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The Western is one of the oldest and most important genres of American film ever, tracing its roots back to the earliest days of Hollywood and kick-starting the careers of legendary filmmakers and actors like John Ford, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. But like many genres, Western films often exaggerate elements of real history in order to create more compelling stories.

Some of the best-received and reviewed Western films of all time have come under scrutiny for lacking accuracy or mischaracterizing the reality of life in the American West. Even though these movies might act as excellent pieces of fiction, their depiction of history leaves much to be desired.

This Best Picture Winner Still Falls Into Classic Western Traps Unforgiven (1992)

Directed by:

Clint Eastwood

Starring:

Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

96%

Clint Eastwood was one of the kings of the Western genre, with his work in both...

To say that fans were disappointed with the 2024 reimagining of The Crow would be an understatement. Directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Bill Skarsgård, the film was a critical and commercial flop, earning just $24 million at the box office against a budget of $50 million. Hoping to recoup some of their losses, Lionsgate made it available on VOD less than a month after its theatrical debut, but by then the word was already out about how cringe it was. While people may have been let down by this new version, you can wash the taste out of your mouth by streaming the original classic when it lands on its new streaming home on Jan. 1.

Per Parmount+, The Crow will fly onto the streaming platform to help you ring in the new year, and forget the remake ever happened. Starring Brandon Lee in his final film role, the movie focuses on his character of Eric Draven,...

This article contains discussion of self-harm

A deleted scene from The Crow explains Eric's use of electrical tape on his stomach and hands, showing his vulnerability and loss of powers. Eric's vulnerability during the church finale is due to a subplot involving the Skull Cowboy being cut from the film. The use of tape by Eric was adapted from the original comic but with a different purpose.

A deleted scene from 1994's The Crow explains a detail about the title character that has often puzzled fans. The '90s was famously a mixed era for comic book movies, and for every hit like Batman Returns, there was a major dud like Steel. One of the most acclaimed comic book films of this period was The Crow, which adapted the cult graphic novel by James O'Barr. The movie starred Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a musician who is murdered alongside his girlfriend,...

Festival

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (Nfmla) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), with presenting partners The Arab Film and Media Institute and Dutch Culture USA are partnering for a short film festival that runs across the Dec. 10 and 11 weekend.

The annual event, titled Nfmla Film Festival InFocus: Middle Eastern, Arab & Dutch Cinema, will feature virtual screenings of films followed by live Q&As. The films are by emerging filmmakers from the Netherlands, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, France, Belgium and the U.S.

The program includes the U.S. premiere of “Nervosa,” the latest work by Nfmla alum Thessa Meijer and the Tribeca award-winning short “Leylak,” by co-directors Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos.

Festival panels will feature conversations with Palestinian director-writer Hany Abu-Assad (“Omar”), whose upcoming feature “Huda’s Salon” will be distributed by IFC Films, and Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour...

Banijay Benelux Unveils SimpelZodiak MD

Banijay Benelux has signed up Justine Huffmeijer as Managing Director of SimpelZodiak, which produces local versions of superbrands Hunted and Temptation Island. Reporting to Banijay Benelux CEO Peter Lubbers, Huffmeijer, who has previously worked for Benelux network Rtl, where she also oversaw Temptation Island, will lead on the business operations and creative pipeline of SimpelZodiak and join the Banijay Benelux management board. Lubbers said she is “well-known for her entrepreneurial creative character and enthusiasm for the media industry.”

Directors UK Sets Next Chair And Vice-Chairs

Investigation Discovery’s See No Evil director Karen Kelly has been appointed Chair of UK trade body Directors UK. Succeeding Steve Smith and having previously sat on the board, she is joined by Vice-Chairs James Hawes and Anna Thomson, who replace Susanna White and Bill Anderson. The group will seek to ensure fair pay for their members’ work across all...

As he glancingly returns to the genre with his new film, Cry Macho, it’s worth taking a look at the last Western that Clint Eastwood made, 1992’s Unforgiven. While he’s circled back to certain themes and concepts endemic to the Western in films since then, Unforgiven was his last film specifically and explicitly set in the Old West and was — as he said at the time — his final word on the subject.

Eastwood has pretty much stayed true to that, even as Unforgiven stands nearly 30 years later as a masterpiece in its own right and arguably one of the greatest Westerns of all time.

Much as Cry Macho attempts to strip away modern myths about what it means to be a man or “macho,” Unforgiven tears down the longstanding mythology built around the American Old West and propagated through scores of Westerns that Hollywood pumped out for decades.

With just four episodes, Unorthodox has captured a worldwide audience. The Netflix series starring Shira Haas as Esty Shapiro, a young woman who flees her arranged marriage and the Hasidic community she's called home for her short 19-year-old life, has gathered buzz since its March 26 debut. And despite the acclaim and attention—and more source material to draw from—there aren't plans for more Unorthodox. Writer and producer Anna Winger told Metro there are no plans to revisit Etsy Shapiro's story or to adapt from Deborah Feldman's further books. Unorthodox was based on Feldman's memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots. "We're not doing a sequel to this...

