Directed by:
John HustonScreenplay:
Ben MaddowCinematography:
Franz PlanerComposer:
Dimitri TiomkinCast:
Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish, Albert Salmi, Joseph Wiseman, June Walker, Kipp Hamilton (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
It's 1865 and the southwest is plagued by post-Civil War tensions. But beautiful, winsome Rachel Zachary lives blithely with her mother Matilda on a Texas Panhandle cattle ranch. The Zacharys are a hearty frontier family finally reunited when brothers Ben, Cash and Andy return from a long trip. One day, an old family foe reappears and begins circulating vicious rumors about Rachel: that she was taken from an Indian tribe, clandestinely adopted by the family and passed off as white. Once provoked, the local Kiowa Indians band together to reclaim their lost daughter. Violence ensues and Rachel's betrothed, a feeble-minded white settler, is killed. Outraged, the homesteaders demand to know more about Rachel's birth. After all, why would the Kiowa attack if Rachel weren't of Indian blood? (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (3)
Considering that this film was made at a time when the US was experiencing one of the many waves of racial intolerance, the words "ordinary and boring" are the last that come to mind. On the other hand, all of the filmmakers should be commended for the way they have managed to combine the historical western setting with purely contemporary issues. Yes, the film would have benefited from a faster pace and all that, but it's the idea, the warningly raised index finger that John Huston used to say over the years: "Look, people have treated each other like this a few times before, and it hasn't done them any good." The actors probably don't need any commentary (Burt Lancaster's determined tough guy, and Audrey H., the most beautiful of all and acting the most natural), the storm search and the ending are legendary scenes for me, and I loved Tiomkin's classic music playing with the song “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah".
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Western from the old school with a clearly defined romantic line, in a classic attire of good and evil, this time enriched by a surprising but more emphatic motif of racism. The first half is annoyingly monotonous, while the second is strongly above average in its seriousness. And I definitely cannot forget the theatrically semi-pathetic, but terribly adorable Audrey among the actors. In the end, it is definitely not a groundbreaking piece in any respect or genre, but rather a nostalgic comfort, undermined by sluggishness, excessive literalness, and above all, overstated pathos in dialogues.
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Audrey Hepburn's short career is one of those extremely overrated ones. So I decided to take a closer look. This Belgian-born "miracle" of the 50s and 60s left an indelible mark in several simple genre films and in several controversial adaptations. And like the vast majority of Hollywood actors, at some point, she found herself needing to try a western as well. Which is especially spicy for European actors, for whom nothing is more unnatural. So is there anything memorable about The Unforgiven? Of course not. It is completely routine, where perhaps the only thing that raises eyebrows is the utterly pointless casting of Hepburn and (almost 70-year-old) Lilian Gish. A confusing, uninteresting, boring encounter with a rank-and-file western. A waste of time.
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