"The Unforgiven" is based upon a novel by Alan Le May, who also wrote "The Searchers", and in one respect the two films can be seen as mirror- images of one another. "The Searchers" deals with a young white girl who is kidnapped by Comanche Indians and brought up as a member of their tribe. "The Unforgiven" deals with a Native American girl adopted by a white family. Both women have much stronger loyalties and emotional ties to their adoptive kin than they do to their blood relations.
Rachel Zachary is a young woman living with her family in Texas. (The film was actually shot in Mexico). Her life is turned upside-down when a half-crazed old man, Abe Kelsey, arrives in the area, claiming that she is an Indian, much to Rachel's dismay; she knows that she is adopted but has always believed herself to be white. Abe is known to have quarrelled with Rachel's late father Will, and has a long-standing grudge against the family, so his allegations are dismissed by Rachel's three adoptive brothers, Ben, Cash and Andy, and their mother Matilda. These allegations, however, are believed by the local Kiowa Indians whose chief, Lost Bird, believes Rachel to be his long-lost sister and, increasingly, by other white people in the area whose bitter racism against Native Americans also extends to anyone they suspect of having Indian blood. Eventually, Matilda is forced to admit that Abe's story is the truth and that Rachel is indeed a Kiowa, saved and adopted by her late husband as a baby after her parents were killed in a massacre.
Audrey Hepburn was an unusual choice to play Rachel; she was not an actress associated with Westerns (this was her only one) and she is not convincing as a Native American. The film-makers, however, clearly wanted an established star in the role, which would have ruled out casting any actress of American Indian blood, and as the plot involves a romantic attraction between Rachel and Ben casting a white actress might have eased any possible problems with the Production Code. (The Code still officially banned mixed-race on-screen romances, although this tended to be overlooked if the non-white character was played by a white actress). Audrey herself may have been attracted to the movie by her own experiences of racism (she lived through the Nazi occupation of Holland) and by a desire to expand her range as an actress. Although she is best remembered today for light-hearted romantic comedies she was always anxious not to be typecast and, throughout her career, tended to alternate between this sort of film and more serious fare, appearing in the likes of "War and Peace", "The Nun's Story" and "The Children's Hour". In the event, she did not enjoy making "The Unforgiven", especially after she was injured falling from a horse, which perhaps explains why she never made another Western. She recovered from her injuries, however, and returned to the screen the following year with "Breakfast at Tiffany's", perhaps her greatest performance.
Burt Lancaster was another actor who struggled successfully against typecasting, in his case as the hero of films noirs or of swashbuckling action-adventure movies, and by 1960 was starting to appear in the sort of serious, thoughtful roles which were to become his trademark in the latter part of his career. He gives the best performance in this film as Ben Zachary, the eldest of the three brothers, and a man torn between his instinctive honesty and his desire not to believe the unwelcome truth about his adoptive sister which, if generally known, would make the family pariahs in the eyes of their racist neighbours.
The director John Huston is said to have described this as his least satisfying film, something which has always surprised me as he made a number of films far worse than this one, such as the tedious "The Bible" or the lame Bond spoof "Casino Royale". (Not everything Huston made was a "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" or a "Red Badge of Courage"). Much of his dissatisfaction seems to have stemmed from a dispute between him and the production company. Huston wanted to make a serious statement about racism in the Old West (and, by extension, in modern America), whereas the studio wanted a more conventional action Western, which they felt would be both more commercial and less controversial. The resulting compromise seems to have pleased neither party.
