The Legend of Clint Eastwood
Unforgiven, 1992
Eastwood's first western since Pale Rider in 1985 is a dark, passionate drama with good guys so twisted and bad guys so persuasive that virtue and villainy become two views of the same soul. But it is also Eastwood's meditation on the burdens of age, repute, courage, heroism — on Clintessence. The movie takes its time letting you watch the aging gunfighter, Will Munny, turn into Clint. And when he does, it's not thrilling but scary. At the end he threatens to "come back and kill everyone." Will says he's doing it all for the money. But it's really because a man's job is his life. Will shoots people. Clint shoots westerns. And for once, the Hollywood establishment took notice, awarding the film Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director (Eastwood) and the renegade star an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. After nearly 40 years in the movie business, these were his first-ever Academy Award citations.