Among his fellow actors on the 1991 Alberta-based production, Rubinek would simply say “Five people in France.”Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Calgary Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc.
“I thought ‘Well, Clint Eastwood made a great movie for Dave Peoples and that’s nice of him, but nobody is going to want to see this,'” says Peoples, who would end up earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay. “Of course, Clint knew better. I was just overwhelmed because I had written it and couldn’t see it, really. Later when I saw it in theatres I understood, ‘Yeah, everything is right here.’ But I couldn’t see that when I first saw it, I was too emotionally involved.
It reflected Eastwood’s philosophy, which Rubinek equates to a talented jazz pianist – another hat Eastwood wears – putting together an ensemble. He would choose the best musicians, but wouldn’t micromanage how they play their instruments. That extended to the original screenwriter of the film.
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman filmed scenes for Unforgiven in the Alberta Badlands. Postmedia filesPeoples grew up watching John Ford and John Wayne westerns, but they were never his favourites. He drew more inspiration from off-beat examples of the genre such as the 1950 Gregory Peck film The Gunfighter, 1967’s Will Penny and The Great Northfield, Minnesota and The Culpepper Cattle Co., two revisionist westerns that were both released in 1972.
“It was a serious downturn, we hadn’t had a significant project for about six months,” says Dean Goodine, who served as assistant prop master on the film and wrote about his experiences in his 2022 memoir, They Don’t Pay Me To Say No: My Life in Film and Television Props. “The Gulf War was going on so we were at the point where we were thinking maybe we had to not be in the film industry anymore or relocate to Vancouver. We were really at the crossroads.