Some said that Once Upon a Time in the West (1968; reviewed here) left Hollywood with the feeling that Sergio Leone had done all that was worth doing with Westerns for some time to come. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that anyone would try their hand at picking up the threads Leone had left behind. In rapid succession, Kevin Costner first released Dances with Wolves (reviewed here), and shortly thereafter Michael Mann adapted Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. It was Leone’s protégé Clint Eastwood, however, who most closely extended themes featured in Spaghetti Westerns, in this weekend’s movie recommendation Unforgiven (1992).
Eastwood plays William Munny, a man “cured of his wickedness†from his days a drunken outlaw and gun-for-hire. Sobriety came ten years ago, only after his late wife and mother to his two children forced him into an honest life. But honesty hasn’t come easily to Munny; every day’s pig-farming, especially with aching, alcoholic joints like his, takes its toll. Continue reading “Weekend Film Recommendation: Unforgiven”