Unforgiven (Director: Clint Eastwood)
Nominees: The Crying Game, Porco Rosso, The Player, Malcolm X, Videograms of a RevolutionNominees: The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howards End, Scent of a Woman
This one is easy peasy lemon squeezy! Oscar couldn't screw this one up and neither will Felix.
Clint Eastwood responds to his violent movie past with this intellectual meditation on the nature of violence. It explores the gray areas and digs deep beneath those classic western archetypes. Good guys aren't always so good, the bad aren't completely bad – and what you end up with is violence meeting violence to no good end (“Deserves got nothing to do with it”, as Munny tells his adversary). Nick Schanger summed it up smartly, "It conveys the power of the Western genre's myths ... as well as the ugly, unromantic realities that lurk behind them." In the end, Munny becomes that myth personified, and it's a great scene. But the best moments are when we are shown the consequence of violence -- as when the young gunfighter gets his first kill and realizes it's not as glorious as he envisioned. It's not an easy thing to take a man's life, and doing so leaves a scar on your soul.
I think it's Clint greatest achievement; Unforgiven is a surprisingly complex and eloquent western, with a slow simmering, somber rhythm that I found appealing
There were other top-notch movies: Neil Jordan's The Crying Game -which caused such a stir- was a fascinating examination on the nature of love and what it is to love someone. It certainly struck a chord and as with Unforgiven, it made me think (interestingly, the studio behind this movie, passed on Unforgiven and bought this script instead). Porco Rosso might not be one of the first titles that come to mind when someone mentions Hayao Miyazaki, but it's one of his most entertaining. The powerful and provocative Malcolm X still stands as my favorite from Spike Lee - it's lifted by one of Denzel Washington's greatest performances, the man simply dominates the screen. As for Oscar's other choices: I liked Howard's End and A Few Good Men – I didn't like Scent of a Woman, or Pacino's “WHO-AHS!”
But 1992 was Clint Eastwood's year and the old master will not be denied. His Unforgiven is -with Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West and Ford's The Searchers- the greatest, most intelligently written, beautifully filmed Western in the history of cinema. But to heck with splitting it into a genre, it's just damn good filmmaking, period!
And after years of wrestling with my picks, it was so nice to have one I didn't have to think twice about. Thanks, Clint.
Honorable Mentions: Emma Thompson & Helena Bonham Carter, Howards End * Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo's Oil * Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns * Gena Davis, A League of Their Own * Tilda Swinton, Orlando * Emmanuelle Béart, A Heart in Winter * Enrica Maria Modugno, La sarrasine
Honorable Mentions:
Clint Eastwood & Morgan Freeman, Unforgiven * Harvey Keitel, Bad Lieutenant * Stephen Rea, The Crying Game * Anthony Hopkins, Howard's End * Daniel Auteuil, A Heart in Winter * Claude Brasseur & Claude Rich, The Supper * Tony Nardi, La sarrasine
Supporting Actor: Gene Hackman: Unforgiven
Special Award - Best Ensemble: Glengarry Glen Ross
Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce, etc
Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce, etc
