Unforgiven appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This remastered version offered largely solid visuals.
Sharpness looked very good most of the time. Low-light interiors made the picture a bit soft, but otherwise definition felt solid.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed appropriate and I discerned no print flaws.
The movie’s palette leaned toward a “Western brown”, though it could feel a bit orange during nighttime interiors. I didn’t feel sure that those represented the original photography but colors appeared positive.
Blacks seemed deep and dense, while shadows felt smooth. I thought the remaster served the source well.
The disc provided a stark but engaging DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. The front soundstage created a nicely broad field of audio, as effects and music blended well across those three channels. Elements meshed nicely and offered good stereo imaging.
As for the surrounds, they mostly stayed in the realm of general ambience, but they kicked to life nicely during the appropriate scenes. Thunderstorms gave us natural and involving material, and other sequences also added some involvement.
In particular, street scenes created a solid sense of atmosphere. The soundfield remained fairly subdued, but it fit the material.
Audio quality seemed consistently positive. Dialogue appeared distinct and natural, with no problems related to edginess or intelligibility.
Effects sounded deep and realistic, as gunfire crackled nicely and the other ambient elements seemed strong as well. The film used music sparingly but the score appeared clean and smooth at all times, and the whole track boasted gentle but rich bass response.
Unforgiven didn’t provide a demo-worthy soundtrack. Nonetheless, it seemed more than satisfactory for this kind of film.
How did this 2017 remaster compare with the original Blu-ray from 2006? The 2017 disc offered lossless DTS-HD MA audio that showed better fidelity than the 2006 release’s lossy Dolby Digital 5.1.
Visuals provided superior delineation and lost the minor specks and haloes from the 2006 version. The 2017 also seemed a little more orange during interiors, which I couldn’t help but wonder if came as part of an “update”.
However, this trend didn’t seem extreme, and the different colors might more accurately represent the source. In any csse, the remaster turned into the more satisfying rendition of the film.
The remaster includes the same extras as the prior version, and we find an audio commentary from Time magazine movie critic Richard Schickel, who offers a running, screen-specific track. At times Schickel provides some information about the creation of the film and its path to the screen, such as when he relates how Eastwood sat on the project for years before he felt ready to make it.
However, most of the commentary focuses on character and story interpretation. Schickel nicely covers these issues and tries to dig inside the message on display and other rich elements.
Schickel clearly feels warmly toward the film, and his enthusiasm for it comes through well. My only real complaint about the track revolves around the moderately frequent gaps.
Though these don’t become overwhelming, too much of the movie passes without material from Schickel. Despite that fault, the commentary generally provides an informative and enlightening piece.
In addition to the film’s trailer, we get All On Accounta Pullin’ a Trigger, a program about Unforgiven that runs 22 minutes, 35 seconds. Hosted by Morgan Freeman, it includes interviews with actor/director Clint Eastwood, actors Freeman and Gene Hackman, editor Joel Cox, and writer David Webb Peoples.
We hear a little about the origins of the project as well as how Eastwood became involved in it, but most of the program discusses the film’s anti-violence elements. Those parts of the show seem reasonably engaging, though we don’t get enough information to achieve any real depth.
That occurs because we see far too many movie snippets, as these fill about half of the piece. “Trigger” seems moderately interesting but it doesn’t provide much insight.
From 1992, Eastwood and Co.: Making Unforgiven lasts 23 minutes, 52 seconds. Hosted by Hal Holbrook, this show includes remarks from Eastwood, Hackman, Freeman, actor Richard Harris, production designer Henry Bumstead, cinematographer Jack Green, script supervisor Lloyd Nelson, gaffer Tom Stern, executive producer David Valdes, technical consultant Buddy Van Horn, property master Edward Aiona, costume supervisor Glenn Wright, and animal wrangler John Scott.
Though “Company” also includes too many film clips and too much plot discussion, it seems more compelling than “Trigger” largely because of the interesting snippets from the set. We see some great behind the scenes footage.
The show also provides a quick look at Eastwood’s acting history. Though “Company” remains somewhat superficial, it gives us enough useful material to merit a look.
Next we find Eastwood… A Star, a 16-minute, seven-second featurette that also dates from the theatrical release of Unforgiven. Similar in construction to the prior show, this one features comments solely from Eastwood as it covers his career.
It repeats some of the shots from the last piece, but it concentrates more heavily on older flicks. The results seem a little puffy, but overall, it provides decent little overview.
For more information in that vein, we heard to Eastwood on Eastwood, a one-hour, eight-minute, 34-second documentary. Narrated by John Cusack, the program covers Clint’s career through 1997’s Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil.
The show mostly consists film clips and interviews with Eastwood, but we see some behind the scenes footage from flicks like Bird, Unforgiven, and Garden. The movie scenes definitely dominate the piece, which seems like a burden and a blessing.
On one hand, the prevalence of the snippets allows us to get a good feel for Eastwood’s career. The program doesn’t include material from all of Clint’s flicks, but we get a pretty solid sampling.
However, this doesn’t leave tons of time from comments from Eastwood. He adds some nice remarks at times, but these don’t appear with the frequency I’d prefer.
That means that we receive a somewhat superficial discussion of his work; it features moderate insight but it doesn’t often dig beneath the surface. Still, Eastwood seems entertaining and generally informative.
After this, we get a nice look at Clint’s very early career via Maverick: Duel at Sundown. This 49-minute, seven-second piece includes an entire episode of the series from 1959. Not surprisingly, the story features Eastwood in a prominent guest role as Red Hardigan. This provides a very cool extra, as it was a lot of fun to see the young Eastwood at work, and the show seems pretty entertaining to boot.
As a film, Unforgiven comes wth some merits and offers a generally strong piece of work. The movie gives us a somewhat forced but moderately thoughtful treatise on violence, so while it doesn’t totally achieve its goals, it works fairly well overall. The Blu-ray provides good picture and sound as well as a solid collection of extras. This becomes a quality release for a generally engaging tale.
Note that this 2017 remastered Blu-ray comes only as part of a 4K UHD package and can't be found on its own. Because Blu-ray fans without 4K UHD capabilities will want it, I figured it deserved its own review separate from the 4K UHD set.
