Appearance
The Unforgiven
Directed by John Huston, The Unforgiven (1960) is a Western drama based on Alan Le May's 1957 novel, set in the Texas Panhandle in the years following the Civil War. Burt Lancaster stars as Ben Zachary, the steadfast eldest son of a frontier ranching family, and Audrey Hepburn — in her only Western role — plays Rachel, the family's adopted daughter whose Kiowa heritage becomes the source of violent community prejudice. The film was unusually forthright for its era in addressing racism toward Native Americans.
The production was plagued by difficulties: Huston was disengaged and at odds with the producers, Hepburn broke her back falling from a horse and required months of recovery, and the experience left Huston declaring it his least satisfying film. Many French critics, however, consider it one of his finest.
Location(s)
Despite being set in the Texas Panhandle, The Unforgiven was filmed entirely in Durango, in the northwestern Mexican state of the same name, whose desert landscapes and the Sierra Madre mountains provided a convincing stand-in for the Texas frontier.
Durango, Mexico
The entire film was shot on location in Durango, Mexico — a state and city in northwestern Mexico known for its dramatic desert terrain, canyon landscapes, and the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Durango's ability to double convincingly for the American West made it a favourite location for Hollywood productions of the era. The dramatic open-country settings, used for the Zachary ranch, the Kiowa sieges, and the surrounding frontier landscape, were all filmed there. Map Location
Director
John Huston
Cast
Burt Lancaster
Audrey Hepburn
Audie Murphy
Lillian Gish
John Saxon
IMDB
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