Unforgiven is forgiven...by me at least

So yah, the other week, or month or sometime in the recent but not too recent past Best Buy had like the most awesome sale ever where they essentially liquidated their special edition movie thingamajig and sold a bunch of awesome special edition movies for 10 bucks each. Understandably i was jazzed and bought a whole bunch...i got some good ones (amadeus, se7en) some totally terrible ones (chariots of fire...this garbage won best picture?!?) ones that i forgot (i can't paranthesize them because i forgot the titles) and one truly awesome piece of American cinematic acheivement -Unforgiven.

Now this is a movie I love. In fact, i already owned the crappy one disk slack cardboard case edition of it but still felt the need to buy the two disk special edition even though it lacked film commentary by Eastwood himself (which i would really like to hear but which he never seems to sit down and do for any of his movies). For those of you that don't know, Unforgiven won best picture in 1992 i believe and, in my opinion, definitely deserved the honor. There are, of course, those that decry and refuse to watch it because it is a Western (i would generally fall into this category, because i hate shit like Gunsmoke and Maverick) but in all honesty Unforgiven transcends simple genre labels. It's raw, emotional, gritty and uber Dirty Harry style violent in some places. In fact, that's probably the most gripping unique aspect of the film-the way in which it handles violence. The story revolves around violence and the film, in no way sanitizes the pain and bloodshed associated with violent acts. It's a daring approach that adds a new dimension to a story about the fall of a "good" man.

So the point is not really a point. I just thought the way that Unforgiven approaches violent situations was interesting, and, honestly, one of most intriguing parts of the film. I tried to think of other movies that tap into the same vein, but really could only think of a few. One obvious one was Saving Private Ryan, though it didn't have nearly the same emotional impact as the violence in Unforgiven. Another one i considered was Straw Dogs but honestly, after that, i really couldn't think of many films that don't glorify explosions in the like. On the same note, i'd really like to find a copy of David Croenberg's History of Violence because it sounds like it would explore similar themes (though croenberg is like borderline psychotic or something - because, after all, he came up with Videodrome). If anyone reads this (doubtful) or thinks of similar movies, i'l like to know the names.

So yah, go watch Unforgiven. Oh, and when i have more time i'll put more stuff up on here, since, i've obviously, let myself lag a bit.