Clint Eastwood
From the moment Clint Eastwood entered the TV
screen as Rowdy Yates in the hugely successful Rawhind series
his on-screen presence stole the show. That was in 1958 and
in 1964 Clint Eastwood entered cinema's hall of fame as the
man with no name in Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars. So
powerful is Clint Eastwood's screen image that the spaghetti
western genre is only really identified with Eastwood himself.
He went on to make For A Few Dollars More and The Good The
Bad And The Ugly, all classics. Apparently, Clint Eastwood
created the man with no name's look and persona himself and
Sergio Leone is reported to have quickly taken to the distinctive
style and said, "I like Clint Eastwood because he has
only two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without
it."
In 1969 Clint Eastwood starred in the musical
western Paint Your Wagon and in the early 70's Clint Eastwood
made yet more classics such as, Kelly's Heroes, Two Mules
For Sister Sara, where he starred with Shirley MacLaine in
one of my favourite films, and The Beguiled. But it was 1971
that proved the professional turning point in Eastwood's career.
He started his own production company, Malpaso, and directed
himself in Play Misty for Me. Also in 1971 Clint Eastwood
again made cinematic history when he played Harry Callahan
in Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry gave birth to a series of film
classics: Magnum Force made in 1973, The Enforcer 1976, Sudden
Impact 1983, and The Dead Pool 1988. Between Dirty Harry films
he was making yet more classics like, The Eiger Sanction,
which Clint directed, and The Gauntlet, which he also directed,
not forgetting the two classic Eastwood westerns both directed
by Clint Eastwood, High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey
Wales, another of my all time favourites and a film I still
watch today with equal joy as when I watched it the very first
time. And let us not forget the brilliant Escape From Alcatraz.
and the fantastic Pale Rider... But hold on! I almost forgot
Every Which Way But Loose... The list of classics just keeps
getting longer... But I can't stop without at least mentioning
yet another of my all-time favourites, Unforgiven, another
Clint Eastwood directed gem...
There are many, many more films and I could
go on and on and on listing Clint Eastwood's incredible cinematic
achievements, but I've got to stop somewhere. Most recently
Clint Eastwood has directed Angelina Jolie in Changeling,
with his latest masterpice Invictus, where he directed Morgan
Freeman who brilliantly portrayed Nelson Mandela. Clint Eastwood
isn't simply a film director he is a craftsman of living art...
Tim Rees
Share
Follow Tim Rees on Twitter
