Clint Eastwood is Hollywood’s elder statesman and its conscience. He is the standard by which other films and filmmakers are judged. He represents both classical Hollywood and an entirely modern, uncompromising and unfussy directorial presence.
There are those who adore him as a cowboy, a superstar, the rugged, unyielding yet introspective face of American machismo. There are those who read him as a great American auteur fashioning uncompromising, fascinating, intellectual films about his country, about life, about whatever the hell takes his fancy.
No single figure in all of Hollywood, operates so freely outside of the strictures of commercial pressure. And yet, or perhaps that is because, he makes hit after hit.
Separation of actor and director is almost impossible. They are intimately related, cross pollinating, but in the latter half of his career he has come to be viewed as one of the great American artists. While drawing connections from his wider work as an actor, and those who have influenced him, it is his identity as a director that this book will celebrate.
This is not a career — it is a landscape.
INTRODUCTION
THE MAGNIFICENT STRANGER
The early years (1930–1971)
THE DIRECTOR EMERGES
Play Misty for Me (1971),
Dirty Harry (scene) (1971),
High Plains Drifter (1973),
Breezy (1973),
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
WAY OUT WESTERN
The strange tale of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
MAXIMUM MINIMALISM
Ten great Clint Eastwood performances
AMERICAN STORYTELLER
The Gauntlet (1977),
Bronco Billy (1980),
Firefox (1982),
Honkytonk Man (1982),
Sudden Impact (1983)
THE MAYOR
Tightrope (uncredited) (1984),
Pale Rider (1985),
Heartbreak Ridge (1986),
Bird (1988),
White Hunter Black Heart (1990),
The Rookie (1990)
MAYOR OF CARMEL
The tale of Clint Eastwood’s brief foray into politics
THE LAST RIDE
The greatness of Unforgiven (1992)
THE INTREPID ICON
A Perfect World (1993),
The Bridges of Madison County (1995),
Absolute Power (1997),
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997),
True Crime (1999),
Space Cowboys (2000),
Blood Work (2002),
Mystic River (2003)
AMERICAN SOUL
The emotional triumph of Million Dollar Baby (2004)
COMPLETING CLINT
Rounding out a fifty-year career as filmmaker
HOLLYWOOD NOBILITY
Flags of Our Fathers (2006),
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006),
Changeling (2008),
Gran Torino (2008),
Invictus (2009), Hereafter (2010)
THE UNQUENCHABLE FLAME
J. Edgar (2011), Jersey Boys (2014),
American Sniper (2014), Sully (2016),
The 15:17 to Paris (2018),
The Mule (2018), Richard Jewell (2019),
Cry Macho (2021)
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