Unforgiven
Starring and directed by Clint Eastwood Uaid Westerns are not popular with socialists. Faced with a choice between an acknowledged masterpiece like John Ford's 'The Searchers' and a low budget account of the 1911 Melbourne gaslighters' strike, I suspect most Socialist Outlook readers would plump for the latter.
The fact that westerns are white America's own mythology causes an almost irrational aversion to them on the part of lefties. In defence of the genre I have found myself arguing that the Magnificent Seven' is an analogy for the revolutionary party leading A radical change of image for Eastwood the masses in their own liberation.
But with Clint Eastwood's new film, 'Unforgiven', it is not necessary to resort to such contortions to describe what will come to be judged as one of the finest westerns and one of the best films ever made. Unforgiven' is in the mould of such classic westerns as 'High Noon' and 'Red River rather than the violent stylised films that made Eastwood's name. It is far more grimly realistic and amoral than the conventions of the day permitted directors to be in the forties and fifties. All the traditional elements of the western are turned upside down to give the 300 Club - more fun than Sun Bingo!