Tries to be weighty, but RUINED by absurd premise

What ruins this movie is the premise that the key character is a full-blooded AmerIndian and everyone has been fooled into believing she's Caucasian for 18-20 years. Why Sure! I get the point that an Indian baby raised in a settler's community would talk & act like European settlers, but that wouldn't change her race and facial features. So how could anyone even THINK she was Caucasian? If the filmmakers would've made her a half-breed it would've worked.

The reason old Westerns like "Apache" (1954) got away with having a white guy (Lancaster) play a full-blooded AmerIndian is because everyone in the cast knew he was an Indian and treated him accordingly. As such, the viewer could suspend disbelief and pretend that he looked more Native than he appeared. But you can't do this with "The Unforgiven" because the entire cast is fooled into believing that a full-blooded Indian girl looks exactly like a woman of decidedly Euro descent.

Additionally, I found the movie relatively dull beyond the ludicrous premise. Don't get me wrong, there are some bright spots, like the cast and flashes of artistic merit, but this doesn't change the fact that "The Unforgiven" is a pretentious movie that's just dull, although the climatic standoff at the Zachary ranch is well-done and pretty compelling.