big Whiskey. A man with the moral certainty that he's doing the right thing is much more interesting than a cackling moustache-twirler. Unforgiven doesn't overromanticize Will and his partners either, all of whom are flawed to the point of being almost completely ineffective for the task at hand. Will is neither a hero nor a once-cruel man who sees this journey as the path to redemption for his past sins; he doesn't want to return to being the killer he once was but can never be an honorable man living a comfortable, mundane life. He's not offered any easy answers. Its female characters aren't passive 'hookers with a heart of gold' but strong, vengeful women who drive the action in the film. Unforgiven also benefits from a richly drawn cast of supporting characters, including a pretentious Englishman with an overinflated reputation as a killer (to quote an even less conventional Western, a sad little king of a sad little hill) and a pulp novelist who feigns an interest in accuracy but is more concerned with how stories of murder and mayhem look on the page. Unlike many Westerns that were largely an excuse to string together action setpieces, Unforgiven's more violent moments are there to unsettle rather than thrill...to serve its characters rather than mindlessly exploit them.
Unforgiven is a well-crafted film that builds on the already remarkable Westerns of Eastwood's past, substantial enough that I had to rein myself in to keep this review from reading like a term paper yet still so accessible and compelling that it remains one of the highest-grossing movies the genre has produced. It
excels in most every conceivable way, benefiting from a tremendous cast, gorgeous cinematography, a thoughtful screenplay grounded in realism and teeming with brilliant dialogue, and a sure, experienced hand guiding the camera. Video: Presented in its scope theatrical aspect ratio, Unforgiven is another solid effort from Warner. The high-definition image is at its most impressive on the journey to Big Whiskey; the Academy Award nominated panoramic shots from cinematographer Jack Green that were indistinct on DVD are now breathtakingly detailed, with seemingly every individual blade of grass and each piece of foliage clearly visible. As noted in the disc's audio commentary, the interiors were deliberately shot with a naturalistic approach to lighting, leaving the image often leaning somewhat dark. Black levels are appropriately deep and inky, but sometimes the darkness can swallow up detail in the background. That should not be considered a flaw with the transfer, though, and the darker scenes fare far better on this HD DVD than on the original 1997 DVD release. This is a striking looking disc, and the immaculately detailed wide shots ought to silence those who doubt that there's any substantial difference between DVD and HD DVD.
Audio: Though I wouldn't expect that it's a dramatic improvement over the 5.1 track from the previous DVD, Unforgiven's atmospheric Dolby Digital Plus audio suits the dialogue-driven film well. The rears are geared more towards immersing the viewer in the sounds of the Old West rather than offering whiz-bang sound effects; the use of the surround channels is largely environmental, as expected considering its rustic setting, with little in the way of pans or overt directionality. Bass response is reasonably strong throughout, especially when the pistols are unholstered. As it's the aural emphasis of the film, it's worth noting that Unforgiven's dialogue remains clear and discernable throughout.
Stereo tracks are also provided in Quebecois French and Spanish, and subtitles are included in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: This HD DVD doesn't offer anything new for owners of the the 2002 anniversary edition of the film, but the extras on that two-disc set have all found their way here. Although several of the featurettes are fairly lightweight, the quality of the remaining extras makes for an overall strong assortment.
Film critic and Eastwood biographer
Richard Schickel provides running audio commentary for the film. Part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is that it's not from a filmmaker's perspective; rather than provide the usual onslaught of technical notes and behind the scenes stories as heard on most audio commentaries, Schickel's comments are largely thematic and delve into the minds of the film's characters. It's not purely an academic exercise, though, as Schickel was on the set during filming and is able to incorporate some of those experiences into his discussion. I come away from most commentaries with a better understanding of how a particular film was made, but Schickel's gives me a better appreciation of the film, period. Considerably above average and, despite the sizeable pauses between his comments, well-worth setting aside some time to give a listen. The most recent of the video-based extras is "All on Accounta Pullin' a Trigger", a collection of interviews catching up with some of the key cast and crew a decade later. Dangerously close to half of its twenty or so minute runtime is wasted on clips from the movie, putting a damper on how much insight Eastwood and company can really contribute. I understand the need for an EPK to be anchored around lengthy excerpts, but on something produced exclusively for a DVD...? The fourteen-year-old "making of" promotional piece seems a little more substantial largely because of the amount of on-set footage it offers.
Many of the extra features on this disc don't center their
attention on the making of Unforgiven so much as celebrate its director and star. It's a welcome break from the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, one that begins with the 1997 TNT special "Eastwood on Eastwood". Narrated by John Cusack, the lead in Eastwood's then-latest film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the hour-plus documentary is a comprehensive overview of the actor/filmmaker's career. "Eastwood on Eastwood" consists largely of sizeable clips from many of the films in which he's appeared alongside brief comments from the man himself. Although I wince a bit at the fact that these clips are often too revealing, giving away a few too many endings for my tastes, it's nice to see that it's not anchored around The Man with No Name or Dirty Harry; many of Eastwood's lesser-known films spend more time in the spotlight than the familiar ones that made him a household name. The vintage sixteen minute featurette "Eastwood...a Star" attempts to do the same in a fraction of the time, but its ridiculous music and horrific narration make it tough to stomach. Both it and "Eastwood on Eastwood" feature clips from the actor's appearance on the 1959 Maverick episode "Duel at Sundown", and that nearly hour-long episode is also provided on this disc. Eastwood guest stars as a greedy, hot-headed gunslinger whose scheme to cash in on his lover's future inheritance is threatened by card shark Bret Maverick. It's an unexpected but welcome inclusion. An anamorphic widescreen trailer for Unforgiven rounds out the extras.
Conclusion: Unforgiven was among the first DVDs Warner released in 1997, and it's a welcome sight as one of the earliest launch titles on this new high definition format as well. Unforgiven is a remarkable achievement, and those who have yet to see this unconventional spin on Western mythos are encouraged to give the film a look on HD DVD. Highly Recommended.
Please note that the images in this review were lifted from Warner's Unforgiven site for the 2002 DVD. They're just meant to break up the text and aren't representative of the way this HD DVD looks.
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