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DVD The Unforgiven
No relation to the 1992 Clint Eastwood film of almost the same name, The Unforgiven is based--like John Ford's The Searchers--on a novel by Alan LeMay. Again the story focuses on a frontier family divided by racism. But instead of the complex, endlessly resonant demonology of the Ford picture, John Huston aims in The Unforgiven for a pat, civil-rights-era allegory of loving solidarity triumphing over societal prejudice--and, to be sure, some noble but dangerous Kiowas. Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn costar as, respectively, the eldest son of a ranching family and the beloved sister who's not his sister at all, but an Indian. However, the film's dark heart belongs to Joseph Wiseman as an avenging ghost who materializes out of the wind, and Lillian Gish as the matriarch who will do whatever she must to protect her clan. With Audie Murphy, Charles Bickford, Albert Salmi, John Saxon, and Doug McClure. --Richard T. Jameson
This is an excellent movie that explores prejudices, family ties, and our preconceived notions about ourselves. It is set in the Old West, but the issues it explores are still relevant today. Director John Huston has done a masterful job with this film.
Audrey Hepburn is elegant and beautiful in the role of a sister who may have a "questionable" birth. Audie Murphy is her somewhat simple-mindedly prejudiced brother, Burt Lancaster is her older brother, whom she quietly adores. (And we soon see, the feeling is mutual.) Lillian Gish is just fantastic as the matriarch of the family, and Joseph Wiseman is excellent, as always, as an enigmatic stranger. Also, look for John Saxon in a small role as a Native American ranch hand.
A must-see. Incredibly well done, with wonderful performances by Hepburn, Lancaster and Gish, especially.
Audrey Hepburn's western!
A pretty standard western despite its great cast and first rate director. It is worth noting for the unusual presence of Audrey Hepburn as its female lead. Hepburn plays an Indian girl raised by a white family which includes two brothers played by Burt Lancaster and, WWII hero, Audie Murphy in one of his better film roles. Out of fear that their white community would reject this Indian girl, her adoptive parents have kept the secret of her true orgin from the community, her brothers, and the girl herself. Of course, trouble occurs when Audrey's true identity is revealed. Murphy, playing the hot-headed, Indian hating brother, rejects her. Lancaster, playing the resolute older brother, stands by her as family. Also Hepburn's real Indian family discover her location, and threaten to take her back by force unless she is returned.
By today's standards this film is not politically correct especially for the fact of the Dutch-Irish-English Hepburn playing an American Indian. Yet it does try to address the issues of racism and intolerance, although maybe with not as deft a touch as modern audiences are use to. A decent western; but not a classic.
Audrey Hepburn as an American Indian?
This film doesn't rank as a classic or great Western in my opinion, but it's worth a look. The sets and cinematography are probably the most realistic I've ever seen in a Western: the dustiness, the sod-roofed cabin, the griminess of the actors, the plain (very plain) clothing, etc. However, I found it a bit hard to accept Audrey Hepburn portraying an American Indian (even though she is an exceptional actress, she isn't a convincing Indian). Her speech patterns differ greatly from everyone else's in the film, and when she says "ain't ya?" with her European-style speech, it made my skin crawl. She just appears anachronistic in this film; it's not Audrey's style or form. However, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish, and Audie Murphy are all excellent in their respective roles. Burt Lancaster has seen better films, though. In addition, the chemistry was absent between he and Hepburn. She obviously had a schoolgirl-type crush on her adopted big brother, but I never felt that his supposedly romantic feelings for her were genuine. The lynching scene is effectively horrifying, as is the final scenes of mass slaughter. This is a disturbing movie, and although quite dated, it does address race relations between the pioneering whites and the American Indians (of course, all from the pioneers' point of view, which was typical of 1950s Westerns). Worth a look, but I wouldn't purchase it unless you are an intense Western fan or just want to see Audrey Hepburn in an incredibly unusual role.
Audrey Hepburn's last Oscar nomination was for this adaptation of Frederick Knott's famed stage thriller about a blind woman, a con man (Alan Arkin), and a doll full of heroin. Thanks to Hepburn's husband, a photographer who does a good deal of traveling, she's unknowingly come into possession of said doll, which was given to him on a plane by a comely young drug runner who winds up dead. The murderous Arkin, aided by sympathetic henchman Richard Crenna, will let nothing stand in the way of his obtaining it, even if it comes down to assaying multiple "personalities" in order to visit and terrorize Hepburn; Crenna is unwillingly enlisted to help. However, the "world's champion blind lady" (as Hepburn sardonically states) is more than up to the task of defending herself in her basement... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Terence Young DVD Release Date: Released the 05 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Besides the stellar performances of Hepburn, MacLaine, and Garner, you see older film stars Miriam Hopkins and Fay Bainter still performing at their best. The plot involving the homosexual school teacher, the mean-spirited child, and the gossipy grandmother takes a few twists and turns that are unexpected. It's a dark film, but I'm afraid very true even today. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Audrey Hepburn - Shirley MacLaine Director(s): William Wyler DVD Release Date: Released the 03 December 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Despite its reputation as an oversimplified epic, King Vidor's War and Peace remains a stellar showcase of Hollywood prestige. While Cecil B. De Mille was reviving ancient Egypt for The Ten Commandments, Vidor was transforming Italian countryside into war-torn Russia, bringing massive resources to bear on this sumptuous, if ultimately misguided adaptation of Tolstoy's classic. Given the marquee casting of Audrey Hepburn as Natasha and then-husband Mel Ferrer as decorated battle hero Prince Andrei, this is a movie you watch for star value, not literary fidelity (for the latter, look to Sergei Bondarchuk's Russian version). Henry Fonda serves Tolstoy more effectively as Pierre, whose passive observation of Napoleon's invasion turns this grand moral tale into an intimate study... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Audrey Hepburn - Henry Fonda - Mel Ferrer Director(s): King Vidor DVD Release Date: Released the 03 December 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The most famous and sublime treatment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, John Ford's My Darling Clementine is by any measure one of the most classically perfect Westerns ever made. Henry Fonda plays a hard, serious Wyatt Earp leading a cattle drive west with his brothers when a stopover in the wild town of Tombstone ends in the murder of his youngest brother. Wyatt takes up the badge he had turned down earlier and tames the wide-open town with his brothers (Ward Bond and Tim Holt), all the while waiting for the wild Clantons (led by Walter Brennan's ruthless Old Man Clanton) to make a mistake. Victor Mature delivers perhaps his finest performance as the tubercular gambler Doc Holliday, an alcoholic Eastern doctor escaping civilization in the Wild West. Ford takes great liberties... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Linda Darnell Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 06 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Fairy-tale Paris doesn't get more enchanting than Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon, an ode to picnics on the grass and champagne at the Ritz. Audrey Hepburn (who had already made Sabrina with Wilder) is at her best as the inexperienced cellist with a fascination for millionaire American playboy Gary Cooper. Maurice Chevalier (who else?) is Hepburn's father, a private detective with ample evidence of Cooper's crowded history of l'amour. Alongside the sheen of the romance is Wilder's unerring sense of craftsmanship; watch how inanimate objects such as a liquor tray, a white carnation, or the little dog in the suite next door are developed into sublime running gags. The age difference between the two leads has often been questioned, but perhaps this is what... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gary Cooper - Audrey Hepburn - Maurice Chevalier Director(s): Billy Wilder DVD Release Date: Released the 08 January 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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