Gran Torino is the Unforgiven
3.5/4 stars

I never was a big fan of westerns. I watch these kind of movies rather rarely, actually the last western i saw was about half year ago, The Quick and the Dead. So i wasn't looking forward to this as i usually do with other movies. The only reason i wanted to see it was because it got a few Oscars, and i am always interested in award winning movies, and because of Gene Hackman, a great actor.

In the end i was surprised to discover a movie different than i expected. It's not actually a real western, it just happens in the West and in the past, but that's it.

William Munny, played by Clint Eastwood, used to be one of the most feared killers in the West. After he got married he managed to change, and now he's living peacefully at his house, together with his 2 kids. But with no wife - she passed away. The plot: 2 guys cut a hooker in a small western town, and the prostitutes decide to offer 1000 dollars for the ones who will kill the agressors. Munny, together with his old partner Ned, played by Morgan Freeman, and along with a "kid" who also wants the reward, decide to kill the 2 guys.

It's not a classic western, as i said, although it happends in the west and it's with cowboys and small towns and shootings and rewards. Many elemnets are missing. The honor doesn't worth anything. There isn't such thing, you don't get to see guys who don't shoot somebody because that somebody doesn't have a gun. It doesn't matter: you want somebody dead, you kill him, no matter how. You don't get to see duels with 2 gunmen taking a few steps back and taking their guns out in the same time. You don't get to see races or rides on horses or stuff like that.

The movie is about William Munny and his struggling with the "old" him, the cold blooded killer. He decides to do one more bad thing, the final one, just because he needs the money to offer his kids a better future. A good premise to do a bad deed. Once he's on the road, he starts changing back to the way he used to be.

I liked this movie especially because there are no good guys. Everybody's a killer, everybody has cruel intentions, and did some bad things in their lives. The intrigue is set by some hookers, who offer the reward to kill the 2 agressors. Munny and Ned are old killers. The sheriff, Little Bill (Gene Hackman) is a bad cruel man who doesn't care about anything. And with all this line-up of crooks the movie manages to hold on and not show us any murder til the final minutes. Good surprising performance.

You can never escape from what you are. That is a fact and that's proven through William Munny. Three quarters of the film we are introduced to this character and although we KNOW he's a bad guy, who used to kill people for nothing, we get to see him as the good guy. Despite his unexplainable horrifying deeds we support him, and we fully understand him at the end of the movie. When he returns to the monster he used to be.

Another strong point of this film is the great acting. Clint Eastwood is great, but Gene Hackman is better. He totally deserves his Oscar. Here it's a paradox. The script for UNFORGIVEN was written in the 70s. Many production companies turned it down. Even Gene Hackman originally refused any contact with this movie. And in the end he won an Oscar for it.

All in all this is a MUST for all movie lovers out there, whether you like westerns or not. Just don't do the stupid thing of missing this one.

Review by Wolfman