+20
Unforgiven was my #1. My favorite film since I first saw in the theater all those years ago. The script by David Webb Peoples is incredible, the casting is incredible, and Clint Eastwood shines as director like never before. Us fans of his knew he had it in him, but here he takes a script that had personal significance to him and he really elevates his game. It’s not just a revisionist western playing with and subverting various western tropes, but it’s also a comment on the film industry itself, one in which Eastwood himself had found fame in as a star of violent action movies. It is also a comment on society at large for its desire to consume romanticize violence. In Unforgiven we’re given a rare glimpse, for a western, of the consequences of violence, on the victims and the perpetrators. It begins with a violent attack on a woman, in this case a lowly prostitute, and it’s the women’s reaction which set in motion the chain of events that lead to a the violent gun fight at the end, which is shown not as a noble shootout, but a grim and ugly moment when the anti-hero literally blows off the head of the ruthless sheriff as he lies wounded on the floor of a saloon. It’s clumsy and brutal, and we the audience have no doubt Beauchamp, the writer of cheap thrillers who witnessed the scene, will do his best to glorify and profit off of it.
A brilliant film, showing what is possible even in a genre film. And it’s not completely downer film, as it’s loaded with humor and memorable lines.
My List:
1. Unforgiven (#43)
3. North by Northwest (#57)
15. Metropolis (#73)
21. Enter the Dragon (#97)
24. There Will Be Blood (#60)
25. Persona (#45)
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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.