Clint Eastwood - 90 today!

[Keebleman]

It's as good as time as any to ask the question: is his the most successful career in Hollywood history?  Answer: yes. Other possible contenders: John Wayne, Hitchcock, Tom Cruise, Chaplin.  They are all wanting in comparison (Chaplin's relevance declined dramatically from the 50s on).  Spielberg and Disney are the only two individuals who can be considered rivals, and while they exceed Clint in terms of cultural impact, the fact that he is an actual movie star gives him the edge.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Happy birthday squinty.

[the science eel]

Only Caine is worse.

HB CE

[BlodwynPig]

Make my birthday

[Custard]

I've heard that he's gonna celebrate his birthday differently this year, in that he's gonna wear a cowboy hat and shag some women whilst looking bemused

[Blumf]

https://youtu.be/RPfNKuy5OiE?t=5

[Butchers Blind]

Insp. Harry Callahan: Yeah, well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard; that's my policy.
Mayor: Intent? How did you establish that?
Insp. Harry Callahan: When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross.
Mayor: [after Callahan has left] I think he's got a point.

HB Philo Beddoe

[bgmnts]

Successful in terms of profit? Would probably be a producer or something wouldn't it?

[kalowski]

When he's good, he's really, really good (Dirty Harry, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, Josey Wales, Unforgiven, The Beguiled, Escape from Alcatraz).
When he's bad he's terrible (The Dead Pool, Every Which Way But Loose, Firefox, City Heat, The Rookie, Heartbreak Ridge).

[Attila]

<3

My favourite actor since I was tiny back in the 1960s, watching repeats of Rawhide with my non-tosser brother.

The day I did all my UK citizenship guff, after we got home, I hid upstairs in the dark and watched the episode of Mr Ed that Clint guest-starred on.

My non-tosser brother (12 years older than I am) was tasked with taking me to see Disney movies as my mother felt they were essential somehow to my childhood (even though she found them boring and wouldn't go with me herself). Instead, we went to see stuff he wanted to see, which is how around 6 going on 7 I saw Dirty Harry in the dollar cinema. I was really worried those kids would get into trouble with their mums for being late coming home from school on the bus.

The Prince Charles in London every once in a while runs all three of the 'dollar' films back to back -- I really wanted to go the last time, as I've never seen them on the big screen.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I will always associate him with that cool noise his gun makes in the Dirty Harry films.

*BLAM*

[QDRPHNC]

[Sebastian Cobb]

When he's good, he's really, really good (Dirty Harry, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, Josey Wales, Unforgiven, The Beguiled, Escape from Alcatraz).
When he's bad he's terrible (The Dead Pool, Every Which Way But Loose, Firefox, City Heat, The Rookie, Heartbreak Ridge).

Not having this.

[Keebleman]

Successful in terms of profit? Would probably be a producer or something wouldn't it?

No, I'm thinking more in terms of status.  Even disregarding Rawhide, even disregarding the Leone pictures (which aren't Hollywood), then for 52 years since 1968 his work whether as actor or director has never been in a slump.  Of course individual films might not do so well, but in that time there has not been a significant decline in the public attention given each new production of his.

[SavageHedgehog]

He did go through a slight naff 80s phase but who didn't? I'm going through one right now!

[Keebleman]

But even movies so determinedly routine as Heartbreak Ridge, The Rookie and Pink Cadillac got a big release and made decent money, and Sudden Impact, from around the same time, was a huge hit.  The naffness never came to define his career as it did for Burt Reynolds, whose status was equal to his in the early 80s.  In fact given Reynolds' greater range you'd have made him the more likely of the two to have a half-century at the top.

[Hand Solo]

[chveik]

I stopped watching his stuff after American Sniper, I just couldn't stand the right wing propanganda anymore

[Gulftastic]

Million Dollar Baby must have set some kind of record for how much misery you can pile on.

[Bad Ambassador]

The 15:17 to Paris is bloody awful. John Mulaney's comments about The Mule are wonderful.

https://youtu.be/X5TEsdb918c

[rjd2]

I stopped watching his stuff after American Sniper, I just couldn't stand the right wing propanganda anymore

I didn't care about that as much as the fact it was an incredibly dour film to watch. Dirty Harry is probably one of the most prominent right wing movies of the last 50 years and its absolutely fantastic.

[kalowski]

I didn't care about that as much as the fact it was an incredibly dour film to watch. Dirty Harry is probably one of the most prominent right wing movies of the last 50 years and its absolutely fantastic.

I know Pauline Kael called it a "fascist piece of work" but I think it can be viewed through more left wing eyes. After all, Harry might be the right wing cop riding roughshod over red tape, but he's just a violent as Scorpio, so I'm not sure you are supposed to like him.

