The CLINT EASTWOOD Appreciation Thread - Page 2

Voicing the video games is all the rage now. Maybe by doing the voice he'll be able to have a little more control so it's not a complete waste. It's one of those little issues that's dividing a lot of the creative people behind "serious yet game-worthy" films. I know Coppola was not happy at all about "The Godfather" game while Michael Mann is writing the one in the works for "Heat."

I guess those DIRTY HARRY remake rumors have died down a bit. Probably for the best, unless Eastwood could have directed it.

Harry Callahan: You know those guys?
Early Smith: They came through the Academy after me. They stick together like flypaper, you know? Everybody thought they were queer for each other.
Harry Callahan: Tell you something. If the rest of you could shoot like them, I wouldn't care if the whole damn department was queer

I always loved that quote.

The first DH is a classic. The second is still pretty good but it loses some of the edge of the original, making the villains cops adds an interesting twist but it felt less gritty than the original and it made Dirty Harry into a hero unlike the first one where the line wasn't so clear cut.

I also think 'The Gauntlet' is pretty solid, if only for that scene where the cops completely demolish a house while Clint and Sondra Locke are trapped inside.

"You wouldn't hit a lady, would you?" *Smack*

I sometimes wonder about Clint's attitude towards women in his films.

Great thread.
Eastwood's westerns are rightly nominated as some of the best of the genre. The 70s ones are excellent, although I think Pale Rider is very underrated. Clint has this cool otherwordly look and the villians are good.

I wonder what happend to Last Ride West, which was announced a couple of years ago. I know Unforgiven was supposed to be his last western, but I wouldn't be opposed to another one if it was good.

I'm a huge Eastwood fan. I've read his long biography, by Time Magazine's Richard Schickel, but for some reason (sadly), I haven't seen many of his older films.

Clint said when he read In the Line of Fire, it seemed like it almost written for him because that character is a lot like who he is in real life. A piano-playing, jazz-loving womanizer.

I am in awe of what the guy has done and continues to do even though he is 76 years old. It amazes me that he still has the energy to do what he does.
From his days as mayor, to his directorial and acting achievements, to co-owning Pebble Beach, owning Tehama (a golf resort and clothing line) to having his own beer in Carmel (Pale Rider Ale), Clint is a living icon, and he continues to keep me in awe with all that he does.

I think its interesting to see how far he's come as a director. I would say "Unforgiven" is his best directed film, but you've also got "Mystic River", "Million Dollar Baby", "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", "Bird", "A Perfect World", and a lot of other quality films.

I don't think he's been regarded as a great director though until just recently. But when you consider that he's done films in virtually every genre, his filmography becomes even more impressive.

Yeah, I think the awards showered on Million Dollar Baby (not that it didn't deserve them) represented a long-overdue acknowledgment on the part of his peers that it was time to stop remembering him for shooting lots of people and to start noticing his work as an actual filmmaker.

Ok, Clint lovers, finish this sentence.


I love Clint so much I own...


My answer would be Bronco Billy on DVD. What say you?

All I know is I hope Clint gives us one more Dirty Harry movie before leaving this mortal coil for good.

Teaming him up with Russell Crowe or Kurt Russell would be the tits!

I've got to add my love for Heartbreak Ridge. The opening scene in the jail with Clint telling everyone what a tough bastard he is is solid fucking gold. The war story stuff towards the end of the film is lame and doesn't work, but his one-liners and bloated machismo is damn funny.

I dig the part when Mario Van Peebles tries to strike up conversation with Eastwood on the bus.

"Shut your trap hippie"

My favorite moment in the film would have to be the part when the marines send the giant dude to kick Clint's ass only to be disappointed to see Clint kick that guy's ass.

Oh, yeah! When he says, "I've seen more ass and banged more quiff than all you assholes combined." Clint's delivery of lines like this makes this movie pure classic.

I think he is such a great actor. He has been in so many good films.

Okay, you win.

With the earlier mention of Bronco Billy from me, anyone admitting owning The Rookie, just cuz it's Clint is certainly a fan. Because, I'm not lying when I say that movie stinks worse than Paris Hilton on heavy flow day.

I own "The Rookie", just because it's Clint. And even truer confession, I actually liked it.

I bought THE ROOKIE real cheap because I hadn't seen it in a long time and just felt like checking it out again. Alas it did find its way into the DVDs I buy, watch, then decide to trade in at the local used DVD/CD establishment.

I can never really bring myself to do that. For the couple bucks they'd give me, I'd rather just keep them in the collection. Especially Eastwood flicks, which always have a little something worth keeping just because of his persona.

The place I go to is pretty fair about what they offer in store credit. I think I swapped THE ROOKIE for AT CLOSE RANGE almost straight-up. I sort of feel like heading over there soon to see if they have MAGNUM FORCE at a decent price.

Wal-Mart recently had the last three "Dirty Harry" movie for $4.88 a piece.

I like THE ENFORCER but I don't know if it's one I need to own. No real desire to watch SUDDEN IMPACT again.

