Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Unforgiven 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

We Had It Coming

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 18, 2017

The latest catalog title to be remastered for UHD by Warner Brothers is Unforgiven, the multi-Oscar-winning Western from 1992 that redefined Clint Eastwood in the eyes of both the public and the critical establishment. Before Unforgiven, Eastwood was a movie star who directs films. After it, he was a celebrated filmmaker who also happens to act. In the twenty-five years since Unforgiven, Eastwood has maintained a prodigious level of cinematic productivity dotted with highs (Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby), lows (Blood Work) and experiments that fall somewhere in the middle (e.g., Hereafter). But Unforgiven remains a landmark both in its director's career and in film history.

Unforgiven was one of Warner's earliest Blu-ray releases in 2006, based on a master initially prepared for DVD (and also used to create an HD-DVD). Revisiting that presentation today, I expected to find something rough and ugly, but to my surprise the early presentation holds up unexpectedly well. Nevertheless, it has now been superseded by this 25th Anniversary UHD, which is derived from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative and has been approved by Eastwood. Included in the UHD package is a remastered standard Blu-ray created from the same scan, which, at present, is not separately available. Warner is apparently hoping that anyone who wants to acquire Unforgiven in its new 1080p presentation will "future proof" their purchase by buying it with the 4K disc as a package deal.

For discussion of the film, please refer to the review of the original Blu-ray by Greg Maltz and to the recent writeup by my colleague Josh Katz. I share the latter's assessment that the film is "[o]ne of the most important Hollywood Westerns ever made".

Unforgiven 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

(Note: Screenshots accompanying this review are taken from the newly remastered 1080p Blu-ray included with the UHD. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.)

In stark contrast to Michael Mann's avowedly revisionist remaster of Heat in 4K, the new versions of Unforgiven were prepared with strict instructions from Eastwood and his team to preserve the look and feel of the original film with its Oscar-nominated cinematography by Jack N. Green (Serenity), one of the film's nine nominations. Unlike Warner's UHD of Goodfellas, which was out-sourced, the 4K master of Unforgiven was entirely prepared by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility, which has been responsible for all the important catalog restorations released by the studio and has become the "go to" post house for the Warner Archive Collection. MPI scanned Unforgiven's original camera negative at 4K, followed by extensive and meticulous color correction in both SDR and HDR by two of the facility's senior colorists. Side-by-side tests were conducted using a freshly minted answer print to satisfy all involved that the final product represents the best possible reproduction of the film screened for audiences in 1992. The finished 4K master was reviewed and approved by Clint Eastwood and his team.

It will be interesting to see how the UHD enthusiast community reacts to Warner's 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD of Unforgiven, because the differences between the 4K treatment and its accompanying 1080p rendition don't immediately leap off the screen. In the film's darker sequences—and Unforgiven has many of them—the high-resolution scan of the negative provides little or no increase in visible detail, because it simply isn't there in the original photography. Eastwood's affinity for darkness in interiors and night scenes is well-established, and sequences like the cowboys' attack on Delilah (Anna Levine) and the final showdown between William Munny (Eastwood) and Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) play out in dimly lit recesses with figures moving between deep shadow and half-shadow and facial expressions often reduced to outlines in the gloom. The UHD/HDR colorists have resisted any temptation to add artificial visibility to such sequences through intensified brightness or heightened contrast; these scenes remain as dark as they were intended. Indeed, on close examination, the UHD is even slightly darker than the Blu-ray iterations, utilizing HDR's enhanced delineation of blacks to maintain the integrity of the image in even the dimmest light.

Where the increased resolution really shines is in Unforgiven's spacious and varied landscapes, most of which were shot in Alberta. The grass, trees, dusty terrain and colorful rock formations form an expressive background to the long journey from Munny's cabin to Big Whiskey, Wyoming, as Will and Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) catch up with each other and eventually connect with hot-tempered wannabe gunslinger, The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett). In the theater, I remember being knocked back in my seat by the grandeur of these vistas, which contrasts so sharply with the three partners' corrupt destination and ignoble purpose. The UHD's increased resolution renders these surroundings with sparkling immediacy, and the gentle HDR treatment makes them vivid without overemphasis. The same improvements are observable in later outdoor scenes like the ambush of Davey (Rob Campbell) and the famous sequence where Will and The Kid have a weighty conversation while awaiting the arrival of Little Sue (Tara Frederick) with their payment.

