The Unforgiven

Formulaic and very annoying western with bafflingly irritating performances from virtually the entire cast. What the thinking behind this trite was I'll never know.

the fuck? I kept waiting for some redeeming thematic quality to pop up, but no; apparently this is simply a movie about killing injuns.

Threatens some interesting racial commentary but loses itself toward the end. Hepburn gives a rangy performance but is miscast in this role--just too regal to really be convincing here. Inexplicably seems to do 180 on message against racial intolerance in finale. The heroes essentially become the villains and I don't think the movie knows it. The final romantic situation is also creepy. Not bad, but seriously flawed. Has the feel of being partially ruined by studio meddling (which wiki confirms.

The fine cast makes up for some thin story and plot. A good flick but it could have been a great one. Too bad.

It tries to do something about making a statement about racism but then at some point it does the 'Left Exit 12 Off Ramp' -meme and goes entirely different way. The white folks in this movie come out acting like total assholes and Audrey is terribly miscast in her role. It's entertaining, but not really that good of a western besides a few select scenes.

The Unforgiven explores family, race, and hatred, but none of them in entertaining or enjoyable way.

(Spoilers) Audrey Hepburn as an Indian maiden? Really? Yes, simply as a really annoying frontier girl she would have been miscast, but she turns out to be full-blooded Indian. And Burt Lancaster's "racially tolerant" character is completely trashed when he murders one of her Indian kin who comes to parlay, simply to incite the rest and have the excuse to kill dozens more. I rate it as high as this because it's actually well-done in some ways.

Brings up some fascinating issues and tries to handle themes like racism and the nature of family, which is admirable and far from common in westerns of it's time. It is however supremely flawed in places and ends up being quite the fence-sitter in it's moral dilemmas. One of those movies where you feel there's something really special in here, but the movie just can't quite get to it. Also, it seems to have no problems with the fact that the adopted siblings clearly want to bang each other.

Misfire by everyone

This would have been so much better with another actress in the role given to Hepburn. She's so out of place in this one.

It was laty enough in the night/early enough in the morning for this movie to be interesting. Quite stereotypic though

While it's not as weird as Hustons own dog and pony show on acid "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean", The Unforgiven is still a highly unorthodox genre film. It's a revisionist western years ahead of its time, but to go along with this there's wild, unruly (and ineffective) shifts in mood, a direly miscast Hepburn and broad, campy acting from all but the reliable veteran Gish. It's not necessarily a good movie, but it's too ambitious and strange and... well... Hustonesque not to like.

A bit disappointing, but I liked seeing Hepburn in a less glamorous role.

Not a bad little John Huston western. Interesting role for Audrey Hepburn to choose.