Popeye Doyle is unethical and unscrupulous, but at least his fixation is in the right place.
Popeye Doyle played by Gene Hackman.
American Film Institutes Ranking: #70/100 Awards: Nominated for eight, winning Best Picture, Actor, Director and Adapted Screenplay. My Rating:
The movie is a sprint interspersed with a few jogs to slightly catch our breath.
This rapid pace doesn’t allow us to get to know anyone or anything — the driving force behind all the characters is a complete enigma to us. This had the potential to detract more from the movie than it did if it weren’t so gripping due to acting and action.
The moment you’ve been waiting for finally comes 4/5ths through the movie, but it all seems too late and anti-climatic.
Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Jaimz Woolvett.
American Film Institutes Ranking: #98/100 Academy Awards: Nominated for several: best picture, actor, screenplay, director, supporting actor. Won for supporting actor (Gene Hackman), Director (Clint Eastwood) and Picture. My Rating:
I’m okay with Westerns. My favorite book of all time happens to be a Western (Lonesome Dove). Older generations who display the red,white and blue at every door and buy cars made only in Detroit view Westerns as a quintessential American representation. The West represents the idyllic egalitarian society with no centralized government and each small community creating their own standards for law and acceptable behavior — no need for big government here!
It all works out for you as long as you are the swashbuckling cowboy and not one of the the characters regelated to the edges such as women, children, seniors, and those not willing to be violent. Unforgiven continues with this deconstruction of the Western narrative, focusing on a protagonist that isn’t glistening with moral righteousness while showing the real toll of vigilante justice. So while Unforgiven is certainly a Western, it tries to butt up against the glorification of the genre.
My problem is that in the process of flipping the script, you lose connection with the characters leaving a resolution that is ultimately unsatisfying.
