Unforgiven

Introduced by Robert Kapsis, co-editor of Clint Eastwood: Interviews. Followed by a book signing.

Dir. Clint Eastwood. 1992, 131 mins. 35mm. With Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris. Clint Eastwood’s recent costarring role with a wooden chair aside, this grim revisionist western may be his finest moment. An old gunslinger heads out with a motley crew to collect one last bounty, but the gang’s motivations quickly turn murky as a simple righting of a wrong for a fee gives way to bloodthirsty revenge and wanton killing. For Eastwood, the simple pleasures of the classic, cheeky western always came with a violent hidden cost; the best-picture-winning Unforgiven is cinematic debt paying at its finest.