 "A blu-ray dissapointment, but a wonderful movie" | 2009-10-22 |
| - Reviewed By gozum4 |
There are a plethora of reviews of the movie, but my review is mostly a comparison of the BD vs DVD version. I won't discuss its merits as a western, which is a classic and worthy of 5 stars. This BD disk is 3 stars for its technical quality.
The BD version is worth buying if you don't own the 2 disk special edition, which has the better DVD transfer, and cost more, even after discounts! But if you own the better DVD version and are looking to own the best version for home viewing, hold on.
While the audio is crisp and clear, there is no magic in its mastering or imaging, its just clearer sound than the DVD.
The BD transfer is generally sharp, but there are moments so dull, I thought I was running the DVD version. The high resolution of BD removes jaggies seen in diagonal lines and pixelation revealed by DVD resolution projected into a large HDTV, but this BD's colors are often washed out, and edges of objects blurred. This lack of resolution is much worse in the night scenes including the finale scene, and is 80% less during daylight shots. Some of the daylight shots do appear as blurry as the night shots. Unlike better BD out there, overall the background elements do not have more striking detail over the DVD. By comparison, a stellar transfer exists even in old movies. If you are a fan of WWII airplanes, see the 1969 'Battle of Britain' or the classic 2001: Space Odyssey.
However, if you don't own the 2 disk set, this BD disk incorporates all the extras of the 2 disk set into one disk, and a better buy than the original DVD release. |
| |
 "Cllint Esatwood Favorite" | 2009-10-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: ATF1JYER653GE |
I've seen this movie many times on cable. I was amazed to see if for $9.99 on Amazon. This was my very first Blue Ray disk that I own. A very good movie. Very good cinema-photography on some of the scenics shots. I'm not a western movie fanatic but this is a very strong story. Like "The quick and the dead".
Any movie with Gene Hackman and Clint Eastwood has to be good. Very good acting.
Thanks Amazon for the great price. |
| |
| "Beyond good and evil." | 2009-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1JFVWUGAATTGM |
Briefly said - "Unforgiven" looks like a western, where two cowboys cut the face of a whore; whores seeking revenge, spread the rumor that they would pay a thousand dollar prize to any killer who would kill "them" cowboys; some killers could not make it and were repelled by the sheriff; but eventually killers killed those cowboys, the sheriff and his deputies. And the last man standing was of course William Munny, the killer, played by Clint Eastwood.
This is the description of the events, but "Unforgiven" is not about the events, it's not really a western either. This movie is about people, struggling to live some life and being always unforgiven for that. All of them had lost directions in their lives, all of them understand good and evil at some intuitive level of their own.
The movie does not depict honorable women, tough good fellows, witty winners, slick riders. Tough Little Bill is brutally tough, witty English bob lost miserably, and William Munny can hardly climb the horse.
This movie is a drama and only the final shoot out reminds about a western, but even this shoot out is depicted to be humanly slow, hesitant and dangerous. The final glance of William Munny is of course the famous glance of Clint Eastwood and yet again with the shadow of alcoholic agitation.
"Unforgiven" is a true masterpiece.
At the end the idea of the movie is that people have to be resolute. When the common moral grounds are low the resoluteness becomes the honor, and the voyeurism of by-standers like the writer, who "never had a gun", becomes the utterly disgusting, ignoble.
|
| |
| "Eastwood's masterpiece" | 2009-09-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: AO1XHDKSMTPTB |
| Not much I can add that hasn't already been covered in the many fine reviews here, but the cinematography, music, wonderful performances all around and especially the inevitable, brilliantly gripping and compact climax cemented this one for me right at the top of Mr. Eastwood's impressive acting and directing canon. Watching it again in '09 after not seeing it for a few years was quite enjoyable. In fact, this one seems to improve with age! Truly a great film. |
| |
 "Hollywood at its best" | 2009-09-22 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ODWX1RZJFOYU |
Clint Eastwood managed to find a masterpiece of a script this time, and the brilliance of his directorship shone through. In this movie, the supposedly righteous sheriff turns out to be a brutal arbitrator, the violent, face-cutting cowboy an ordinary young man who committed a mindless crime, the celebrated "English Bob" a hollow underachiever and liar, and the seemingly fearless "Schofield Kid" a boastful but naive young man, the prostitutes a hive of hateful, vindictive beings. Eastwood plays William Munny, a supposedly reformed ex-killer and weak old man who, at the sheriff's slaying of the innocent friend accompanying him on his bounty, re-engaged in violence and vengeance and overcame even the sheriff and his deputies. In short, the one supposed to be the good guy turns out to be vicious and unconscionable, the otherwise insignificant (prostitutes) reveals themselves to be murderous, and then justice comes in the most unlikely source and form.
With a cast consisted of Gene Hackman, Richard Harris and Morgan Freeman, Eastwood got himself a movie teeming with such solid acting as to be hard to surpass in the film industry, alongside with his latter production of The Space Cowboys. This movie is also filled with supple nuances that withstand repeated viewing in appreciation of the finely crafted action sequences and cinematography. I enjoyed the little humors that Eastwood shared with the audience, such as him resorting to a shotgun for target practice after failing with a handgun, the exaggerated description of abhorring acts done to the prostitute that he describes to Freeman's character, the little standoff between Harris' "English Bob" character and Hackman's "Little Bill" character at the Barbershop, etc.
The Western that Eastwood depicts is an expansive and clean-aired one, and one could almost smell the fabric off his old jacket and the sogginess of that jail house in the rain, not to mention the wetness at W.W. Beauchamp's foot. With all the violence in this film, there is the irrepressible background premise of the human conscience, of what ought to be necessity and justice, and what truly are not.
The Blu-Ray transfer is beautiful and the sound is more detailed and dynamic. There is even a complete black-and-white episode of the 1959 Maverick TV show starring Eastwood included. I bought it for $9.99 from Amazon; for a movie starring solid acting and wonderful story-telling, and in wonderful picture and sound, this disc is indispensable. |
| |
| "Very Happy..." | 2009-09-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A12ZWVLYK1KPE8 |
| Received this DVD quickly and in fine shape...this is a good place to get quality DVD's. Very satisfied... |
| |
Expedited Available
![Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [Blu-ray]](product_images/4924000/4924481_thumb.jpg)
![Check Prices on Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [Blu-ray]](images/v2/check_prices.png)
![2001 - A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray]](product_images/4936000/4936769-2001-a-space-odyssey-blu-ray_thumb.jpg)
![The Phantom of the Opera [Blu-ray]](product_images/4922000/4922646_thumb.jpg)
![Blazing Saddles [Blu-ray]](product_images/4922000/4922692_thumb.jpg)
![Black Hawk Down [Blu-ray]](product_images/4922000/4922629_thumb.jpg)
