Clint Eastwood’s Top Films
Clint Eastwood seems like he is one of the hardest-working people in show business. Not only has he had a successful acting career for decades, but he’s also been an exemplary director and producer. Even at 94 years old (his birthday is today, May 31st!), he has continued to direct and act in his own films in recent years. In honor of the icon’s birthday, let’s go over some of his best films. Let’s start with one of his first films that did extremely well, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Eastwood stars in that film as the Man with No Name or “the Good.” Directed by Sergio Leone, the film is considered one of the best spaghetti Westerns of all time, following three gunslingers competing to find a buried fortune. It was the third collaboration between Leone and Eastwood before Eastwood became a director himself.
In 1971, Eastwood stars in and directs Play Misty for Me, a psychological thriller about a disc jockey and one of his obsessed fans. Jessica Walters plays the role of the romantic encounter turned crazed stalker and does it so well. In the same year, Eastwood played one of his most memorable roles of all time in Dirty Harry. Playing Harry Callahan, a no-nonsense cop in San Francisco, boosted Eastwood to a new level of fame and this may be one of his most iconic movies of all time. Let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments!
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At the end of the ’70s, Eastwood went back to San Francisco in a drama about a real-life prison break in Escape from Alcatraz. He played Frank Morris, a convict with some smarts who plans an elaborate way to escape from a prison meant to be inescapable. The 1980s saw films such as Pale Rider and Honkytonk Man. In Pale Rider, Eastwood returned to the genre that made him famous and proved that he still had the gumption to pull off a great Western film. Honkytonk Man was a very different film for Eastwood, where he played a 1930s singer and his performance truly tugged at the heartstrings.
Everett Collection
Eastwood kept going strong through the ’90s with Unforgiven where he won an Oscar for Best Picture. Many people praise his filmmaking for Unforgiven, but he starred in this film about the Old West too. Another softer film came in 1995 with The Bridges of Madison County and we dare you not to cry during this one. It was a very different film for Eastwood but he proved he could shine in a romance movie too.
Claire Folger/Warner Bros./Everett Collection
Even though he seemed to favor directing in the 2000s and beyond, Eastwood still continued to act in popular films such as Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Mule, and Cry Macho. While his age may be slowing him down a bit, we don’t see him fully retiring anytime soon as he’s currently working on a film called Juror No. 2, about a juror on a murder trial who begins to wonder if they caused the victim’s death. The film is set to star Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult. We can’t wait to see it!
Wild West- Heroes & Villains
November 2022
Celebrates the unique sense of justice, compassion and adventure in the Old West as seen on TV and in the movies
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