Unforgiven [Blu-Ray]

Winner of four Oscars in 1992 (including Best Picture), Warner has brought out Unforgiven on Blu-Ray (again) in a "digibook" edition to celebrate the film's 20th year. Let's get it out of the way: if you're a fan of the film, this isn't going to meet your muster as a tribute, as it's literally the 2006 edition (with all the same extras and the same standard Dolby Digital soundtrack) shoved into new packaging, which, to be completely honest, isn't any nicer or classier than an ordinary Blu-Ray case, unless you think it being a "book" immediately signifies class. Well, the "book" bit of the digibook is okay, actually. Fifty-four pages, with some nice pictures and details of the making of the film, I'd be hard-pressed to say it adds much in the way of value, but it will pass the time while you chew over the film during the credit roll. And it is a movie worth chewing over. Clint Eastwood stars as William Munny, a former outlaw who, after his wife's death and with a failing pig farm, accepts a bounty to kill a couple of cowboys who disfigured a prostitute. There's a strong supporting cast, in Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman, and while the film meanders a bit in its aim to make a point about the mythologizing of the old West, and Eastwood's direction is flat, there's enough subtlety to the plot that it's the kind of work you can definitely imagine returning to again and again. Of course, if you are going to, you might as well pick up the much cheaper 2006 Blu-Ray edition.