It's quite a thing to see that Clint Eastwood went from the ultimate bullshit of Dirty Harry in the beginning of the 70s to directing and starring in Unforgiven in the beginning of the 90s. Clint Eastwood remains a mystery man for me, a dedicated Republican who has endorsed Trump and at the same time an amazingly thought-provoking director. If all Republicans were like him we would be living in a better place. The western that he chose to direct was far better than any western that he had starred in his long career. I'm not saying that I hate Sergio Leone's movies, but they can't be compared with the comment and the brains of Unforgiven. Unforgiven might not be the ultra thrilling western, you can even say that its pace is even boring at some moments, but the premise, the characters and the atmosphere of the movie are quite impeccable.
All this bottomless darkness that emerges from the movie, where the sheriff is a hideous bastard, the prostitutes are victims of human brutality, the gunmen are washed-out and the otherwise charming and alluring far west is the most miserable place that you can imagine. That bleak and depressing image of the western mythology is what makes Unforgiven such a great movie. If you think that western began in picturing Native Americans as ruthless murderers who terrorized the good and innocent white men, a fucking lie that was shameful and pitiful, the fact that we reached a time that Unforgiven came out is definitely a major thing. Unforgiven showed that the demon lies within. It's the people of the west that are so unapologetic and depraved. It's not the Native Americans, it's not the good blonde family that lives its American dream, it's the ugliness of the whole system, the ugliness of reality. Unforgiven is a movie that emotionally never excited me much, but I cannot surpass that my logic says that this is a major movie.
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