TWO NIGHTS OF CLINT EASTWOOD - 10/16 & 10/23
By Roger Fristoe
September 28, 2021
4 Movies / October 16 and 23

Film historian David Thomson wrote of Clint Eastwood that “he has become an authentically heroic image, a man cast in Gary Cooper’s rock.” As both actor and director, Eastwood has achieved an almost majestic presence that is rare among American filmmakers.

Eastwood is still going strong at age 91, with the recent release of Cry Macho (2021), in which he serves as producer, director, and leading man. In this film he plays a former rodeo star who is hired to reunite a young man with his father.

TCM’s salute to this legend encompasses two evenings and four films, with Eastwood acting in three of them and serving as producer and director on two.

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930, in San Francisco and grew up in nearby Piedmont. After relocating to Los Angeles in the early 1950s, he began working in films by playing uncredited bit parts. His breakthrough role was that of Rowdy in the CBS-TV series Rawhide (1959-65).

Eastwood emerged as a big-screen star in such Italian-made “spaghetti Westerns” as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). He made his debut as a director with Play Misty for Me (1971).

His many other hits have included Dirty Harry (1971), High Plains Drifter (1973), Magnum Force (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), The Enforcer (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Sudden Impact (1983), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), and The Bridges of Madison County (1995).

In addition to Unforgiven (1992, see below), films bringing Eastwood Academy Awards and nominations have included:

Mystic River (2003): Nominee, Best Picture and Director.
Million Dollar Baby (2004): Winner, Best Picture, Director, Actress (Hilary Swank), and Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman); nominee, Eastwood as Best Actor.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006): Nominee, Best Picture and Director.
American Sniper (2014): Nominee, Best Picture.

In 1995 the Academy presented Eastwood with the Irving G. Thalberg Award for his humanitarian efforts.

Eastwood also composed the musical scores for several of his films, including Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Flags of Our Fathers (2006).

Below are the films in TCM’s tribute.

Where Eagles Dare (1968) is a British war film about Allied agents, including those played by Eastwood and top-billed Richard Burton, who storm a castle where Nazis are holding an American general prisoner. Brian G. Hutton directs from a script adapted by Alistair MacLean from his 1966 novel.

Every Which Way but Loose (1978) is an action comedy about a trucker who roams the American West with a pet orangutan named Clyde. This boisterous film, directed by James Fargo, was a radical change for Eastwood as an actor. It became a surprise hit and inspired a sequel, Any Which Way You Can (1980).

Bird (1988), a biographical film about jazz saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker, was produced and directed by Eastwood and reflects his love of jazz and musicians. Joel Oliansky wrote the script, which delves into Parker’s life from his childhood to a premature death at age 34. Forest Whitaker plays the adult Parker, and Diane Venora is his wife, Chan.

Unforgiven, a revisionist Western written by David Webb Peoples that addresses the nature of violence, was a breakthrough for Eastwood. It won him his first Oscar nomination and award as Best Director and established him as a major filmmaker.

Eastwood stars in an Oscar-nominated performance as an aging outlaw who takes on one more assignment to claim a much-needed bounty. The film scored a total of nine Oscar nominations and won in the following categories: Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman), and Film Editing.

Critic Richard Corliss wrote in Time that The Unforgiven was “Eastwood’s meditation on age, repute, courage, heroism – all those burdens he has been carrying with such grace for decades.”