How violent is the film "Unforgiven"?

Unforgiven is the story of a man that was a vicious outlaw who had reformed, married, and had a child. His wife died and he was homesteading. He got asked to help go kill a cowboy that had disfigured a whore. He went because his friend has asked. He kills a bunch of people but there isn’t a lot a gore. More to a throw back to old westerns where a lot of pistoleros get killed but they don’t show the gore.

Over all I liked this movie as it was more drama and story driven than just mindless violence.

Thanks wulfie! it’s the gore and graphic violence I can’t take. I liked a lot of Clint Eastwood’s later films like Million Dollar Baby but in college, I walked out of Dirty Harry..

It’s probably the best movie he produced and one of the best westerns in the last 30 years. He is for lack of a better word, a psychopath. At least on that spectrum, it would be unfair to call him a complete psycho. He knows he is not right and has a hard time coming to terms with it. While he does not exactly take pleasure in killing, it does not bother him to the degree it should. This movie to me is more about shades of grey than the good guy goes after the bad guy. That was my big takeaway and why I often recommend it. It’s not gory at all, but the theme is indeed violence.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but @seawulf575‘s summary reminded me. I enjoyed it muchly! yes, I can invent words, so can you! They show it on Netflix or The Movie Channel or Showtime on a pretty regular basis.

I didn’t like it though just about everyone I know raved about it. I thought it was a very bleak unpleasant film though no more violent than other Clint Eastwood films which strangely enough I loved.

In a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most violent….1.5.

It’s one of the best westerns I’ve ever seen. I revisit it maybe every two years. A must see.

Unforgiven is the best western made in the last 50 years.
There are moments of violence. You see three men being Bull whipped. That is arguably the most violent scenes. The final showdown is incredible, but not exceptionally visual.
I implore you to watch it!

It’s too much for me and I’m a big Eastwood fan. Similar to Django on violence in my opinion, which I don’t enjoy. Rated R for a reason.

I don’t wanna talk about it.

Update: So I saw it in movie club last night but I did leave before they killed Ned and the final shoot out when I sensed the worst was coming. I could take most of the rest except Little Bill’s sadism and I do agree agree it’s an excellent movie.

I cam home and looked up the synopsis online and found out how it ended.

Yay for you for taking care of yourself!

Just dropping in to add that Common Sense Media is an excellent resource to determine whether you can handle a film. I use it frequently, both to answer that question, as well as to prepare myself for violent scenes once I’ve determined that I do want to see a movie. They try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but obviously, there’s always a risk when reading reviews.

@longgone Good to know!

I just looked up No Country for Old Men which is another one coming up in movie club and I will not go to see that! Thanks for the site>

I still havent seen the Sound of Freedom due to the child abuse. Not sure I can handle it. A friend said a guy takes off his belt preparing to rape a child and it enrages me just imagining all the truth that lies behind the movie.

Thanks for that link, @longgone. I read about No Country For Old Men I love the Coen brothers! and although I don’t mind violence too much, I know I’d find myself looking away from the screen a number of times. What’s weird is that somewhere, somehow I got the idea that the film was about an old man and his son and the old man had no place to go anymore. :D sheesh!

Regarding No Country For Old Men, it is a great movie, but the violence which starts the movie decreases through the movie, until the end where you just see crime scenes that occurred off camera.

Unforgiven, is a masterpiece. It gets right what almost every western gets wrong. It removes the “glory,” of killing people…
It delves into the minds of those who kill, and the irreparable damage it does to someone.

All in the backdrop of a very realistic scenario…

“No Country for Old Men,” is also a masterpiece. There are, I suppose, some parallels.

The fact that realistic violence was left out of so many older movies, is a variable in why people are violent.

Example. “Saving Private Ryan,” was extremely gory. But. Many people looked at war a VERY different way, after seeing it represented realistically…

“No Country for Old Men” is one of my favourite movies. It is very well scripted and shot and thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. The violence is part of the plot and I didn’t find it disturbing.

^^ I’m not disputing that either is a good film or saying that the violence is gratuitous. I just find it personally too disturbing to watch so I stay away from those movies. There are plenty of others to see. I can watch battle scenes that are fast but not close ups of torture or sadsim.

Hear hear. Thank you @Janbb

@janbb I’m that way to a degree also. I cannot watch slow torture like in the SAW or Hostel films. That said, the most violent parts of Unforgiven were not at the end of the film.

@Blackwater_Park I found the kicking and beatings earlier on awful and of course the cuttings but I looked away from the cutting. I would have found the killing of Ned awful.

They did not show Ned’s death. That fact was actually brilliant because you find out the same time the characters do and it’s a complete surprise. You can see the switch in edward Munney flip as he takes a drink of whiskey while he is being told what happened to Ned. A subtle, yet powerful scene.

^^ I may watch the ending at home then.

@janbb Please do!
A couple notes:
The Schofield Kid has terrible eyesight, so he squints. This is a funny take on Clint’s famous affectation.
The movie portrays alcohol as a disease. Will’s past violent behavior is blamed on his drinking. Will travels to kill the cowboys, and slowly becomes ill. He recovers, and does the job, but becomes violent again when he hears about Ned. He drinks, has the shoot out, and leaves the town called Big Whiskey.

I found the film to be an interesting perspective on the effects aging has on a person. It’s unique in juxtaposing this perspective against Eastwood’s previous westerns. It’s a more mature, realistic presentation than westerns traditionally present.

Sure, it has violent elements but nothing that hasn’t been represented in other westerns. If anything “Unforgiven” argues against the use of violence by both the sheriff in the town Eastwood’s character travels to and Eastwood himself. Violence is only an issue because the town’s vicims of a violent assault demand violence as retribution. The film suggests, however, that violence may not be the appropriate solution. Viewers witness the shocked reaction of several people witnessing the consequences of violent actions. Violence is presented but there’s nothing excessive in it’s presentation.