Morgan Freeman Movie:

Editorial Review:
Winner of four Academy Awards, including best picture, director, supporting actor, and best editing, Clint Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece stands as one of the greatest and most thematically compelling Westerns ever made. "The movie summarized everything I feel about the Western," said Eastwood at the time of the film's release. "The moral is the concern with gunplay." To illustrate that theme, Eastwood stars as a retired, once-ruthless killer-turned-gentle-widower and hog farmer. He accepts one last bounty-hunter mission--to find the men who brutalized a prostitute--to help support his two motherless children. Joined by his former partner (Morgan Freeman) and a cocky greenhorn (Jaimz Woolvett), he takes on a corrupt sheriff (Oscar winner Gene Hackman) in a showdown that makes the viewer feel the full impact of violence and its corruption of the soul. Dedicated to Eastwood's mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and featuring a colorful role for Richard Harris, it's arguably Eastwood's crowning directorial achievement. --Jeff Shannon

Description of Unforgiven [Region 2]:
Winner of four Academy Awards, including best picture, director, supporting actor, and best editing, Clint Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece stands as one of the greatest and most thematically compelling Westerns ever made. "The movie summarized everything I feel about the Western," said Eastwood at the time of the film's release. "The moral is the concern with gunplay." To illustrate that theme, Eastwood stars as a retired, once-ruthless killer-turned-gentle-widower and hog farmer. He accepts one last bounty-hunter mission--to find the men who brutalized a prostitute--to help support his two motherless children. Joined by his former partner (Morgan Freeman) and a cocky greenhorn (Jaimz Woolvett), he takes on a corrupt sheriff (Oscar winner Gene Hackman) in a showdown that makes the viewer feel the full impact of violence and its corruption of the soul. Dedicated to Eastwood's mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel and featuring a colorful role for Richard Harris, it's arguably Eastwood's crowning directorial achievement. The digital video disc offers standard and widescreen formats and a remastered soundtrack. --Jeff Shannon

Unforgiven [Region 2] Reviews:
A bleak look at a bleak world
2009-11-29 - This is what Eastwood is good at. Heavy emotional dramas that portray the world in a far less stylized view than other films. Given all of Eastwood's experience with Westerns, it's only natural that one of his first big hits as a director presents a more realistic view of the Old West. Definitely not a film you will want to miss if you love Westerns or Clint Eastwood. Just don't expect to feel particularly cheery afterwards.

Excellent movie, excellent price.
2009-11-23 - Upgraded from dvd to blu. Beautiful picture and sound. Love this movie and now its even better.

One of the best Westerns
2009-11-07 - When you get Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris, and Morgan Freeman in one film you know you are in for a treat. This movie does not disappoint. Each of the actors does a superb job in each of his characters giving each incredible depth. Even Richard Harris' character is important even though he is only in a few scenes. Each of the characters both have their good traits and their evil ones. Eastwood and Freeman play reformed gunfighters turned farmers out to get one more bounty. The internal turmoil and conflict of going back to their old ways is played well by both. How violence has worn on each plays a central roll in the film. Hackman's character is the extreme law and order man who wants to control everything that goes on his town and will go to very violent means to make sure that he does.

Although this film is extremely violent in places, unlike a lot of other films it does an excellent job of showing the results of that violence on the perpetrators of that violence. They don't just walk away at ease with themselves.

The features on the blu-ray are pretty good but very dated. There is the behind the scenes feature, the interviews with the major actors, the voice over commentary, as well as a retrospective of Clint Eastwood's career up to that point. And that's the main drawback to the extras, they weren't updated for the blu-ray so they are about 15 years old. Not that big of deal for me, but something that someone might want to know.



Unforgiven
2009-10-25 - The transfer of the movie to blu ray was not as good as I had hoped for. I do have the regular dvd, and when played on my Sony bdp-S1 it looks excellent. I just did not get the wow factor on this video or audio transfer.I think most people would be very satisfied with the regular dvd.

A blu-ray dissapointment, but a wonderful movie
2009-10-22 - There are a plethora of reviews of the movie, but my review is mostly a comparison of the BD vs DVD version. I won't discuss its merits as a western, which is a classic and worthy of 5 stars. This BD disk is 3 stars for its technical quality.

The BD version is worth buying if you don't own the 2 disk special edition, which has the better DVD transfer, and cost more, even after discounts! But if you own the better DVD version and are looking to own the best version for home viewing, hold on.

While the audio is crisp and clear, there is no magic in its mastering or imaging, its just clearer sound than the DVD.

The BD transfer is generally sharp, but there are moments so dull, I thought I was running the DVD version. The high resolution of BD removes jaggies seen in diagonal lines and pixelation revealed by DVD resolution projected into a large HDTV, but this BD's colors are often washed out, and edges of objects blurred. This lack of resolution is much worse in the night scenes including the finale scene, and is 80% less during daylight shots. Some of the daylight shots do appear as blurry as the night shots. Unlike better BD out there, overall the background elements do not have more striking detail over the DVD. By comparison, a stellar transfer exists even in old movies. If you are a fan of WWII airplanes, see the 1969 'Battle of Britain' or the classic 2001: Space Odyssey.

However, if you don't own the 2 disk set, this BD disk incorporates all the extras of the 2 disk set into one disk, and a better buy than the original DVD release.