For Berlin-based American writer-producer Anna Winger, creating the Netflix series “Unorthodox” offered a unique opportunity to tell a Jewish story in Germany.

The show, which premiered March 26 on Netflix, is inspired by Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” and follows a young woman who leaves her husband and her insular ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Satmar community in Williamsburg, New York, for a new life in Berlin.

Winger, whose credits include the hit Amazon series franchise “Deutschland 83″ and its two follow-ups, “Deutschland 86” and “Deutschland 89,” co-created with husband Jörg Winger, produced “Unorthodox” via her Berlin-based Studio Airlift shingle.

The series stars Israeli actress Shira Haas as Esty, who leaves an unhappy arranged marriage and travels to Berlin, home to her estranged mother and where she hopes to study music. As she begins to navigate her new life, her husband, portrayed by fellow Israeli actor Amit Rahav,...

Maria Schrader tells the compelling story of a young woman in a Hasidic community fighting for her liberation. Among the plethora of European shows centring on powerful female protagonists released on Netflix in March, Unorthodox stands out by telling the compelling story of Esty (Shira Haas), a 19-year-old from a Hasidic community in Brooklyn who is running away from her husband and finding her own place in the world. In spite of some pacing issues, the miniseries directed by Maria Schrader is an excellent story of emancipation, and it may very well take on new meaning in the context of the coronavirus lockdown. The show is based on the memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman, but could easily be considered a work of fiction, as the screenplay written by Anna Winger re-calibrates and re-arranges various elements in the author’s biography, which makes the protagonist’s.

Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” charts a familiar path of resistance. Raised in the Hasidic Satmar sect of Williamsburg, Feldman escaped an arranged marriage at the age of 19, while pregnant with her first child, and resettled in Germany. While the particular circumstances surrounding Feldman’s flight hold unique power, Feldman’s story belongs to an emerging tradition of tales surrounding the oppressive nature of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, and the people who struggle with the impulse to move on. However, the four-part miniseries adapted from Feldman’s book, also called “Unorthodox,” gives this dilemma a fresh spin.

On one level, “Unorthodox” works within the same expanded universe of religious rebellion explored in recent cinema, from the lesbian drama “Disobedience” to the bittersweet Williamsburg-set father-son drama “Menashe” — which, like “Unorthodox,” largely unfolds in Yiddish. However, director Maria Schrader and creator Anna Winger (“Deutchland 83”) has transformed...

Four upcoming premium drama series from German production companies—“Deutschland89,” “Wild Republic,” “Algiers Confidential” and “MaPa”—have been selected for Coming Next, a section that forms part of Series Mania’s Forum program. German Films, an agency that promotes Teutonic film and TV productions, compiled the selection.

“Wild Republic” takes place at an institution at the foot of the Alps, where young offenders are undergoing an experiential educational program intended to re-socialize them. When a member of the program dies a violent death—although nobody knows exactly what happened—the youths face a difficult decision: Should they wait for the authorities to recover the body and investigate the crime, or escape and take their fate into their own hands?

The eight-part show, produced by Nils Dünker, was written by Jan Martin Scharf, Arne Nolting and Klaus Wolfertstetter, and directed by Markus Goller and Lennart Ruff.

Dünker tells Variety that the...

Digital studio Gunpowder & Sky is rolling out its sci-fi channel DUSTx to a number of new distribution platforms, including Twitch and NBCUniversal’s upcoming WatchBack streaming service.

DUSTx has been streaming exclusively on Roku since its launch in August, but Gunpowder & Sky announced today that DUSTx is now streaming content — which includes a range of sci-fi movies, short films, and TV series — on Twitch and Stirr, which is Sinclair Broadcast Group’s new streaming service. Other channels locked in for DUSTx distribution in the future are TV maker Vizio’s WatchFree service (developed with digital TV platform Pluto TV) and Samsung Plus.

Gunpowder & Sky also announced today that it’s bolstering DUSTx’s executive team, naming former Pluto TV executive Eric Bromberg the division's new general manager. Additionally, former Pluto TV exec Adam Jensen has been onboarded as head of operations, and current Gunpowder & Sky employees Anna Levine and...

[To get you into the spooky spirit, the Daily Dead team is spotlighting double features that we think would be fun to watch this Halloween season. Check here for more double feature recommendations and other Halloween 2017 coverage.]

In horror movies, things usually go so very wrong on October 31st when it comes to the Halloween-themed offerings of the genre. But what about the night before? October 30th, or “Devil’s Night”, can also bring about its own horrific consequences, which is the theme I went with when it came time to put together my double feature of Alex Proyas’ The Crow and Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses. Both are coincidentally feature film debuts for each director, they feature killer soundtracks, and this pair of films is also centered around a storyline where the characters will never be the same after their experiences on the night before Halloween.

