Unforgiven 1992

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: This dark, melancholic film is a reminder-never more necessary than now-of what the American cinema is capable of, in the way of expressing a mature, morally complex and challenging view of the world. Read more

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: Individual scenes work, but the movie seems overstuffed and halting. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The Western is back. With a vengeance. Saddle up or get out of the way. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Unforgiven ain't nuthin' new, y'unnerstan', but it's a good, old-fashioned western-type pitcher with plenty o' rootin' tootin' action 'n' big ol' horses 'n' 10-gallon hats 'n' sech. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Eastwood deliberately upends the conventions of the western, subverting his own image in the process. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: This is the best work Eastwood has done as a director since The Outlaw Josey Wales 16 years ago. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: There's not much dramatic urgency apart from the revisionist context. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: It shouldn't be missed by anyone with a taste for Eastwood's typically slanted morality. It's the actor/director's best movie -- and the best Western by anybody -- in over 20 years. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Enjoy it for the handsome wide-screen vistas, the interplay of the actors, the classical sweep of its story line. Just don't expect the new, soul-searching Eastwood to be any more dramatically convincing than the old. Read more

Michael Sragow, New Yorker: This is the finest set of performances ever to grace a Clint Eastwood movie, and this time Eastwood even does a good job directing Eastwood. Every bullet in this movie matters. Read more

Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News: "Unforgiven" is a high-caliber movie, a gripping and haunting work of art that should finally establish Eastwood as one of America's best directors. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: Unforgiven is a most entertaining western that pays homage to the great tradition of movie westerns while surreptitiously expressing a certain amount of skepticism. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: One of Unforgiven's assets is the way it overturns conventions, taking the man who is typically the hero and making him the villain, while transforming the traditional bad guy into a sympathetic protagonist. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: That implacable moral balance, in which good eventually silences evil, is at the heart of the Western, and Eastwood is not shy about saying so. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: In three decades of climbing into the saddle, Eastwood has never ridden so tall. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Eastwood's meditation on age, repute, courage, heroism -- on all those burdens he has been carrying with such good grace for decades. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: In this dark, timeless terrain, the film achieves a magnificent intensity. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A classic Western for the ages. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: By now ... Eastwood has little more than a paint-by-numbers approach to acting. As a result, we relate to Munny more as a compendium of Eastwood's earlier characters. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Jumps adroitly between the macho and anti-macho, the romantic and anti-romantic. Read more