UNFORGIVEN

Unforgiven, the last of the great great westerners they say.

Clint Eastwood's induction into the actor/director hall of fame.
It's grim and dirty, sparse and dusty, everything you want from a modern day western.
It feels like a Morricone score, looks like you're best nightmare and glows dimly like the remains of a distant campfire,

Eastwood plays the retired gunslinger, William 'Bill' Munny, who is mourning the death of his beloved and has since been struggling with his crops and two children. One day he is propositioned by a young cowboy who comes a riding from the distance, 'The Schofield Kid', who asks Munny to ride with him into the town of Big Whiskey where there is a bounty on the head of 2 cowboys who unjustly terrorised an innocent whore.

After brief consideration, he decides to take on this journey, along the way he pays visit to an old friend, Ned, who joins him for one last kill. Two retired, legendary cowboys taking to the plains and fields of Wyoming. Battling torrential rains, challenging landscapes and the rest.

They eventually arrive in Big Whiskey, faced with a tough crowd, predominantly in the form of the town sheriff Lil Bill, who takes joy it seems in kicking the shit out of anyone who dares walk his territory. And he does just that to Munny, who recovers in a barnyard near by until he can regain his strength. He is nursed back to health by the sweet young lady whose unfortunate fate has called him there in the first place.

She inevitably falls for the warm, handsome charm of Munny who does his darndest to protect and honour her, not just because he is seeking a reward, but because you genuinely believe he wishes to nurse her wounded spirit.

The finale is spectacular, it's so incredibly heroic you want to cry with the pull of every trigger and watchful glance courtesy of Eastwood. A piece of work which will undoubtedly go down in film history as one of the greats, regardless of time, space and genre.