Unforgiven
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: August 7, 1992 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleLouis Black
But in the genre, as both a movie and a conscious addition to the ongoing celluloid Western mythology, the film is a masterpiece, a stunning and awe-inspiring statement. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunStephen Hunter
Only in its final minutes does it somewhat squander its grip on the moral imagination, in a climax that seems oddly to undercut all that's come before and return us to the hallowed sense of violence as cleansing which so animates the world's true killers. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film reflects a passing era even in its visual style. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneDave Kehr
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. [7 Aug 1992] Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneGene Siskel
Individual scenes work, but the movie seems overstuffed-why is the Harris character necessary-and halting. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Plays out its drama with enough old-fashioned sobriety to lend the proceedings a classical air, offering the comfort of familiarity rather than the thrill of discovery. [13 Aug 1992] Read full review
100
EmpireAngie Errigo
Altogether, this is as fine a piece of craftsmanship as one could expect of Eastwood, with Hackman and I Freeman's performances standing out, and given the sombre tone there are entertaining surprises and even some good laughs to be had. Read full review
80
EmpireRob Fraser
It is the last great Western ever made, and it will always remain so. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As enjoyable as most of Unforgiven is, Eastwood's shades-of-gray moralism feels like a whitewash. Read full review
90
Film ThreatBradley Gibson
As great as the script and cinematography are (they are both unassailable), the real magic of Unforgiven is in the performances. Read full review
80
Film.comJohn Hartl
If Unforgiven occasionally overstates its case, this is the best work Eastwood has done as a director since The Outlaw Josey Wales 16 years ago.
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Simultaneously heroic and nihilistic, reeking of myth but modern as they come, it is a Western for those who know and chrish the form, a film that resonates with the spirit of films past while staking out a territory quite its own. [7 Aug 1992] Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsKathleen Carroll
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 full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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 full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Unforgiven is the most provocative western of Eastwood's career, and with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris along for the ride, it's also the most potently acted. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineChuck Bowen
Unforgiven brought the revisionist revenge film into the 1990s and, by extension, the 21st century Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay Scott
Each character in David Webb Peoples' dense, unexpectedly stately, non- violent script (the inevitable gore is employed sparingly) is treated with that same, somewhat distanced clarity. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Like a shooter whose skill allows him to take careful aim with a rifle rather than going for the easy splatter of a buckshot, director Eastwood's big picture is suredly calibrated: He points your eye to the tiniest specs, the most telling and powerful parts of this moral panorama. Read full review
80
The New York TimesVincent Canby
Unforgiven... never quite fulfills the expectations it so carefully sets up. It doesn't exactly deny them, but the bloody confrontations that end the film appear to be purposely muted, more effective theoretically than dramatically. Read full review
100
The New YorkerMichael Sragow
Under its leathery hide is a genuine compulsion to de-romanticize Western gunfighting. Every bullet in this movie matters, and by the end Munny's alcohol-fuelled, satanic purposefulness is shocking: in the climax, even his choice of victims has a crazy excess. [10 Aug 1992, p.70]
88
The Seattle TimesJohn Hartl
The characters in Clint Eastwood's dark, rugged, perversely funny new Western are so seriously compromised that their flaws almost add up to a running gag. Read full review
100
The TelegraphMartin Chilton
Unforgiven is dedicated to "Don" (Siegel) and "Sergio" (Leone) and it is a sombre, insightful, genre-reinventing western, directed by a filmmaker acutely aware of the western’s history, its limitations and the dubious truths of its legends. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Corliss
Unforgiven questions the rules of a macho genre, summing up and maybe atoning for the flinty violence that made Eastwood famous. [10 Aug 1992] Read full review
100
Time Out LondonGeoff Andrew
A magnificent movie that transcends its familiar tale of a reformed gunman forced by circumstance to resume his violent ways. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The cast is universally strong. Hackman, Freeman and Harris don't do anything they haven't done before, but the roles suit their personae to a degree where they approach archetypal status. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
It's the actor/director's best movie - and the best Western by anybody in over 20 years. [7 Aug 1992]
100
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Clint Eastwood has crafted a tense, hard-edged, superbly dramatic yarn that is also an exceedingly intelligent meditation on the West, its myths and its heroes. Read full review
100
Village VoiceDanny King
Unforgiven is a stark western in slow motion, obsessed with reflection, not action. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJulie Salamon
It's powerful entertainment. [22 Sept 1992, p.A16(E)]
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Exults in the hard-riding romanticism of classic Westerns, but it takes revisionist stock too. It dismounts at places usually left in the dust -- the oppressed lot of women, the loneliness of untended children, adult illiteracy and the horrible last moments of the dying. Read full review
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