That does not mean, however, that it should not please the viewer. "The Unforgiven" is in many ways an exciting film, although not in the conventional action-adventure sense. Some of the action sequences, such as the Indian attack on the Zachary homestead, seem a bit too protracted. (And were the Indians such poor military tacticians as to waste so many lives attacking unimportant objectives? Lost Bird seems to have sacrificed around thirty of his best warriors in this assault). The excitement, rather, derives from the interaction of the various characters, the interaction between Abe, who is about to be hanged for horse-stealing, and Matilda, as she desperately tries to get him to admit that what he has said about her daughter is a lie, is almost unbearably tense. And despite Huston's reservations the film does have something significant to say about race relations; the position of people like Rachel, Indian by blood but white by culture, is something rarely explored in Westerns. This is an unusual Western, but a good one. 7/10
Rachel Zachary is a young woman living with her family in Texas. (The film was actually shot in Mexico). Her life is turned upside-down when a half-crazed old man, Abe Kelsey, arrives in the area, claiming that she is an Indian, much to Rachel's dismay; she knows that she is adopted but has always believed herself to be white. Abe is known to have quarrelled with Rachel's late father Will, and has a long-standing grudge against the family, so his allegations are dismissed by Rachel's three adoptive brothers, Ben, Cash and Andy, and their mother Matilda. These allegations, however, are believed by the local Kiowa Indians whose chief, Lost Bird, believes Rachel to be his long-lost sister and, increasingly, by other white people in the area whose bitter racism against Native Americans also extends to anyone they suspect of having Indian blood. Eventually, Matilda is forced to admit that Abe's story is the truth and that Rachel is indeed a Kiowa, saved and adopted by her late husband as a baby after her parents were killed in a massacre.
Audrey Hepburn was an unusual choice to play Rachel; she was not an actress associated with Westerns (this was her only one) and she is not convincing as a Native American. The film-makers, however, clearly wanted an established star in the role, which would have ruled out casting any actress of American Indian blood, and as the plot involves a romantic attraction between Rachel and Ben casting a white actress might have eased any possible problems with the Production Code. (The Code still officially banned mixed-race on-screen romances, although this tended to be overlooked if the non-white character was played by a white actress). Audrey herself may have been attracted to the movie by her own experiences of racism (she lived through the Nazi occupation of Holland) and by a desire to expand her range as an actress. Although she is best remembered today for light-hearted romantic comedies she was always anxious not to be typecast and, throughout her career, tended to alternate between this sort of film and more serious fare, appearing in the likes of "War and Peace", "The Nun's Story" and "The Children's Hour". In the event, she did not enjoy making "The Unforgiven", especially after she was injured falling from a horse, which perhaps explains why she never made another Western. She recovered from her injuries, however, and returned to the screen the following year with "Breakfast at Tiffany's", perhaps her greatest performance.
Burt Lancaster was another actor who struggled successfully against typecasting, in his case as the hero of films noirs or of swashbuckling action-adventure movies, and by 1960 was starting to appear in the sort of serious, thoughtful roles which were to become his trademark in the latter part of his career. He gives the best performance in this film as Ben Zachary, the eldest of the three brothers, and a man torn between his instinctive honesty and his desire not to believe the unwelcome truth about his adoptive sister which, if generally known, would make the family pariahs in the eyes of their racist neighbours.
The director John Huston is said to have described this as his least satisfying film, something which has always surprised me as he made a number of films far worse than this one, such as the tedious "The Bible" or the lame Bond spoof "Casino Royale". (Not everything Huston made was a "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" or a "Red Badge of Courage"). Much of his dissatisfaction seems to have stemmed from a dispute between him and the production company. Huston wanted to make a serious statement about racism in the Old West (and, by extension, in modern America), whereas the studio wanted a more conventional action Western, which they felt would be both more commercial and less controversial. The resulting compromise seems to have pleased neither party.
That does not mean, however, that it should not please the viewer. "The Unforgiven" is in many ways an exciting film, although not in the conventional action-adventure sense. Some of the action sequences, such as the Indian attack on the Zachary homestead, seem a bit too protracted. (And were the Indians such poor military tacticians as to waste so many lives attacking unimportant objectives? Lost Bird seems to have sacrificed around thirty of his best warriors in this assault). The excitement, rather, derives from the interaction of the various characters, the interaction between Abe, who is about to be hanged for horse-stealing, and Matilda, as she desperately tries to get him to admit that what he has said about her daughter is a lie, is almost unbearably tense. And despite Huston's reservations the film does have something significant to say about race relations; the position of people like Rachel, Indian by blood but white by culture, is something rarely explored in Westerns. This is an unusual Western, but a good one. 7/10