I haven't seen THE DEAD POOL in a real long time so I wouldn't mind checking that out again to see if it's aged better than what I remember. As I recall at the time I first watched it my gripe was similar to my view of THE ROOKIE in that all the other cop thrillers of the time had passed Eastwood by causing POOL to feel rather pedestrian.

The Enforcer has some excellent moments of violence, but it's almost ruined by that lame-ass ending.

I would own it just because it's cheap and it's Clint and for the line, "That's my bike, Charley. This is my gun, Clyde."

The Rookie as I recall is awful although I havent seen it since the one time in the theater. The scene that pissed me off was where Clint gets raped by Raul Julia's slutty girlfriend, not really a rape per say, just a force fuck. Creepy. I would definitely call this film pedestrian. Especially for Clint, not so much for Sheen.

If you have one Dirty Harry, you have to have them all. I own the box set and it's a nice watch. If you find them cheap, nab'em. Your evil Wal-Mart should have them in the cheap bin for $5.50 or even less.

Sudden Impact is vastly overrated, it has some of the worst music of the five films too, although Clint does get some great one-liners off at the scumbag's expense, especially Audrey Neenan as the lezzie rapist.

Moli, do watch Dead Pool again, I dig that flick just for the fact that Callahan is a cantankerous old bastard and he doesn't care who knows it. The remote control car sequence is as fun as it is absurd. It has some nifty violence and as always, great one-liners. My favorite scene out of ALL of the Harry flicks is the prison scene when Clint tells a mafia stooge about being the mailman, priceless!
Plus a great cameo from Jim Carrey and a nasty turn by Liam Neeson. Flawed, but tons of fun.
Let me know your thoughts on Pool.

That sir, is a fucking steal.

WalMart could be paying me five bucks apiece to take them, and I still wouldn't set foot in that fucking place.

Wal-Mart is a blight on society, but sadly, there really is no where else to go.

This is the age of The Web. There's always someplace else to go. I order all my DVD's online now. In fact, I'm putting in a big Eastwood westerns order soon. My Westerns section needs help.

This thread spurred me to buy Hang 'em High, High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Pale Rider today. Boy, those are some films that have been missing from my collection.

How is Thunderbolt and Lightfoot? I've always been interested in it since Cimino was involved and comic book writer Garth Ennis has referenced it a few times in his books/letter columns. However, I've never really definitely heard if it's good or just a piece of trash.

I don`t think i`ve ever not liked any Clint Eastwood movies(although the rookie is almost on the limit of acceptable). And his true power stems not just from iconic statue gained from the spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry but having been able to maintain quality year after year after year. It`s trully remarkable that he kept going on making great movies in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. It`s unparalleled, I think.

It's certainly unparalleled in the realm of actors turned directors. I can't think of another example of an actor who's gained as much recognition and respect as a director over such a long period. Redford has come close, but he just doesn't have the volume of great work that Eastwood does.

The guy keeps going and going and it rarely sucks. Maybe it`s because he always stayed close to the material even as an actor and he had great instincts. I wish Harrison Ford would have been like that. Just in term of developing progects and so forth.

The problem with Ford these days is that every time he has a chance to remake his image and become a real actor again, he chickens out. He was attached to Traffic for a good while before he backed out and let Michael Douglas have it. Whatever you think of Traffic, it certainly would have been a different role for him at the time.

Eastwood, on the other hand, has never been afraid of anything. His reputation for macho antics could have been ridden to the bank for many years, but he continually challenged what was expected of him, and trusted the audience to keep up with him. Play Misty For Me was an enormous risk at the time, but he was determined to do something people hadn't seen him do before.

Clint was definitly brave in that respect. But in a way it never was ground breaking progects storytelling-wise. It never really reinvented the wheel. He was always Clint on screen, not a lot of variations(even when he played with a monkey). But I think what saved him was that he stuck by sets of rules that were pretty old fashion like for instance make sure the writing is there, that you have a good script. That things go smoothly as it can. For instance Clint would never have been part of something like Devil`s Own like Ford where they kept rewriting things on the set and they never had a genuine ready script.

I think Harrison Ford had his shot at stepping outside his comfort zone with 'Mosquito Coast' it didn't work and so Harrison Ford has played it safe ever since. I think Eastwood made a smart move by getting behind the camera, the fact that he had obviously learned from Leone and Siegel helped, it gave him an option should his acting career be cut short for some reason.

I wouldn't call Eastwood a method actor like Brando etc, Eastwood's acting style may seem stiff to some, I think it's more based on body language so I can see where people would get that idea, most people are just used to seeing him as 'Dirty Harry' or 'The Man with no name' no-one really remembers him in 'Bronco Billy' or 'Paint your wagon' which showed a lighter side to Eastwood's range.

Personaly I don`t have a problem with an actor playing the same character of sort because it`s mostly playing yourself in different situations, it has varied sort of results anyway so it can keep being compelling. And it doesn`t feel phony. Just my 2 cents about this. Like I said earlier it`s an old school philosophy if you look at actors from other eras like Bogart: he was playing mainly Bogart in every flicks but the material and the writing was so good that it didn`t divert from the story. Same for Cary Grant and so forth. I truly believe Clint modeled himself after these guys.

