WESTERNS: Unforgiven (1992)

“It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man.”

A movie with this reputation and this level of talent should be expected to at least be a competent film. But somehow Clint Eastwood chose the most tepid, non-committal way to tell a story that has more in common with great existential novels than Westerns. And that might be interesting, if it weren’t for the fact that this movie is also convinced it’s a western. Gene Hackman is acting his ass off and being just about the meanest son of a bitch you’ve ever met. But everything else in this movie just feels totally and completely missed, and that’s a problem we can’t solve because it happens to be one of the most lauded films of all time. Time to grab your guns one last time as we watch Unforgiven on Have a Good Movie!

You can email us with feedback at haveagoodmovie@gmail.com, or you can connect with us on Bluesky!

If you like the podcast, make sure to subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends.

Intro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.

Excerpt taken from "Claudia's Theme" from the film Unforgiven, written and composed by Clint Eastwood. © 1992 Unforgiven Warner Bros.

Excerpt of “Mr. Lucky” written and composed by Karl Jenkins. Copyright 1980 Music De Wolfe, De Wolfe Ltd.

Excerpt taken from "Main Theme" from the film Tombstone, written and composed by Bruce Broughton. © 1993 Hollywood Pictures.