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Rated: R
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, et al.
Director: Clint Eastwood Review
Winner of four Academy Awards, including best picture, director,
supporting actor, and best editing, Clint Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece
stands as one of the greatest and most thematically compelling Westerns
ever made. "The movie summarized everything I feel about the Western,"
said Eastwood at the time of the film's release. "The moral is the concern
with gunplay." To illustrate that theme, Eastwood stars as a retired,
once-ruthless killer-turned-gentle-widower and hog farmer. He accepts one
last bounty-hunter mission--to find the men who brutalized a
prostitute--to help support his two motherless children. Joined by his
former partner (Morgan Freeman) and a cocky greenhorn (Jaimz Woolvett), he
takes on a corrupt sheriff (Oscar winner Gene Hackman) in a showdown that
makes the viewer feel the full impact of violence and its corruption of
the soul. Dedicated to Eastwood's mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and
featuring a colorful role for Richard Harris, it's arguably Eastwood's
crowning directorial achievement. The digital video disc offers standard
and widescreen formats and a remastered soundtrack. --Jeff Shannon
------------ This film won the 1992 Academy Award for Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman) and Best
Editing. Garnering three of the "major" awards is impressive and they are
what make the film a memorable and enjoyable experience. Eastwood the
director is in top form. He has always displayed a steady hand in
directing his stories and actors and he doesn't disappoint here. Nothing
flashy but it is his understated direction that leads this film to it's
climax. In less capable hands, a director may be apt to moralize or
preach. Eastwood capably lets the story (overlooked as an original
screenplay) tell itself. His turn as the lead character -- William Munny
-- is also an underplayed, nuanced part. I think it is one of his best
acting jobs. He carries a grim outlook and those set, steely eyes convey
all of the emotions the character feels. In a movie with so much else that
is good, his performance is not to be ignored. Gene Hackman is outstanding
in his portrayal of Little Bill Daggett, the sheriff of Big Whiskey, WY.
His performance is both blustery and low-keyed. It is a credit to Hackman
to know how to pull if off effortlessly. The movie itself is the real
star. It plays on so many levels and gives a lot of shades of gray that
really blow off the Westerns of old. There is no good guy in the white
hat. In fact, there is little good to be found in the movie. Most of the
men and women are scoundrels or people of ill-repute. However the general
theme of reality that Eastwood conveys is what you will have to look for.
Things aren't what they seem and this "anti-Western" shrugs off the myths
of the Old West.
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