Don’t know if you saw this recently, but Clint Eastwood turned 96, and, apparently, is hanging up the movie career for good.
If true, then a tip of the cap to Eastwood and a career filled with too many hits to keep up with. A body of work that spans from the poignant to the profound, Eastwood’s gravelly voice, narrow eyes, and focused look could work when he was laughing, killing, or conquering the Wild West. To say he had an influence on my youthful impressions (and even adult ones) is an understatement.
Some of my favorite movies of his:
Dirty Harry (1971)
Although this isn’t where the title of this post’s famous quote came from (that was actually stated in Sudden Impact in 1983), the first of the Harry Callahan series of movies, to me, was the best. The scene in the football stadium where he shoots the bad guy from 70 yards away with his .44 magnum, while not giving a single shit about protocol or regulation was peak Callahan. Classic.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)
Outside of Once Upon a Time in the West, this is one of my favorites of the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns. An epic movie with elaborate sets and recreating a full on Civil War battle, it’s hard to steer away from the three main characters in the movie, with Eastwood’s character “Blondie” being the calm, calculated killer wedged between Tuco’s ambition and yips and Lee Van Cleef’s seemingly dark Sentenza.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Great cast (with Morgan Freeman and Hillary Swank) coupled with a great story, this is a hard watch at the end for anyone who is a girl dad. Mo Cuishle. That’s all I’ll say about that.
And I hate to admit it, but even to this day, I haven’t watched Unforgiven. I don’t rightly know why, but it feels like a sin. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.
So…how about it, Eastwood fans? What’s your favorite?
Thanks for a trip down movie-memory-lane. I’ll go with “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, cause……dying ain’t much of a living boy.
The three you mentioned are definitely on my list of favorites. I also love High Plains Drifter, Gran Torino, and Unforgiven. As a kid I also loved Escape from Alcatraz.
Gran Torino absolutely
My favorites:
1) Gran Torino
2) Paint Your Wagon
3) outlaw Josey Wales
4) Good Bad and Ugly
Back to the Future III
Josey Wales over TGBU for me. Maybe I need to try it again. Too many others to name but I’ll say I think Million Dollar Baby is the best movie I NEVER want to see again.
How bout favorite lines?
— “Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms”
— “Cut my share, might affect my aim”
“To me, you’re nothin’ but dog shit.”
“He shoulda armed himself before he decorated his saloon with my friend.”
“How is it with stains?”
“Well Mr. Carpetbagger, we got something around here we call the Missouri boat ride.”
Along with aforementioned “Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’ boy”, three of those quotes are why Outlaw Josey Wells is his best movie to me.
Gene Hackman, recently RIP, in *Unforgiven* as well, a (modern) classic Western!
“I guess they had it coming”. “We all got it coming kid”
“Get off my lawn.”
And he doesn’t say it in an old guy shouting at the clouds sort of way.
“Go ahead. Make my day.” “Do you feel lucky, punk?”
Harry Callahan would have been the only cop that would have made Travolta and Jackson crap their Pulp Fiction pants.
No mention of Clint Eastwood in these parts can go by without mention of this:
https://youtu.be/aDf4b_Trbhg?si=SFFX3eK8AmCcd69q
“When Eastwood was introduced to Uga V on set in Savannah, he jokingly told the bulldog, “I’m going to make you a celebrity.” Cecelia, the devoted primary caretaker and matriarch of the Uga lineage, politely corrected him by stating, “Oh, Mr. Eastwood, Uga is already a celebrity.””
– Savannah Morning News
Unforgiven and Outlaw Josey Wales! Not only some of the best westerns but best movies, ever. The Josey Wales had one liners Val Holliday woulda killed for in Tombstone. I straight up replayed the pistol training scene before every drill or stage when qualifying (along with a healthy dose of prayer, lol). Now I know what I’m gonna do this weekend if I get some TV time.
A deep cut for me – Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood nailed the old school NCO part. HR slotted in between First Blood and Navy Seals (the golf course scene is probably the most accurate portrayal of military life) with a smattering of GI Joe cartoons in between was the pop culture drive for my enlistment. We used to wear matching PT shirts and think we were tough because of that movie, lol. Until the Marines would SMOKE us!
Heartbreak Ridge – good one.
Don’t forget about ” Kelly’s Heroes.” It’s maybe the funniest movie about WWII ever made. I introduced my son to ” The Good the Bad and the Ugly” a few years ago. He immediately became a huge fan of Clint Eastwood and of spaghetti westerns.
Didn’t see The Eiger Sanction mentioned, so I’ll throw that one in.
Wow! Everybody throwing out a Banger! What a catalog! I might celebrate Clint’s more than Michael Bolton’s!
As the Man with No Name: High Plains Drifter. A fine adaptation of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (which in turn was inspired by American westerns).
As a man with a name: Unforgiven. Dark and brutal, but feels believable because of it.
As a director: Letters from Iwo Jima. There are some good war films and a lot of bad ones. This is as good as they get.
That’s a helluva price to pay for being stylish. From The Enforcer.
From Paint Your Wagons. It wasn’t Clint’s line but it was rememberable. The formerly straight and narrow religiously raised your man comes down the stairs from the rooms upstairs over the bar with a young woman. He has a shot of whiskey in one hand and a cigar in the other and says ‘gentlemen, the second and third best things in the world.”
One of his best movies to me is one in which he was just the director, Mystic River with Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon.