EASTWOOD AND HACKMAN ON VIOLENCE

Excerpts from interviews with freelance writer John Tibbetts

Actors Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman are identified with violence. Yet they claim the making of "Unforgiven" marks a change in their attitudes toward violence:

"Now, I'm certainly not doing any penance for any of the mayhem I've presented on the screen over the years," explains Eastwood. "I think it's a time in my life and a time in history that maybe violence should not be such a humorous thing. Or that it should be portrayed without its consequences.... That was a message I had to get across to Gene. I know when I tried to get him to play little Bill Daggett, he said he didn't want to do any more films with a lot of violence."

Hackman says, "Even my kids have been asking me to stop doing those kinds of pictures. I have a lot of feelings about films I've done. But, you know, you take what's offered to you early in your career.... This [film] doesn't appeal to our baser instincts about violence.... Here, we see the aftermath of violence."