2. Unforgiven (1992)
Clint Eastwood. Gene Hackman. Morgan Freeman. Richard Harris. Four great actors, four great performances. Eastwood directs himself as William Munny, a once ruthless gunslinger with a hell of a reputation. He used to be a slaughterer of women and children - but his own woman changed things, and now he has his own children to look after. With things not going well, and the sudden promise of one last reward to hunt - William joins his friend Ned (Freeman) and the young and arrogant 'Schofield Kid' to go after some men that cut up the face of a prostitute. The problem is that the town that this prostitute is from has its own law: Sheriff Little Bill Daggett. I mentioned the three-dimensional characters in Letters From Iwo Jima, well this is on a whole new level. Remember those scenes in Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood? He's just as good here - and Gene Hackman matches him, with Morgan Freeman not far behind and Richard Harris brilliant in his relatively small amount of screen time. It's the kind of movie that improves immeasurably on repeated viewings - with more and more little subtleties suddenly leaping out at you. Earlier in this list I have described movies with a great climax but with little else great, movies that spoil everything at the end despite being near-perfect to that point etc. In Unforgiven, it all comes together. It really seems to be the sum of all of the best parts of the movies preceding it in this list (including an absolutely captivating final scene), with none of the worst parts. I can't think of a single thing I dislike about this movie. It won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a supporting role (for Gene Hackman). It wasn't just a critical success, either, grossing around $160,000,000 on a budget of just $15,000,000. Make no mistake, if this next movie didn't exist Unforgiven would be a very deserving number one. If you haven't already guessed what got the number one spot I'll make it even more obvious for you: Unforgiven is, in my opinion, the greatest movie ever directed by Clint Eastwood.