Now that all the technical awards have been handed out at
earlier ceremonies, we’ve reached the crescendo of this pomp and
circumstance. The top ten:
10. Unforgiven
(1992)
Credit the success of Unforgiven
that, nearly 25 years on, it looks less revisionist by comparison. Not that it hasn’t been done better before
(Boetticher) or since (“Deadwood”), but I think where it looks tame today is
largely due to the now well-tread path it forged.
It’s hard to think that the Academy didn’t anticipate it was
Eastwood’s, as well as the traditional Western’s, dusk and—while I wouldn’t
trade A Perfect World or Letters from Iwo Jima for anything—I
could have largely done without the geriatric tour. I’m not refusing to take responsibility for
my cynicism that has come with age, but I think I would have preferred a
romantic end for The Man With No Name instead of a world where Clint makes the
empty-chair speech at the Republican National Convention. Unfair to the art, probably, but it can’t exist
in a vacuum either.
