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.
Love Outlaw Josey Wales. Also, Unforgiven is a masterpiece.
Unforgiven was outside of Tombstone the best western ever.
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
High Plains Drifter had one of the best and most complicated story lines of all his movies! It made a lasting impression on my 19 year old mind at the time.
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”
“‘You have insulted the honor of this beautiful woman,’ said the Duck”…
“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.
I did not like “Unforgiven” when it first came out. There was just a hopelessness about the film from the start. As time has passed, I’ve grown to like the film and appreciate it more than I did when it released.
Oh, and I loved the farcical “Every Which Way But Loose” films. Sure, they were stupid, but they it just reminded me of how much fun I had in college, sitting around the TV watching a bad movie with cheap beer and good friends.
Every Which Way But Loose… loved it.
https://youtu.be/i98QrSSHxo4?si=kLFHew40VnkIiuqo
As a young teenager, I loved seeing all his movies on TBS or TNT. I thought The Outlaw Josie Wales was the best revenge movie out there. I watched the non edited movie in college and saw how much work those TV editors had to do!
Another of his that I thought had a hilarious ending was Two Mules for Sister Sara. I won’t spoil it if you’ve not seen it.
I always am terrible at Christmas movie trivia, because during the holidays my dad and I were watching recordings of his and John Wayne’s movies (and any number of other spaghetti westerns), not Christmas themed flicks.
Always enjoyed “Pale Rider,” mainly because 14-year old me liked Sydney Penny.
Also, “Firefox” wasn’t as good as others mentioned, but it was a fixture on mid-80’s HBO and had a cool SR-71 Blackbird lookalike.
Firefox was the first movie we rented when we got our first VCR.
For A Few Dollars More is still my favorite. It has the best showdown scene; one that was repeated, (spoofed?) in subsequent films including TGBU and Kelly’s Heros.
Back to the Future III.
Clint Eastwood – certainly would be considered as model for the rugged, individualistic, 20th Century American male ethos – right? What a talented, passionate, and lauded career. His picture should be next to the definition of polymath in the dictionary.
I wonder if anyone else has the depth and breadth of Oscar winners as a fellow castmember or director than Eastwood? Off the top my head I can come up with Hackman, Streep, Bridges, Freeman, DiCaprio, Swank, Bates, Holden, Penn, Damon, Whitaker, and Hanks. It’s mindboggling and I know I am leaving someone off the list.
His interests in jazz, politics, nature, etc went beyond the typical actor. His movies were always so well made. Just a national treasure.
Not his best movie by far but the role he played in Where Eagles Dare outshined the accomplished and arrogant Richard Burton (never cared for him). Showed his versatility beyond the spaghetti western roles and maybe helped lead him to the great movies he was in soon after.
Back before I lived in Austin, I lived in LA and there was an amazing Italian restaurant on Robertson that made everything from scratch. They were best known for their Italian gelatos, though. One day, I’m getting a to-go order and after I pay, I hear a gravely voice order a chocolate gelato. I look up and it’s no other than Eastwood, staring down the poor freezer glass. Only time in my life I was starstruck.
Besides some of the obvious films, I really like High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider and Two Mules for Sister Sara.
I always liked High Plains Drifter, but he has many great films.
I’m an 80s/90s kid, so I mostly knew of Clint Eastwood from pop culture back then. I would see Jim Carrey doing a “do you feel lucky, punk?” bit and I immediately knew it was a Clint Eastwood impression without ever having seen the Dirty Harry movies.
The first of his movies I really remember watching is In the Line of Fire, so that’s always been one of my favorites of his catalog.
Funny you should ask. The greatest Western ever made, of course… High Plains Drifter.
Ever seen Clint afraid? Play Misty For Me.
From the Wayback machine!
My Mom was a scary flick fan. She loved this movie…