i think Eastwood is redeeming himself for all the unrealistic, violence glorifying western movies he did in his past, showing us there is nothing sensational about drunk rednecks pulling guns at each other

Gene Hackman's performance is chilling.

Unforgiven is Clint Eastwood's justly celebrated anti-western masterpiece, exposing what lies beneath the romance of the West and showing its true face. It's an incredible, and thematically consistent piece of writing, and well executed by Eastwood, filled with memorable scenes and dialog. There have been many films meant to be the "last western", several from Sam Pekinpah, but while they showed the cowboy as an obsolete relic in a world that doesn't want him - which Unforgiven does too, using Eastwood's western persona to good effect - Unforgiven takes place not at the end of an era, but in the middle of it. What it does is take every western ever made and takes the glamor out of it. It's a massive, dark retcon. (It was written in the late 80s and made in the early 90s, what can I say?) Hell of a thing, killin' a man...