Clint Eastwood is one of the movie legends who, after the age of 90, doesn’t even want to hear the word “retirement.”
Eight decades of pure talent and a genre, the western, that has marked his entire career. He made his film debut in 1955 -at the age of 25- in the science fiction B movie ‘Tarantula’ to, in later years, chain a series of forgettable titles in which he did not appear as headliner. It would be thanks to the series ‘Raw leather’ that would allow him to become a television star. And from there, everything changed.
Eastwood would meet Sergio Leone with whom he would shoot ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’, ‘Death Had a Price’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, three of the best westerns in the history of the Wild West, spaghetti, in this case, and that would bring us one of its iconic characters. Eastwood would play “The Man with No Name”, an archetype that he would repeat in some of his films with that threatening gesture, few friends and a serious face, whose greatest exponent would be the tough police inspector Harry Callahan, perhaps the most memorable and on which he finished cementing that manly image that lasts to this day. Undoubtedly, one of Clint Eastwood’s best characters and from whose mouth some of the most popular movie phrases in history would come out.
‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ (Sergio Leone, 1964)
First installment of the dollar trilogy and western remake of ‘Yojimbo’, by master Kurosawa. Here the foundations of the spaghetti western would be established and the legend of that magical collaboration between Sergio Leone, Ennio Morricone and Eastwood himself would begin .
The film was a great success in Europe, which would lead to a new meeting between these three geniuses to conceive a second installment starring the one known as “The Man with No Name”, the character played by Clint.
‘Death had a price’ (Sergio Leone, 1965)
Preceded by the success of ‘A Fistful of Dollars’, Leone would have a higher budget for this (not) sequel in which Eastwood would once again put on his poncho and hat to give life to one of the two bounty hunters in the film . The other, Lee Van Cleef , would develop a very interesting career in the gun genre, in addition to collaborating with John Carpenter in ‘1997: Rescue in New York’, one of the best science fiction movies in history.
‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ (1966)
Tarantino’s favorite spaghetti western and by far the best film in the trilogy . Full of phrases and unforgettable moments, with ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’, Leone would bring together all the elements of this subgenre to, despite its excessive length, bill first-class entertainment thanks to a narrative within the reach of a few . Eastwood would become an icon with plenty of charisma, like the extraordinary Van Cleef and, above all, Eli Wallach. If you like Leone’s work, you can’t miss the exciting documentary ‘Unearthing Sad Hill’, which shows how fans reconstructed the Burgos cemetery from the film.
‘The Legend of the Nameless City’ (Joshua Logan, 1969)
Without reaching the level of ‘Duro de pelar’, that comedy in which heshared the scene with an orangutan, this hybrid that mixes western, musical and comedy is one of the strangest films in Eastwood’s filmography , which demonstrated their great chemistry here with Lee Marvin.
‘The Legend of the Nameless City’ brought Eastwood closer to new interpretive registers that helped him to embrace the composition of a character completely opposite to that of Leone’s trilogy.
‘The violent ones of Kelly’ (Brian G. Hutton, 1970)
What happens when you mix war movies, comedy and adventures with a bunch of scoundrels -special mention to an unforgettable Donald Sutherland- and a robbery in between? That you get one of the best movies about WWII.
In ‘Kelly’s Rogues’, a unique American squad learns that the enemy hides sixteen million dollars in gold bullion. The problem? You are behind enemy lines. If you thought the Gallows Twelve were on a suicide mission , you don’t know these men.
‘The Seducer’ (Don Siegel, 1971)
‘The seducer’ is one of those rarities that create an unbearable feeling of discomfort and tension as events unfold and the minutes pass, twisting the atmosphere. Sensual, morbid and unhealthy , it would serve to consolidate that great duo made up of Don Siegel and Eastwood.
In 2017, Sofia Coppola, the chronicler of postmodern loneliness, would do a forgettable remake with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.
‘Coward’s Hell’ (Clint Eastwood, 1973)
The first western directed by Eastwood, with clear influences from what he learned from his two main mentors, Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, is an excellent genre film in a decade, the 70s, which had Sam Peckinpah as its main reference.
By using a surreal narrative with supernatural echoes, it would present us with a great story of revenge through the arrival of a mysterious gunman with a turbulent past and hidden intentions in the border city of Lago.
‘The Outlaw’ (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
Fifth film as a director and eighth western in his particular box in which, once again taking revenge as a base, he would perfect his style and, most importantly, Eastwood would establish himself as one of the main bastions of a genre in frank decline .
‘The Outlaw’, in which farmer Josey Wales (Eastwood) witnesses how a guerrilla band called The Red Boots murders his family, is one of the best revenge movies in cinema.
