The town of Big Whisky is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff 'Little Bill' tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town whores just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Unsatisfied with Bill's justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as 'The Schofield Kid', and aging killer William Munny. Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is gone. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned, saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth.
Related Links imdb NY Times review The Lowdown Character: The Schofield Kid Rated: 15 Role Type: Main Cast Appears: Full Film Warnings: Violence, torture Survives to the end credits? Yes Availability? Available on VHS, DVD, Laserdisk, HD-DVD, Blueray...
Review
A classic without any doubt, and deserving of the oscars it won. Not quite sure I can add anything more to what has already been said about this, as a film, and I could probably delve back into my film studies mode to offer comparisons and methods of why this film works on so many levels, but let's be honest... if you wanted that you'd be on a more grown up film reviews site. With so many heavy weights of the acting world alongside him, Jaimz Woolvett never seemed out of his depth and I still remember seeing for the first time that moment he had to pull the trigger and being totally in the moment of not knowing if he would or not - and it was that moment that has always stood out for me.
I wasn't that much younger (or didn't think I was at the time), when I was made to sit in the cinema for my film studies course and watch Unforgiven that in my mind was 'full of oldies' and cowboy movies was definitely not my thing, but then there was this kid who I could relate to (on an age thing, not the wanting to kill for bounty thing.. just so we're clear) and before I knew it, I had been caught and instead of the longest two hours of my life (as I predicted prior to seeing the movie) it sailed by and I have adored the movie ever since for making me realise that good acting is worth seeing regardless of your own thoughts prior to the movie on the subject matter/genre.
The actual story of this film and the way it plays out is pretty gruesome in parts, and the violence never feels overly done but its always there, and no punches are pulled. The Schofield Kid is a dreamer, has heard the stories of the old west and that's what marks this film out as something different, it's not so much depicting the hey day, often romantic version of the old west, but the last remnants, the ugly side, the scars it left just before the modern world took over and all of its innovation slowly over took society. Obviously it was also the movie that introduce Woolvett the elder to me, and for that reason alone I am grateful to Unforgiven.