Unforgiven

Unforgiven is a 1992 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by David Webb Peoples. It stars Eastwood as William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he turned to farming. The film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Unforgiven premiered at the Mann Bruin Theater on August 3, 1992 before being released by Warner Bros. on August 7, 1992. It grossed over $159 million on a budget of $14.4 million and received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for the acting (particularly from Eastwood and Hackman), directing, editing, themes, and cinematography. The film won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Hackman, and Best Film Editing for Joel Cox. Eastwood was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. The film was the third Western to win Best Picture, following Cimarron (1931) and Dances With Wolves (1990). Eastwood dedicated the film (at the end of the credits) to directors and mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel; "Dedicated to Sergio and Don". In 2004, Unforgiven was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was remade into a 2013 Japanese film, also titled Unforgiven, which stars Ken Watanabe and changes the setting to the early Meiji era in Japan. Eastwood has long asserted that the film would be his last traditional Western, concerned that any future projects would simply rehash previous plotlines or imitate someone else's work.