Grabbed MAGNUM FORCE mainly because of this thread. Hadn't seen it in a long time. The opening credit sequence is great. Just a shot of a hand holding a .357 Magnum against a red background.

I love how Eastwood and Felton Perry go to grab lunch at the airport and Harry just happens to stumble his way into a plane hijacking. Ridiculous but entertaining.

Glad this trailer was on the disc.

I looked for THE DEAD POOL but no luck. I'll keep that one on my mental list.

I love the little exchange between Eastwood and the pilot.

"Excuse me Captain, but can you fly?"

"Nope, never had a lesson my entire life"

The best is when he's chasing the second hijacker through the plane. He yells "Sit down!" to one of the passengers, fires two shots at the wall the hijacker was behind, followed by the hijacker falling over to his death.

Couple points.

Zod is right, if you own one "Dirty Harry" you may as well own them all. "The Enforcer" is okay, notable also for just how overtly racist they could be in 1976. Harry goes to the black guys' hangout and when one of them says "I'll take care of your girl for you" he replies, "Well that's mighty white of you." Wow.

"The Dead Pool" is good. Fun stuff, he's a grumpy old man, cool supporting parts. And hell, he impales the villain with a spear gun.

I'll probably grab POOL at some point, as I don't remember a whole lot about it from when I saw it as a kid. I just don't have the desire to own THE ENFORCER or SUDDEN IMPACT. I don't really have the completist gene. I don't own LETHAL WEAPON 4, REVENGE OF THE SITH (sort of wish I didn't own CLONES), and I doubt I'll ever feel the need to buy X3.

What's weird is that when I was younger I always viewed the HARRY films as stale compared to the DIE HARD/LAST BOY SCOUT type stuff I was raised on. Now I watch I flick like MAGNUM FORCE and revel in how much better it is than the RUSH HOUR and SWAT wastes of time of this generation.

I always forget about A Perfect World. It's a great, highly underrated film. One of those films that that also makes me remember why I still like Costner, despite his many bad films. He still has several great ones and I still hold out hope he can make some more.

Costner is one of those rare actors who people seem to stupidly enjoy making light of his WATERWORLD or POSTMAN misfires instead of bringing up THE UNTOUCHABLES, FIELD OF DREAMS, JFK, and OPEN RANGE. I imagine that dumb movie he's doing with Ashton Kutcher will keep that perception alive.

It would be great if he good work with Eastwood again. A PERFECT WORLD really is his best performance.

They seem to have many of the same sensibilities too. "Open Range" feels like a film Eastwood would have made.

I agree completely. Open Range is one of my top ten Westerns ever and definitely fits with a film like The Unforgiven.

damn. Someone start a Costner appreciation thread. I'm all over that one too.

Yeah, The Guardian looks like a surefire bomb. Aging has-been, out of his element teen idol, and lukewarm action. A recipe for disaster if I've ever seen one.

Guardian looks good until Kutcher shows his face. When I saw the trailer I said:"damn Costner does it again, it looks to have substance like Open Range". And then I saw Kutcher and both my arms fell down. So it became:"how can you fuck up something so much..?". Doing a film with Kutcher make Costner look desperate.

I think the preview looked bad from the opening shot, but that's another discussion. Unfortunately, I think Costner IS desperate, even though he shouldn't be. Part of Costner's problem has always seemed to be his ego. The guy could have a great, respectable career doing supporting roles in the right studio pics and starring and/or directing smaller films that fit him, like Open Range or Tin Cup. The guy obviously has some chops when working on the right project and his labors of love (Postman not withstanding) have been great. The guy needs to not worry about being A List and just worry about extending his career in areas where he shines.

I swear, this will be my last non-Clint post here, by the way.

Eastwood avoided the mistakes and setbacks that many movie stars face in old age. First, he embraced the aging process from the get go. Unlike Costner, he was willing to take smaller parts, play old, and adapt. And more than anything else, he focused himself on being a director first, actor second. And what's more, Eastwood has been more willing to go against his image than he gets credit for. He may not be a chameleon, but you look at "Tightrope" and you see him pushing pretty far into some dark, sexual territory. "Unforgiven" is a deconstruction of the western superhero he'd portrayed in the past. And his latest movies have all focused on old age, be it the physical limitations ("Blood Work"), the humility it sometimes requires ("Space Cowboys"), or the prospect of a life coming to a close and not being proud of what you've done ("Million Dollar Baby").

I actually liked the small parts Costner has had recently in that Sherley McLain movie(playing the older character from the Graduate film) and this other flick where he was this middle age washed up out-of-shape guy. It was a welcome move I tought esp. the last one to be so vulnerable and not trying to be the suave superstar. But a Kutcher movie....wow that`s like pissing on all the good will fans have had for him since Open Range.

But back to Clint...I own only two films of his Unforgiven and In the Line of Fire but my ultimate goal is to own all of his movies even the obscur ones. I did that with John Wayne two years ago and i`m starting next year on the Eastwood hunt. I can`t wait.

You actually own all of the John Wayne movies? That's hardcore. My dad is still working on that, and his collection is huge.

I don`t have ALL of them, but a lot of them, mostly those I really wanted: the westerns and war movies, in his prime.