This film boasts a great Burt Lancaster performance, ably seconded by Lilian Gish and the beautiful Audrey Hepburn, who found that she was pregnant and actually had an accident with a horse during filming that nearly rendered her paralyzed, and caused her to lose her baby.According to his autobiography, Hepburn's situation caused much of the film to be shot around and without her, with inevitable disruption to all manner of details and plans. Perhaps that helps explain why there are so many sudden cuts, both in terms of scenes and music - very jarring. Huston has some fine directorial moments, but the film is as uneven as his direction. Photography is astounding at times, especially with the unforgettable cattle stampede over the house, but it can also be pedestrian, with some rather poor "day for night" shots, among other weaknesses. Still, THE UNFORGIVEN is interesting to watch, with racism as one of the main items on the menu, the other being family ties superseding all else. I have always liked this film, and rewatched it with pleasure, but it is nowhere near masterpiece status. 7/10

It's certainly a high-powered cast and director, and some fine performances ensue. Lovely, genteel Audrey gives it her best, but she makes such an implausible Indian that 'willing suspension of disbelief' has a hard time keeping suspended... and the whole story hinges upon her Indian-ness. From her first appearance, folksily shooing cows off the roof in cultured Old-World tones, she's simply nothing whatever like a Kiowa or even any rural Texan-- not that the other Kiowas really look very Native American either. When her passed-off-as-white secret is threatened and one hears the remark that she's "darker than most" it's hard to buy, since in spite of some ruddy foundation (that comes and goes) she's in fact lighter than most of the cast except the very pale Gish-- and how did either of them stay pale out there in the wide open spaces anyway? Joseph Wiseman delivers a riveting portrayal of crazed old coot Abe Kelsey, but he really looks too young for the part, and in fact was only 42 when this was filmed. Lillian Gish is superb as always, despite Huston's irreverent attitude towards this enduring screen legend. During filming the hapless Gish was forced to repeat her "breasts hurting with all that milk" speech again and again, probably just because the director enjoyed embarrassing her. And the day-for-night scenes detract further from the realism. Well, fuss, fuss fuss, it's still a very impressive picture and a well-intended filmization of the source novel (whatever one's opinion of that). The music is a bit overblown here and there, but that's typical of older movie soundtracks. Well, one simply has to watch this film with an uncritical eye and accept it all at face value.

The unforgiven is a nice movie, western. That is a good story which find in this movie a good adaptation for the cinema. This story is about a Indian woman who live since she was baby with a white farmer and cattle and horse breeder family. and naturally with the impulse and the coming of an old man who know the true, the Indian Kiowa want to rehabilitate the girl.The story is the opposite (inverse), contrary of the searchers (1956) with John Wayne and Nathalie Wood.In the unforgiven the girl make a different choice for the issue of the story. The story is good because the mystery and a little suspense appear, and it is on the top with the Indians.One of assets in the unforgiven is the photography. We have beautiful pictures in this film.And we find a great Audrey Hepburn, who give something magic and mysterious anytime she is on the screen.A nice western to see.jelios [email protected]

Released in 1960 - This big-budget Western, set in the mid-1800s, tells an uncomfortably awkward tale of hatred, racism, and intolerance. Its attempts to unveil the truth surrounding a 20 year-old secret that, due to one man's spite, is finally brought to light, is mean-minded and nasty.This grave secret directly involved the real heritage of Rachel (the Zachary's adopted daughter) who, now 20, was taken in by these well-respected ranchers when she was just a small baby.This film seemed to go out of its way to put Native Americans into a very bad light. Not only did it portray them as being very stupid warriors, as they managed to let 2 men and 2 women slaughter 40 of them in a matter of minutes - But it also had Rachel shoot down her very own Indian brother, at point-blank, while he stood there, facing her, completely unarmed.Spoken with venomous hatred, this film also contained numerous racial slurs, aimed directly at the Kiowa Indians. The name-calling even escalated to the point where the white citizens referred to the Indians as "n-i-g-g-e-r-s" on a few occasions.The Unforgiven abounded with plenty of over-acting, especially from Burt Lancaster who played Ben, one of Will Zachary's 3 grown-up sons. It sure seemed to me that Ben was of a very questionable character. For example - After being raised for 20 years as a brother to Rachel, he was now looking at her with carnal lust in his eyes while making plans to take her as his wife.I was very disappointed by this Western whose soundtrack music became so loud at times that it actually drowned out some of the dialog.