The sticker prominently affixed to every UHD disc touts the "brighter, deeper, more lifelike colors" of HDR, but the HDR treatment of Unforgiven demonstrates that these descriptions may be at odds. The colors of this UHD are "more lifelike", but they certainly are not "brighter" or "deeper". I would describe them as more refined. Perhaps most noticeably, the UHD's fleshtones lack the consistently ruddy cast that is evident even on the remastered Blu-ray, presumably a product of that format's less expansive color space. On the UHD, faces are reddened by the glow of candles, lamplight and campfires, but in natural light they lose a slight red "push" that is visible on the Blu-ray (and was even more pronounced in the previous Blu-ray). It's a subtle but effective adjustment, enhancing the realism of characters even as the story elevates them into myth. (The reds and oranges of the sunsets that open and close the film remain as intense as ever.)

The 4K/HDR rendition of Unforgiven may not be the disc you drop into the player to wow your friends, but it fulfills the format's promise of bringing classic cinema into the home with new levels of accuracy and intensity. It's the first UHD I've reviewed that deserves highest marks for its treatment of a 4K source—not only for what it does, but also for what it does not do.

[System calibrated using a Klein K10-A Colorimeter with a custom profile created with a Colorimetry Research CR250 Spectraradiometer, powered by SpectraCal CalMAN 2016 5.7, using the Samsung Reference 2016 UHD HDR Blu-ray test disc authored by Florian Friedrich from AV Top in Munich, Germany. Calibration performed by Kevin Miller of ISFTV.]

Unforgiven 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unforgiven was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo, which was remixed for 5.1 for the film's DVD release. The 2006 Blu-ray offered the same mix in lossy Dolby Digital, but the UHD and remastered Blu-ray arrive with a lossless 5.1 soundtrack encoded in DTS-HD MA. Whether because of the lossless format or through tweaking of the mix (or a combination of the two), the new soundtrack offers readily audible improvements. Gunfire, especially of rifles, is more intense and has a greater kick, with deeper bass extension. It's especially noticeable when Will and Ned first approach The Kid, who is firing wildly in their direction (and elsewhere) after spotting two figures pursuing him. Similar intensity is apparent in Davey's ambush, as Ned and Will take turns with Ned's rifle, and also in the hail of gunfire featured in the film's climax. The foreboding thunder that accompanies both the opening and closing scenes in Big Whiskey, and reappears periodically through the film, rumbles at a deeper level and, as before, rolls through the surrounds. The dialogue remains audible and properly localized, and Lennie Niehaus' score (with its theme composed by Eastwood) supplies an elegiac counterpoint to the violence onscreen.

(Note: For language and subtitle options included with the new standard Blu-ray included in this package, please see the separate listing here.)

Unforgiven 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc includes the commentary listed below, but no other extras. The new Blu-ray includes the extras from the 2006 release, most of which were discussed in the prior review.

• Commentary with Richard Schickel.



• Eastwood on Eastwood (480i; 1.33:1; 1:08:34): A 1997 documentary written and directed by Schickel and narrated by John Cusack.



• All on Accounta Pullin' a Trigger (480i; 1.33:1; 22:35): Narrated by Morgan Freeman.



• Eastwood & Co.: Making Unforgiven (480i; 1.33:1; 23:52): Narrated by Hal Holbrook.



• Eastwood . . . a Star (480i; 1.33:1; 16:07).



• "Duel at Sundown" Maverick TV Episode (480i; 1.33:1; 49:07): This 1959 episode from the second season of TV's Maverick features a young Eastwood as a gunslinger and fortune hunter named "Red Hardigan", who makes a point of mispronouncing Maverick's name as "Maver-ack".



• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2.40:1, enhanced; 1:57).

Unforgiven 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In both video and audio, the UHD presentation of Unforgiven is by far the best-yet home video version of one of the 20th Century's essential films. Even if you haven't yet upgraded your equipment for 4K, the included 1080p standard Blu-ray represents a meaningful upgrade. Highest recommendation.