Post by toddpolt on Jan 7, 2010 22:44:18 GMT -5
Believe it or not, Clint Eastwood is turning 80 in May. Surprising I guess either because he's only that old, or that young depending on your perspective.
In a way Eastwood is like these other great current geriatric directors from Sidney Lumet to Sir Ridley Scott, who despite their advanced "retirement" age and all their great accomplishments...they aint done making movies because danget, they still have it in their bones. Eastwood though might call the others wimps.
In the last 6 years alone, he shot a 1920s murder mystery (Changeling), a contemporary inner-city drama (Gran Torino), sports flick (Invictus), boxing melodrama (Million Dollar Baby), and not one but two big budget WW2 epics (Flags of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima), and later this year we get a supernatural thriller in Hereafter.
Yet until rather recently Eastwood never really got critical credit as a filmmaker, even after winning his first Best Director Oscar for the western classic Unforgiven. Perhaps it was because the vast majority of his filmography is his own star vehicles, and perhaps people dismissed them as popcorn.
But look at that "popcorn," how for the most part they are pretty well shot, well cut, timed, and well acted. More than anything, Eastwood knows himself as an actor, his strengths and weaknesses. I speak of the Dirty Harry sequel Sudden Impact, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Play Misty For Me, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, Absolute Power, The Gauntlet, Blood Work, Heartbreak Ridge. More entertainment than Bay and his small national GDP budgets have ever produced.
But even during his box-office height, Eastwood still as director was able to thematically explore with a personal touch outside his comfortable masculine action safe zone. From Breezy to Bird to Mystic River to The Bridges of Madison County to White Hunter, Black Heart to Bronco Billy to Invictus to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to Changeling to Letters From Iwo Jima and so forth.
Not all of them work, but their success ratio are higher than many critics would think from a guy like Eastwood. Even if he is politically labeled, he still comes out with material that seems to appeal to many people across the spectrum. And I mean besides shooting bad guys.
Like Dirty Harry and the Man With No Name, Eastwood always just goes out and does his own thing. He doesn't care what you think. Which is making all of us younger guys feel like hopeless unlucky punks in his presence. He castrates us.
The Facts
*Films Acted: 46
*Films Directed: 31 from 1971 to 2010.
*Last movie he acted but NOT direct: In The Line of Fire (1993)
*Four Best Director Oscar nominations, two wins (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby)
*Mayor of Caramel, California (1985-1987)
*Speaks fluent Italian
*With exception of Gran Torino, has himself composed his own soundtracks since Mystic River. His boy Kyle Eastwood co-scored Gran Torino.
The Good
Play Misty for Me (1971)
High Plains Drifter (1973)
Breezy (1973)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
The Gauntlet (1977)
Bronco Billy (1980)
Honkytonk Man (1982)
Sudden Impact (1983)
Pale Rider (1985)
Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
Bird (1988)
White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
Unforgiven (1992)
A Perfect World (1993)
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Absolute Power (1997)
Blood Work (2002)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Gran Torino (2008)
Changeling (2008)
Invictus (2009)
The Bad
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
Firefox (1982)
The Rookie (1990)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
True Crime (1999)
Mystic River (2003)
The Ugly
Space Cowboys (2000)
In a way Eastwood is like these other great current geriatric directors from Sidney Lumet to Sir Ridley Scott, who despite their advanced "retirement" age and all their great accomplishments...they aint done making movies because danget, they still have it in their bones. Eastwood though might call the others wimps.
In the last 6 years alone, he shot a 1920s murder mystery (Changeling), a contemporary inner-city drama (Gran Torino), sports flick (Invictus), boxing melodrama (Million Dollar Baby), and not one but two big budget WW2 epics (Flags of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima), and later this year we get a supernatural thriller in Hereafter.
Yet until rather recently Eastwood never really got critical credit as a filmmaker, even after winning his first Best Director Oscar for the western classic Unforgiven. Perhaps it was because the vast majority of his filmography is his own star vehicles, and perhaps people dismissed them as popcorn.
But look at that "popcorn," how for the most part they are pretty well shot, well cut, timed, and well acted. More than anything, Eastwood knows himself as an actor, his strengths and weaknesses. I speak of the Dirty Harry sequel Sudden Impact, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Play Misty For Me, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, Absolute Power, The Gauntlet, Blood Work, Heartbreak Ridge. More entertainment than Bay and his small national GDP budgets have ever produced.
But even during his box-office height, Eastwood still as director was able to thematically explore with a personal touch outside his comfortable masculine action safe zone. From Breezy to Bird to Mystic River to The Bridges of Madison County to White Hunter, Black Heart to Bronco Billy to Invictus to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to Changeling to Letters From Iwo Jima and so forth.
Not all of them work, but their success ratio are higher than many critics would think from a guy like Eastwood. Even if he is politically labeled, he still comes out with material that seems to appeal to many people across the spectrum. And I mean besides shooting bad guys.
Like Dirty Harry and the Man With No Name, Eastwood always just goes out and does his own thing. He doesn't care what you think. Which is making all of us younger guys feel like hopeless unlucky punks in his presence. He castrates us.
The Facts
*Films Acted: 46
*Films Directed: 31 from 1971 to 2010.
*Last movie he acted but NOT direct: In The Line of Fire (1993)
*Four Best Director Oscar nominations, two wins (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby)
*Mayor of Caramel, California (1985-1987)
*Speaks fluent Italian
*With exception of Gran Torino, has himself composed his own soundtracks since Mystic River. His boy Kyle Eastwood co-scored Gran Torino.
The Good
Play Misty for Me (1971)
High Plains Drifter (1973)
Breezy (1973)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
The Gauntlet (1977)
Bronco Billy (1980)
Honkytonk Man (1982)
Sudden Impact (1983)
Pale Rider (1985)
Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
Bird (1988)
White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
Unforgiven (1992)
A Perfect World (1993)
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Absolute Power (1997)
Blood Work (2002)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Gran Torino (2008)
Changeling (2008)
Invictus (2009)
The Bad
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
Firefox (1982)
The Rookie (1990)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
True Crime (1999)
Mystic River (2003)
The Ugly
Space Cowboys (2000)