‘Escape from Alcatraz’ (Don Siegel, 1979)
The latest (and best) collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood. The meticulous plan drawn up by Frank Morris is transferred by Siegel in ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ in such a thorough way that it makes us part of the escape. First-class entertainment , with an increasing pace that, in addition to transmitting the tension that was lived in what was the most secure prison in the San Francisco Bay, would also set a trend in films with a similar theme. Definitely one of the best action movies to date.
‘The Pale Rider’ (Clint Eastwood, 1985)
Clint’s return to a genre that, in the 80s, was practically dead. Serve this flash as an excellent example of a well-crafted western , with a classic style and a deep respect for the genre . This violent remake of ‘Deep Roots’ is a slow film, which ends in a heart-stopping final duel and in which Eastwood would face one of his most famous characters , the mysterious preacher.
‘Bird’ (Clint Eastwood, 1988)
It is very likely that between Harry Callahan, The Preacher, The Man with No Name and other historical characters, you have missed this film starring Forest Whitaker -in one of his best films- in the skin of the unforgettable jazz saxophonist Charlie “Bird”. Parker. Regarded as one of the greatest biopics ever, jazz aficionado Eastwood would keep his loaded revolver at home to whip out the shovel and dig into a tragic life filled with excess and addiction .
‘Unforgiven’ (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
‘Unforgiven’ is more than “the last great western”, and to say that this is one of the best films of the 90s is as obvious as Harry Callahan’s aim.
‘Unforgiven’ is an absolute masterpiece and William Munny, that bloodthirsty ex back in action for the last time, is an unforgettable character. Eastwood would compose a twilight western supported by a seamless script that would be epic without renouncing a residue of obvious bitterness , and that would elevate him to the altars as an absolute reference director .
Nothing is left over in the more than 120 minutes of the best film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood . If you think you know everything about this gem, here are 10 curiosities from ‘Unforgiven’.
‘A Perfect World’ (Clint Eastwood, 1973)
Being among the best road movies in the history of cinema seems not to be enough for ‘A Perfect World’, another of Eastwood’s films that tends to stay off the big lists, despite being one of Kevin Costner’s best films. .
Tender, tough and emotional , ‘A Perfect World’ gave us one of the most special relationships seen on the screen , between criminal Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) and his hostage, an eight-year-old boy named Philip (TJ Lowther), who He is in for the adventure of his life.
‘The Bridges of Madison’ (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
A modern classic that shocked more than one to see how Eastwood went from shaking the gun to shaking hearts with this romantic melodrama made with exquisite taste.
The unforgettable romance between National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson, the housewife who has given up on her dreams, is one of the best romantic movies to believe in love.
The naturalness and that “make the difficult easy” make this one of our favorite roles of Meryl Streep.
‘Mystic River’ (Clint Eastwood, 2003)
Eastwood would have an impressive cast led by Oscar winners Sean Penn and Tim Robbins , as well as Kevin Bacon, to unite intrigue and drama in complete darkness . And that’s where he manages to sink into our memory, with a story in which he makes us feel the pain of the characters.
We have seen countless movies that deal with the theme of friendship, but none in this way. A friendship weighed down by the emotional journey plagued by the traumas of which we were once children.
‘Million Dollar Baby’ (Clint Eastwood, 2004)
Hillary Swank, Morgan Freeman and Eastwood himself would star in an emotional and deep story of self-improvement and of the always complex parent-child relationships in which Eastwood behind the scenes would prepare us until the last and devastating assault. ‘Million Dollar Baby’ is one of the saddest and most emotional movies to cry.
‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ (Clint Eastwood, 2006)
In 2006, Clint Eastwood would carry out one of his most ambitious projects: a diptych that would contemplate the battle of Iwo Jima , one of the bloodiest combats of World War II, from the American perspective with ‘Flags of our fathers’ and from the Japanese point of view, with this ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ . His sensitivity to the Japanese people, his ability to convey that sense of honor, despair and horror, and his thoughtful tone resulted in one of the best war movies in cinematic history.
‘The Exchange’ (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
‘The Exchange’ follows in the wake of films such as ‘Alarm on the express’, ‘Flight Plan: Disappeared’ or the subsequent ‘Lost’, in which one person disappears without a trace and another, who claims to exist, is crossed out of lunatic
Its premiere, the same year as ‘Gran Torino’, made this film one of the most undervalued of his career as a director , which we have proposed to recover here because it is still an exciting exercise in intrigue and Angelina’s best film. Jolie.
‘Gran Torino’ (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
“What are you up to, darkies?” Eastwood would show that to make a movie you don’t need to brag or surround yourself with big stars. A film that, if we close our eyes, will allow us to feel that we are facing the sixth and final installment of ‘Dirty Harry’.