Based on the comic by James O'Barr, The Crow finds aspiring rock star Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) rising from the grave a year after his death to take revenge on the four thugs (David Patrick Kelly, Angel David,...

T2 Trainspotting leads charge for Scottish BAFTAs Danny Boyle's T2 Trainspotting has been nominated for five awards by Bafta Scotland.

The sequel to the 1986 hit is in the running for best film, best director, plus best actor nods for Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle and Ewan McGregor.

The film will vie for best film against Accidental Anarchist, directed by John Archer and Clara Glynn and Chico Pereira's docufiction Donkeyote.

The ceremony will take place on Sunday 5 November.

Full list of the film nominees:

Actor - Film

Ewen Bremner - T2 Trainspotting

Robert Carlyle - T2 Trainspotting

Ewan McGregor - T2 Trainspotting

Actress - Film

Kate Dickie - Prevenge

Freya Mavor - Modern Life Is Rubbish

Deirdre Mullins - The Dark Mile

Animation

Home Matters - Playdead

Life Cycles - Ross Hogg

Spindrift - Selina Wagner, Anna Thomson, Mike Vass

Director - Fiction

Danny Boyle - T2 Trainspotting

Hope Dickson Leach...

"We all have it coming, kid." Any big fans of this film out there? Clint Eastwood's Best Picture-winning classic western Unforgiven is being re-released with a brand new, restored 4K print. Eastwood was just at the Cannes Film Festival last month, presenting the restored version of film in the Cannes Classics section and talking at a masterclass seminar during the festival. Unforgiven "summarizes everything I feel about the Western,” director/star Clint Eastwood told the La Times. The film features Eastwood as Bill Munny, with Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek, Frances Fisher, Anna Levine, David Mucci, and Rob Campbell. It was first released in 1992. Hopefully this 4K version will end up in Us theaters after first playing in France this summer. Watch the official trailer below. Here's the French trailer (+ poster) for the re-release of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, from YouTube: Retired Old West...

Tony Sokol Apr 19, 2019

The Simpsons made their earliest appearances on The Tracy Ullman Show more than 30 years ago.

Ah, The Simpsons. Is there nothing they haven’t taught us?

Before their April 19, 1987 debut appearance on Fox's The Tracey Ullman Show, the good people at the Oxford Dictionaries couldn’t spell the word cromulent. The Simpsons are an edumacation. Their first skits were consciousness-embiggening minute-long bits. The show taught us that the mind didn’t matter. And The Simpsons, which was spun off as its own series on Dec. 17, 1989, has been turning grey matter into yellow matter custard ever since.

The very first spot was called “Good Night,” and it aired during the third episode of The Tracey Ullman show. It showed Bart pondering the big questions of the universe. Most people think the mind is a series of impulses, but the young future upstart hungers for something more tangible.

Director Patricio Guzman’s Cordillera among winners in industry strands.

The 32nd Guadalajara Film Festival (March 10-17), bookended by fierce criticism of Us president Donald Trump by local and international industry, has feted Everardo Gonzalez’s documentary Devil’s Freedom (La Libertad Del Diablo) with best Mexican feature, best Ibero-American documentary and best cinematography as well as the Mexican film critics trophy.

The feature, about violence in Mexico, is handled by Films Boutique and received its world premiere in Berlin earlier this year where it won an Amnesty International award.

Carlos Lechuga’s Santa And Andres, about political dissent in Cuba, was named best Ibero-American feature and also won best script.

Nicaraguan director Jose Maria Cabral’s prison drama Carpinteros (Woodpeckers) won best Ibero-American director in addition to best actor for Jean Jean.

Mexican debutant Sofia Gomez’s The Blue Years (Los Anios Azules), a coming of age drama, garnered five awards including best director, the Fipresci...

Over the River and Through the Woods: Fliegauf Explores Intimate Portrait of Abuse Cycles

Hungarian auteur Bence Fliegauf returns with his first film since 2012’s Just the Wind, which picked up the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale, an emotionally taxing film concerning racial implications in the ruthless murder of several rural families. Known for his experimental flourishes and penchant for heavy material, the director begins in his comfortably downtrodden rhythm with his sixth feature, Lily Lane, an essay on nurtured cycles of familial abuse and the euphemistic nature of fairy tales as filter or escape from the clutches of a degraded existence. A refracted narrative unveils a troubled mother’s associations from her own childhood, hopelessly spilling into a present day predicament with her seven year old son. The result is a roundabout relay of psychological catharsis, at once frustrating and compelling.

Rebekah (Angela Stefanovics) tells her son Dani...