[Ignatius_S]

It's as good as time as any to ask the question: is his the most successful career in Hollywood history?  Answer: yes. Other possible contenders: John Wayne, Hitchcock, Tom Cruise, Chaplin.  They are all wanting in comparison (Chaplin's relevance declined dramatically from the 50s on).  Spielberg and Disney are the only two individuals who can be considered rivals, and while they exceed Clint in terms of cultural impact, the fact that he is an actual movie star gives him the edge.

I think you would need to define success. Eastwood was very canny in his film-making and cultivating his star status, but that was often at the cost of quality - and a huge aim was to be under budget and under time.

Pale Rider was meant to his Shane, but there was no way Eastwood was going to ride off in the sunset mortally wounded and for so much of his career, he was careful to appear with actors that would do a good job but not upstage him; no Jack Palance types to ratchet up the tension and the denouement is so lacking in danger that I still don't understand why Eastwood's character didn't just the shoot the baddies far earlier. It was only really from Unforgiven that he felt comfortable enough to work with bigger (and better) names.

In Honkytown Man, the car was meant to become increasingly beat-up as the singer and his nephew made their journey and when reaching their final destination, it will never run again. The writer intended what was happening with the car to symbolise what was happening with the singer's health. However, in Eastwood's contract, it was written in that he could buy the car for a token amount; Eastwood loved the car, so it stayed immaculate. Going from memory, but the original ending was pretty downbeat and fitted the story better.

Play Misty For Me - originally, the main character does some soul-searching and feels that they had some responsibility, Eastwood wanted more of a 'woman is bonkers' vibe so changes are made, Personally, I think it's a well-crafted, nasty little film as a result. One biographer reported that Eastwood was so furious that the song Misty sold so much from the film and he didn't profit from it, he later removed the songs that the screenwriter of for Every Which Way but Loose had penned and which reflected what was happening in the film. Potentially, an interesting idea but I suppose his insistence on Locke's casting always reduced that element of the film.

Absolute Power - originally,  people were surprised that Eastwood wanted to play the burglar, as that character is killed off and fairly early on (which would have given the plot more sense and sounded a darn sight more interesting) but he had a few ideas, such as 'wouldn't it be great if my character doesn't die?'

He's made some excellent/outstanding films but there have been plenty of questionable creative choices, which resulted in 'that will do' or complete crap, like Changeling.

I know Pauline Kael called it a "fascist piece of work" but I think it can be viewed through more left wing eyes. After all, Harry might be the right wing cop riding roughshod over red tape, but he's just a violent as Scorpio, so I'm not sure you are supposed to like him.

Would say interactions like with the mayor and Harry getting the last word are very much about getting the audience on his side.

As for the politics, a number of actors turned down the role because of their own concerns with the script, including ones that were *very* conservative.

[Brundle-Fly]

Not having this.

THANK YOU Seb Cobb!  I saw this at the cinema at the time and it was one of the best afternoons of my life.

[dissolute ocelot]

It's as good as time as any to ask the question: is his the most successful career in Hollywood history?

Walt Disney.

Still, Disney never made a half-decent Kevin Costner movie, so Eastwood has the edge there.

[kalowski]

Would say interactions like with the mayor and Harry getting the last word are very much about getting the audience on his side.

Yes, I can see that, actually. I suppose you bring your own beliefs to scenes like the one at Candlestick Park, though. So whilst I smile at the "I shoot the bastard. That's my policy" stuff, I wince in horror when he tortures Scorpio, standing on his wounded leg as the camera flies away in disgust. But your Farage types would view that scene differently, I imagine.

[Sin Agog]

I stopped watching his stuff after American Sniper, I just couldn't stand the workmanlike direction anymore

[jobotic]

My name's Alice and i will take a dare.



Is Thunderbolt and Lightfoot good? loved it when I saw it as a teenager, but it's never on.

[kalowski]

My name's Alice and i will take a dare.



Is Thunderbolt and Lightfoot good? loved it when I saw it as a teenager, but it's never on.

Thrilled the young me as there was a sudden full frontal naked woman!
I think it is pretty good and holds up.

[chveik]

Yes, I can see that, actually. I suppose you bring your own beliefs to scenes like the one at Candlestick Park, though. So whilst I smile at the "I shoot the bastard. That's my policy" stuff, I wince in horror when he tortures Scorpio, standing on his wounded leg as the camera flies away in disgust. But your Farage types would view that scene differently, I imagine.

Dirty Harry is one of Marine Le Pen's favourite films