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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Unforgiven-- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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With a stellar cast, ranging from veteran actors such as Lillian Gish and Charles Bickford, to Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn, The Unforgiven, from director John Huston, still has strengths, but, at least to my mind, hasn't truly stood the test of time.

The new Blu-ray seems about the same.

No real problems here, but an overall soft image, presumably from a dupe element, along with a like grain structure, and color, that while in the proper palette, never seems to have proper strength, leaves me not exactly thrilled.  Photographed in Panavision (no mumps) by Franz Planer (The Nun's Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's).  Wonderful score by Dimitri Tiomkin.

I would call it decidedly okay.  No real problems.  But nothing to get excited about.

Image - 3

Audio - 4

RAH

 

JohnMor

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Just watched this last night. Hadn't seen it in decades. Great story, but the dialogue is frequently terrible and the acting too over the top at times, for which I always blame the director. Not sure yet if I'll keep it.
 

Robin9

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JohnMor said:
Just watched this last night. Hadn't seen it in decades. Great story, but the dialogue is frequently terrible and the acting too over the top at times, for which I always blame the director. Not sure yet if I'll keep it.
John Huston would have accepted the blame. He made clear in his autobiography that he too thought the acting was over the top. I disagree with both of you. I just love Joseph Wiseman's performance. Sure it's overacting but, as Orson Welles used to point out, overacting is not the same as ham acting.

I'm disappointed to hear the disc is not so good. I'll stick to the DVD.
 

JohnMor

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Well, I think Wiseman is wonderful in the film. as are Bickford and McClure. And as for the others, it's more in certain scenes than all the way through. I just think things should have been reined in a bit more.
 

Robert Crawford

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Robin9 said:
John Huston would have accepted the blame. He made clear in his autobiography that he too thought the acting was over the top. I disagree with both of you. I just love Joseph Wiseman's performance. Sure it's overacting but, as Orson Welles used to point out, overacting is not the same as ham acting.

I'm disappointed to hear the disc is not so good. I'll stick to the DVD.
It's your right to stick with the DVD, but this BD is a big improvement over the DVD. When RAH gives a 3 rating on video, it usually means a 3.5-4.0 rating for the rest of us.

As to the acting, other than Audrey, who overacted some, I thought the film had some fine acting performances. I thought Murphy gave his best acting performance of his career. As to the dialogue, it's one of my favorite parts of this fine western. To each his own!
 

FoxyMulder

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Robert Crawford said:
It's your right to stick with the DVD, but this BD is a big improvement over the DVD. When RAH gives a 3 rating on video, it usually means a 3.5-4.0 rating for the rest of us.
I usually down rate it by 0.5 to 1, not because i don't trust Mr Harris but i can be fussy on catalog titles.

:EDIT: Numbers never tell the whole story anyway and maybe the way forward is for all reviewers to ditch ratings.
 

Robert Crawford

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FoxyMulder said:
I usually down rate it by 0.5 to 1, not because i don't trust Mr Harris but i can be fussy on catalog titles.
It could of been better, but I'm happy with this BD and it's one of my favorite westerns.
 

Matt Hough

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Another one where HTF requested a review copy and were denied. I'm glad it was covered by Robert for the site.
 

clambake

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Robert, Im with you on this. I really like this movie. It gets pretty suspenseful at the end. The first time I saw it, I was expecting it to go one way, and it went the other. And you get Audrey in the only 'Western' role she did.
 

FoxyMulder

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Matt Hough said:
Another one where HTF requested a review copy and were denied. I'm glad it was covered by Robert for the site.
I don't understand why you aren't getting privileges ahead of everyone else and getting review copies, i mean aren't Kino Lorber promoting their product at HTF, so why are they not sending you review copies, is it just their policy or something deeper.
 

Keith Cobby

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I can understand it. The less than enthusiastic remarks about the latest batch of Kino Lorber blu-rays is making me concerned about the one title I want - The Great Train Robbery. Usually when the media do not get to see a film before it is released it means the studio know there is a problem with it. If Kino expect us to be disappointed with the AV that's the reason they are not sending out review copies. They don't want pre-orders to be cancelled.
 

JohnMor

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Keith Cobby said:
I can understand it. The less than enthusiastic remarks about the latest batch of Kino Lorber blu-rays is making me concerned about the one title I want - The Great Train Robbery. Usually when the media do not get to see a film before it is released it means the studio know there is a problem with it. If Kino expect us to be disappointed with the AV that's the reason they are not sending out review copies. They don't want pre-orders to be cancelled.
Yes, but other sites are clearly getting review copies and have had their reviews and screencaps of these titles up for days already.
 

Matt Hough

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FoxyMulder said:
I don't understand why you aren't getting privileges ahead of everyone else and getting review copies, i mean aren't Kino Lorber promoting their product at HTF, so why are they not sending you review copies, is it just their policy or something deeper.
Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea what the problem is. As I said, though, I'm glad at least Robert Harris is getting to give them a look.
 

mikeyhitchfan

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Anyone notice an audio sync issue in the last 1/2 hour or so of The Unforgiven BD? There's a slight delay which is not present through most of the film.
 

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