I have a kind of odd obsession with this movie. I used to dislike westerns and had to actually force myself to see this in the theater because of the Oscar buzz surrounding it.

And I walked out a changed person.

I’ve only seen this film three times yet it still has a strong effect on me, and I don’t know why that is. From the finite script to the perfect casting to the criminally gorgeous cinematography (thank you, Jack Green) it just works on every single level.

To see the subtle changes from script to screen are interesting.

The one that stands out is, to me, the most important shift in the main character. In the script, Munny takes the bottle from The Kid early in their conversation. In the film, he takes it after learning about Ned’s demise.

And after all the backstory we’ve been given (and allowed to paint pictures of in our minds) when Eastwood takes that bottle…one of the most gut-punching scenes done in near-silence. I watched this movie with my wife, thinking she was hating the film because of the violence and was not interested – but when he grabbed that bottle, she sat up and said aloud ‘Oh, shit!’ because she knew that it was the turning point – Munny was going back to his old ways.

It’s such a brilliant moment in film history.

And now…I’m going to have to watch this film again tonight. Thanks for THAT, Scott! Ya bastard! :)

What Erin said.

UNFORGIVEN has to be in my all-time Top 10 favorites list. And the ending... Probably even higher than that -- actually, I tend to cite it as my favorite ending of all time. I just love dark, existential films like this.

When I was a kid, long before Beta/VHS, I had the record (LP) for the soundtrack to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I used to play that record over and over and over... Even with no visuals, I was still enraptured. And to this today can speak every single line in RAIDERS.

UNFORGIVEN is alot like that for me. There is such great dialogue, and I've seen the movie so many times, I end up speaking along with Clint and Gene Hackman in all of their scenes -- especially the finale. And probably my favorite line is one which Clint - famous for shooting the script as-is - apparently improvised a bit: instead of "Deserve' don't mean shit, Little Bill.", in the movie he says:

"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it."

Man, that just hits me... Love it!

and then right after that line, another bit of a change from the script: in the movie Little Bill actually says, "I'll see you in hell, William Munny!"

To which Clint just says, "Yeah."

My goal in life is to write dialogue that sticks with people the way this does for me.

Of course, being a Worshipper at the Temple of Clint, he could probably recite hickory-dickory-dock and I would think it was the greatest thing ever....

One of the few times I've walked out of a cinema and been sure I'd just seen a classic.

"I was...building a house." Thought that was a great line of self-justification to give Hackman at that moment.

Agreed with Erin. This film piqued my interest in Westerns. Never cared much for them when I was younger (what kind of boy was I?), but Unforgiven changed everything.

Great writing. That scene description, the dialogue, the flow of the entire read is phenomenal. Like RonC stated: I want to write dialogue/scene descriptions that stick with people the way this script/film stuck with me.