Answer: The above list does not feature all of the films that best define Clint Eastwood's acting or directing catalogue, nor will, to a degree, the following passages. However, they will endeavour to explore some of the impact that they had on Eastwood or, more to the point, shaped his career. Eastwood's acting style is best described as understated, which may be why he received tough love from the critics, particularly early in his career. He had the ability to say more with his body language and facial expressions than he could with the words that came out of his mouth. Behind the camera, he was an 'artiste', notorious for his 'one take' approach that was both demanding as well as being cost effective. However, it didn't prevent him from delivering the story, or his vision, in the manner that he wanted. Like Robert Redford and Warren Beatty, he proved that leading men could step away from the front of the camera and have a great understanding about what went on behind it.
After years of television work and a string of uncredited roles in movies, Eastwood's breakthrough came with 1964's "A Fistful of Dollars", in which he plays an unnamed stranger, that wanders into a town torn by greed and preys upon a feud between two rival families. It was Eastwood's first, but highly beneficial, alliance with director Sergio Leone, it established a link between him and the "spaghetti western" genre, became the first film in the series known as the "Dollar" trilogy and it launched Eastwood onto the path toward superstardom. The next film in the series was "A Few Dollars More" (1965), where Eastwood's "man with No Name" teams up with Lee Van Cleef's Col. Douglas Mortimer to take down a gang of outlaws led by a psychotic Mexican bandit. Despite being the third film of the trilogy, 1966's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", is set in the period preceding the first film and is against the backdrop of the American Civil War. It follows the "Man with No Name", joined by Eli Wallach's Tuco, in a race to beat a third party (Lee Van Cleef's Angel Eyes) to a fortune in gold buried in a cemetery.
1968 saw Eastwood make an appearance in "Where Eagles Dare", which was significant on a number of levels. The film, which was an adaptation of Alistair MacLean's 1967 novel of the same name, pitted Eastwood alongside one of the most respected actors in Hollywood, in Richard Burton. The pair play two Allied agents who raid a German stronghold to rescue a man, they think, is an American brigadier general. It drew Clint away from the western style roles, such as "Hang 'Em High" and "Coogan's Bluff" (both 1968) which could have typecast him. It also proved to be Eastwood's first collaboration with director Brian G. Hutton. The pair would combine two years later for "Kelly's Heroes" (1970), a film which provided Eastwood with a serious role, surrounded by a group of oddballs, in a war comedy about US soldiers dashing behind enemy lines to rob a bank. The film did not do well at the box office but has, since, developed a cult following.
"Paint Your Wagon" (1969) is a musical that saw Eastwood partner Lee Marvin in a series of adventures during the California gold rush. These included buying and sharing a wife, kidnapping six prostitutes and creating a boom town. While Eastwood in a musical did not prove to be a winner with the audiences it did show to the world that Clint had a level of versatility that had not been noticeable in his earlier roles. "Play Misty for Me", which appeared in 1970 and centred on Clint as a radio station disc jockey who has a romantic encounter with an obsessed fan, was another landmark movie for Eastwood. The film marked his directorial debut, showed that he a deft touch behind the camera as well as in front of it, and it took him away from movies that could, generally, be termed his "comfort zones".
The following is a rundown of (most) of the remaining movies listed above. Whilst these may not be milestones or movies that were significant to his career, they did add to an impressive resume:
"Two Mules for Sister Sara" (1970) sees Eastwood as a former Civil War soldier, rescuing Shirley MacLaine, as a nun, from a group of bandits. It becomes a relationship that leads them toward helping the Mexicans in their fight against the French armies. In "The Beguiled" (1971), also set during the US Civil War, he is a Union Army deserter who is at death's door when he is taken in by the headmistress at a secluded boarding school for young women. He's a handsome devil and his manipulations soon give rise to some serious sexual tensions within the house. In "Pink Cadillac" (1989), he's in pursuit of a bail skipper played by Bernadette Peters who, in turn, is being pursued by her husband and his neo-Nazi thugs after having stolen their cache of counterfeit money. In "Bronco Billy" (1980) we find Eastwood as a modern-day cowboy, struggling with change and, consequently, struggling to keep his Wild West show from sinking. Based on Craig Thomas' 1977 novel of the same name, "Firefox" (1982) has Eastwood involved in a plot to steal a jet fighter plane, that can be partially controlled by thought, out of the USSR. "Breezy" (1973) is one of Eastwood's early directorial efforts, the first in which he did not also act. It features William Holden and Kay Lenz, as a young runaway, who falls for the older man in Holden. The "Honkytonk Man" (1982) is set during the Great Depression and features Clint as Red Stovall, a country and western singer dying of tuberculosis, on his way to Nashville to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. In "Tightrope" (1984) he's a policeman in pursuit of a serial rapist/killer, "Heartbreak Ridge" (1986) he's Tom Highway, a hard-nosed Gunnery Sergeant, who constantly clashes with his ex-wife and his superior officers and is left to train a disorganized recon platoon that has an attitude problem, and, in "In the Line of Fire" (1993) he is a Secret Service agent responding to a threat to the President, while being haunted by the fact that he had, previously, failed to save the life of President John F. Kennedy.
That only leaves one other film from the narrative above, "Every Which Way but Loose" (1978). This has proven to be one of Eastwood's most significant films. Once again he steps out of his comfort zone by directing a comedy and, to make it more of a challenge, he plays the role of Philo Beddoe, a truck driver turned prizefighter, with an orangutan named Clyde as his main co-star. Whilst the orangutan nearly steals the film from him, the movie was a massive success, proving to be one of his largest grossing films of Clint's career and endearing him to his fans even further.
There are a number of other films within Eastwood's oeuvre that could serve as a great testament to his skills both in front and behind the camera. These I won't go into here, but special mention should be made of "Dirty Harry" (1971). The film draws us into the world of Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan and his pursuit of a serial killer, known as the "Scorpio Killer". However, it is the character that Eastwood has created that is important. He's a hard-nosed detective who is prepared to cross both his professional and ethical boundaries, especially when inept bureaucrats stand between him and the perpetrators. With Harry Callahan, Eastwood built a new template for the movie version of police detectives but, more than that, he created a cultural icon and a raft of quotes, such as "go ahead, make my day" and "do you feel lucky punk", that have since become a permanent part of the pop culture lexicon. It is a character that Eastwood would reprise in four other films, "Magnum Force" (1973), "The Enforcer" (1976), "Sudden Impact" (1983), and "The Dead Pool" (1988). A character that he would parody in "City Heat" (1984) and turn revisionist in "The Gauntlet" (1977). It could also be argued that when Eastwood portrayed William 'Will' Munny in "Unforgiven" (1992), that the shadow of a more grizzled Harry Callahan, loomed large in its development.
Norman Mailer once declared that Eastwood was "the most important small-town artist in America" and Clint's body of work does little to dissuade us from that notion. From this author's perspective, though, the greatest gift that Eastwood provided us was that he made the characters that he played seem like they were he in real life and, in that moment, he was providing us, the viewers, with a chance to live out our own fantasies.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
