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'{{short description|1960 film by John Huston}} {{Infobox film | name = The Unforgiven | image = Unforgiven60.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | alt = | director = [[John Huston]] | producer = [[James Hill (film producer)|James Hill]] | writer = [[Ben Maddow]]<br />[[Alan Le May]] (novel) | starring = [[Burt Lancaster]]<br />[[Audrey Hepburn]]<br /> [[Audie Murphy]] | music = [[Dimitri Tiomkin]] | cinematography = [[Franz Planer]] | editing = [[Russell Lloyd (film editor)|Russell Lloyd]] | color_process = [[Technicolor]] | studio = [[Hecht-Hill-Lancaster|Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions]] | distributor = [[United Artists]] | released = {{Film date|1960|4|6|New York City}} | runtime = 125 minutes<br>121 minutes<br>(Turner Library print) | country = United States | language = English | budget = $5 million | gross = $3,200,000 <small>(rentals)</small><ref>"Rental Potentials of 1960", ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', 4 January 1961 p 47.</ref> }} '''''The Unforgiven''''' is a 1960 American [[romance film|romantic]] [[Western film]] directed by [[John Huston]]. Filmed in [[Durango]], Mexico, it stars [[Burt Lancaster]], [[Audrey Hepburn]], [[Audie Murphy]], [[Charles Bickford]] and [[Lillian Gish]]. The story is based upon the 1957 novel by [[Alan Le May]]. Uncommonly for its time, the film spotlights the issue of racism against Native Americans and people who were believed to have Native American blood in the [[Old West]]. The film is also known for its problems behind the scenes. Huston often said this was his least satisfying movie. ==Plot== The Zacharys are a thriving and respected family on the Texas frontier. Father Will Zachary was killed by [[Kiowa]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]], leaving his oldest son Ben ([[Burt Lancaster]]) head of the family. Ben and his mother Mattilda ([[Lillian Gish]]) are very protective of Rachel ([[Audrey Hepburn]]), who was adopted as an infant; she is doted on by the whole family, including her other brothers Cash ([[Audie Murphy]]) and Andy ([[Doug McClure]]). The family is supported by their neighbor and Ben's business partner, Zeb Rawlins ([[Charles Bickford]]); Zeb's shy son Charlie ([[Albert Salmi]]) wants to marry Rachel, which concerns Ben. During preparations for a cattle drive to [[Wichita, Kansas]], the family is unsettled by the appearance of Abe Kelsey ([[Joseph Wiseman]]), who claims that Rachel is Indian by birth. Believing this to be a lie, Ben and Cash engage in a gunfight with Kelsey, killing his horse, but he steals Rachel's beloved white stallion. Later, a group of Kiowa led by Lost Bird appears and offers Ben horses in exchange for handing over Rachel. Lost Bird claims that she is actually his sister, and that an old white man told him so. Soon after, Charlie{{snd}}to whom Ben has decided to give permission to court Rachel{{snd}}is killed by the Kiowa. In her grief, Charlie's mother accuses Rachel of being a "dirty [[wikt:en:injun|Injun]]". Ben leads the ranchers in tracking down Kelsey, and they bring him back to the Rawlins ranch to hang him as a horse thief. With a noose around his neck, Kelsey tells the gathered ranchers that, on a retaliatory raid against the Kiowa that he led with Will Zachary, he found a baby girl and was about to kill her when Will intervened and took the baby as his own. Kelsey claims that his own son was captured by the Kiowa and ransomed for Rachel's return, but Will refused. Ben intervenes and tells the gathered group the story he knows, that Kelsey's son was actually killed in the fighting, and that Kelsey invented the story and followed them from town to town, poisoning peoples' minds wherever they moved. Mattilda, driven to the edge by Kelsey's accusations, strikes the horse Kelsey is seated on so it runs out from under him, hanging him. Despite protestations that Kelsey was insane, her actions convince Zeb that Kelsey was telling the truth, and he tells Ben to give Rachel to the Kiowa or their partnership will be broken. Ben refuses, and all of the ranchers turn their backs on the Zacharys. Back at their homestead, Mattilda admits to her family that Will took the Kiowa baby and brought it to her to replace an infant daughter they had just lost. Cash, unable to accept an Indian as his sister, abandons the family. The Kiowa return in force, demanding Rachel, who tries to save her family by going over to the Kiowa. To stop her, Ben deliberately breaks the truce by ordering Andy to kill a Kiowa, which touches off a bloody siege. Facing down death, Ben expresses a desire to marry Rachel should they survive. During a break in the fighting, the Kiowa camped nearby play music on their pipes and drums, and the Zacharys play a [[Mozart]] composition back on their piano. However, Kiowa riders attack and destroy the piano, resuming the fight. When the Kiowa stampede cattle over the roof of the house, the family sets it on fire and takes shelter in the root cellar. Mattilda is shot, succumbs to her wounds and dies. Almost out of ammunition, Ben embraces Andy and Rachel, and he and Rachel passionately kiss. Just as the family is about to be overwhelmed, Cash arrives and turns the tide by fighting off the remaining Kiowa. Rachel, protecting a wounded Andy, is confronted by Lost Bird, who enters the house. After a tense moment, she shoots and kills him. With the rest of the tribe gone, Rachel and her brothers exit the house together and watch a flock of geese fly through the sky. ==Cast== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * [[Burt