Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

toothpasteweapon The most unusual and conspicuous audio track to ever come out of Hollywood. A synthesis of Folkways nature recordings and 1950s Soviet animation soundtrack music is a poetic way of putting it. Seriously though. I don't think the vibe of the disembodied music was repeated for another twenty years until Mad Max. Visually, the vibe is similar to other low-budget westerns of the era with the fake, dimmed night scenes, but the audio is absolutely unique and surreal from beginning to end. On the surface the audio can be distracting and, no doubt, signify a B-Movie aesthetic. Hey, you youngsters with time and ambition to pursue a PHD in film, thesisify this movies soundtrack. There seem to be no thoughtful examinations of it in the literature.

Dalbert Pringle 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.

writers_reign The word on the set is that John Huston, disillusioned at the way The Red Badge Of Courage was mauled by the studio more or less threw in the towel and was content thereafter to phone it in. Stories of him reading a newspaper on set and allowing his assistants to run the show abound and it is undeniable that he never made a half-decent film post-Courage. He had a penchant for assembling several heavy hitters, putting them in an under-written off-the-wall screenplay and snatching a suet pudding from the jaws of a soufflé. He did it with Beat The Devil and damned if he doesn't do it here as well. There's something of Duel In The Sun about The Unforgiven in that both turn a team of top talent loose on turgid screenplays. We wait a long time for the revelation that Audrey Hepburn is not, as she and the audience supposed, white, but a half- breed 'stolen' from the Kiawa tribe some twenty years previously. Rather sportingly the Kiawas wait the same twenty years before claiming her as one of their own. So much for realism. It's hard to work up much of a sweat for this ponderous entry which had the chance to confront racial prejudice in a serious fashion and spurned it.

Tweekums Rachel Zachary is the adopted brother of Ben, Cash and Andy; their late father rescued her after the local Kiowa Indians killed her parents; at least that is what they all believe. Things change after a strange old man, armed with a sabre turns up; soon afterwards a small group of Kiowa turn up at the house and demand that the family give Rachel to then; claiming that she was kidnapped from their tribe. They are shocked to hear such a suggestion and deny it but others who live nearby start treating the family differently. In order to find out what the old man's part in it was they ride out and capture him; he claims that what the Kiowa said was true; he'd been part of a raid on an Indian village where the Zachary's father took the baby. Shunned by everybody they return home and the mother admits the truth of the story; Cash can't take the idea of having an Indian sister so leaves. Not long afterwards the Kiowa return and a battle ensues; ultimately Rachel must decide whether to return to the tribe with her real brother or stay with the adoptive brothers she has known all her life.This was an interesting western; I thought it was well acted although I couldn't buy for one minute that Audrey Hepburn could be a Native American... which was a bit of a problem given that she was meant to be a full-blooded Kiowa! Burt Lancaster did a fine job as her older brother and Audie Murphy was good as Cash... although personally I found him more entertaining in various B-Westerns I've seen. The action was well directed and exciting; especially the prolonged confrontation at the end. Taken as a piece of entertainment it was good enough but I must say I found the racial politics highly suspect; I felt we were meant to sympathise with the white family as they fought to keep their adopted sister rather that to side with the tribe she was kidnapped from... even after the family start the conflict by murdering a Kiowa when they came in peace to talk! Overall I'd say it is worth watching if you are a fan of the genre although rather sit down and watch a cheap B-western personally!