The Crow isn't as precious as other comic book or genre properties that get rebooted for the big screen, simply because it has a long trail of direct-to-dvd sequels lying in its wake that aren't considered very good by most fans. So the idea of a straightforward remake is quite welcome, especially by series creator James O'Barr, who gives this new take on the material his blessing.

In a recent interview with independent blogger Sean C.W. Korsgaard, James O'Barr explains his involvement with the film, and how it is not a mere reboot but more of a 're-adaptation'.

"[W]e're not remaking the movie. We're readapting the book. My metaphor is that there is a Bela Lugosi 'Dracula' and there's a Francis Ford Coppola 'Dracula'. They use the same material, but you still got two entirely different films. This one's going to be closer to '...

Watch the trailer and see the first poster for Jeremy O'Keefe's Somewhere Slow featuring Jessalyn Gilsig (Vikings as Siggy) alongside Graham Patrick Martin. Jeremy O'Keefe directs and writes. Michael Anderson, Christopher Sepulveda, Gilsig and O'Keefe produce. The film follows Anna Thompson, played by former Glee star Gilsig, whom after witnessing a fatal convenience store robbery, leaves behind her unfulfilled relationships with her husband and mother for the unknown. Along the way, she is joined by Travis, a teenage drifter with his own tainted past.

Unforgiven

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by David Webbs Peoples

U.S.A., 1992

There are precious few names from the film industry whose names are practically synonymous with the western genre. Some actors and directors have done well with the western, such as James Stewart, Sam Peckinpah, Gene Hackman (whose character in Unforgiven we shall look at in depth in part 2 of this article), but none are names which immediately strike up pictures of western iconography, unlike, say, Sergio Leone, Sergio Carbucci, John Wayne and the the inimitable Clint Eastwood. Try as he might to write, direct and act in films from other genres, and boy did he ever make plenty of them, not to mention some darn fine ones, his name will forever be associated first and foremost with westerns. Understandably, what first comes to mind is his ‘Man With No Name’ character from Leone’s Dollars trilogy, and...

Actor Ken Watanabe will step into Clint Eastwood's shoes for a Japanese samurai remake of the 1992 Western classic Unforgiven.

Sang-il Lee (Hula Girls) will direct the remake, entitled Yurusarezaru Mono (A Thing That Can't Be Forgiven). Ken Watanabe will play an exiled samurai with a history of violence who lives in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. He is pulled out of retirement for one final job. K&#244ichi Sat&#244 will play the Little Bill Daggett role originated by Gene Hackman, while Akira Emoto will star in the Ned Logan role originally played by Morgan Freeman.

Warner Entertainment Japan is producing, with shooting scheduled to begin later this fall in Hokkaido. Like the original, this Japanese remake will also be set in the year 1880. The studio is aiming for a fall 2013 release in Japan.

Unforgiven won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor...

Essential Eastwood: Director's Collection was just released in a four-disc DVD and Blu-ray set on June 1 and we just have to celebrate this collection with some of the best films directed by the legendary Clint Eastwood. We have a new contest running and we're giving away copies of this new Bd set to our readers. You know these high-def sets will go fast, so be sure to enter this contest today.

Winners Receive:

Essential Eastwood: Director's Collection four-disc Blu-ray set

to win this brand new Blu-ray set today.

Letters From Iwo Jima Japanese soldiers defend the Pacific island against invading Americans during World War II. General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) and his men transform what might have been swift defeat into nearly 40 days of resourceful combat.

Million Dollar Baby "I don't train girls," boxing manager Frankie Dunn growls. But one wins his respect and earns her shot at success in a...

Bruce Weber, the super-successful photographer behind the sexy Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs, is suing indie movie actress Anna Thomson for the cost of nursing care he provided for her deceased mother, legendary shoe designer Beth Levine.

Weber has been managed for decades by Levine's niece, Nan Bush, who lives with him and is sometimes referred to as his "wife."

Before Levine died two years ago at the age of 91, Weber had insisted on providing nursing care to the elderly woman.

"Bruce came over one day and said, 'I know some great nurses. I really...

As posted on his blog, "The Wrestler" director Darren Aronofsky says that he is waiting for Bruce Springsteen to finish a song which will be featured in his upcoming movie. "Bruce springsteen wrote a beautiful original song for the closing the film," Darren wrote.

The Wrestler, which talks about an over-the-hill 1980s-era pro grappler who quits the business after a heart attack and moves in with a stripper to build a relationship with her son, was originally offered to public this weekend but the film has been held back as it is not ready yet. Part of the delay is down to the work of Bruce's unfinished touch. "It is difficult to rush him (Springsteen)," an insider named Vincent Maraval says.

Bruce's new song, which is also titled "The Wrestler", is described as a wonderful acoustic music that captures the spirit of the movie. "Called The Wrestler it is a wonderful acoustic piece.