Lancaster]] as Ben Zachary * [[Audrey Hepburn]] as Rachel Zachary * [[Audie Murphy]] as Cash Zachary * [[John Saxon]] as Johnny Portugal * [[Charles Bickford]] as Zeb Rawlins * [[Lillian Gish]] as Mattilda Zachary * [[Albert Salmi]] as Charlie Rawlins * [[Joseph Wiseman]] as Abe Kelsey * [[June Walker]] as Hagar Rawlins * [[Kipp Hamilton]] as Georgia Rawlins * Arnold Merritt as Jude Rawlins * [[Doug McClure]] as Andy Zachary * [[Carlos Rivas (actor)|Carlos Rivas]] as Lost Bird {{div col end}} ==Production== [[File:Burt Lancaster - Audrey Hepburn - 1960.JPG|thumb|right|Publicity photo of Lancaster and Hepburn during filming.]] ''The Unforgiven'' was the final [[Hecht-Hill-Lancaster]] production. It had a projected budget of $3 million, which expanded to $5.5 million. Original screenwriter [[JP Miller]] was replaced by [[Ben Maddow]], original director [[Delbert Mann]] was replaced by John Huston and plans for [[Richard Burton]] in the role that eventually went to [[Audie Murphy]] were stopped when Burton demanded equal billing with Burt Lancaster, which Lancaster refused.<ref>pp. 151-152 Larkins, Bob & Magers, Boyd ''The Films of Audie Murphy'' McFarland, 19 Aug. 2009</ref> Production was suspended for several months in 1959 after Hepburn broke her back when she fell off a horse while rehearsing a scene. Although she eventually recovered, the accident was blamed for a subsequent [[miscarriage]] that Hepburn suffered. According to several published biographies of Hepburn, she blamed herself for the accident and all but disowned the film, although she did complete it when she was well enough to return to work. Hepburn would step away from acting the next year in order to give birth to another child, returning to the screen with ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'' (1961).<ref>[http://memim.com/the-unforgiven-1960-film.html "The Unforgiven (1960):Genesis"] Retrieved 9 June 2015</ref> Huston battled with Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, the production company financing the film. Hecht-Hill-Lancaster wanted a more commercial and less controversial film, while Huston wanted to make a statement about racism in America.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sover.net/~ozus/unforgiven1960.htm |title=Ozu's World Movie Reviews - ''The Unforgiven'' |last=Schwartz |first=Dennis |publisher=sover.net |date=2005-01-18}}</ref> The result was that neither side received exactly what they had wanted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2007/06/review-of-unforgiven.html |title=Review of ''The Unforgiven'' |publisher=bluecorncomics.com |last=Schmidt |first=Rob |date=2007-06-14 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028114146/http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2007/06/review-of-unforgiven.html |archivedate=October 28, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Huston's cinematographer of choice, [[Oswald Morris]], was unavailable, causing Huston to not talk to Morris for several years.<ref>Field, Matthew, "Goodbye Mr. Morris" in ''Cinema Retro'' Vol. 10, Issue 30.</ref> John Saxon had signed a three-picture deal with HHL.<ref name="filmink">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=The Top Twelve Stages of Saxon|date=July 29, 2020}}</ref> The name "Lost Bird" is applied by some Plains Indian tribes to native children adopted by whites. It was popularized by [[Zintkala Nuni]], a [[Hunkpapa]] [[Lakota people|Lakotah]] survivor of the [[Wounded Knee Massacre]], taken by [[Leonard Wright Colby]] and raised by his wife Clara Bewick Colby, whose widely circulated feminist newspaper ''[[The Woman's Tribune]]'' carried a column on Zintkala for many years. The [[Lost Bird Society]] helps to reunite these adopted children with their birth families.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sdpb.sd.gov/Lostbird/summary.asp|title=Lost Bird of Wounded Knee|work=South Dakota Public Television|publisher=sd.gov|accessdate=13 June 2017}}</ref> ==Reception== {{expand section|date=April 2021}} [[Stanley Kauffmann]] of ''[[The New Republic]]'' described the film as "ludicrous".<ref>{{cite book |title=A world on Film|last1=Kaufmann|first1=Stanley |publisher=Delta Books |year=1968 |page=147}}</ref> ==See also== {{portal|Film}} * [[1960 in film]] * [[List of American films of 1960]] * [[List of Western films]] {{clear}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{IMDb title|0054428|The Unforgiven}} * {{rotten-tomatoes|id=1022373-unforgiven|title=The Unforgiven}} * [http://www.audiemurphy.com/movies28.htm ''The Unforgiven''] at Audie Murphy Memorial Site {{John Huston}} {{Norma Productions}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Unforgiven, The}} [[Category:1960 drama films]] [[Category:1960 films]] [[Category:1960s romantic drama films]] [[Category:1960s Western (genre) films]] [[Category:American films]] [[Category:American romantic drama films]] [[Category:American Western (genre) films]] [[Category:Audie Murphy]] [[Category:Durango]] [[Category:English-language films]] [[Category:Films about racism]] [[Category:Films based on American novels]] [[Category:Films based on Western (genre) novels]] [[Category:Films directed by John Huston]] [[Category:Films produced by Burt Lancaster]] [[Category:Films produced by James Hill]] [[Category:Films produced by Harold Hecht]] [[Category:Films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin]] [[Category:Films shot in Mexico]] [[Category:Fratricide in fiction]] [[Category:Norma Productions films]] [[Category:Romantic Western (genre) films]] [[Category:United Artists films]]'