I think "Mystic River" is one of his better director-only movies. What did you think of it?
I want to discuss what you film literate folks think are Eastwood's main weaknesses as a director. I outlined some of what I see as those weaknesses that appear pretty consistently in his filmography, and would like to hear whether you all agree, whether you have others, whether you actually see some of the things I cited as weaknesses as a strength, etc.
I think "Mystic River" is one of his better director-only movies. What did you think of it?
I think highly of Eastwood as a director, though his last film was only average at best...When I watched Mystic River, I couldn't believe Eastwood directed it, it was so polish, so sublime, really a near perfect film. I'd rate it a But on a personal level crime type films like that aren't my favorite.
I want to discuss what you film literate folks think are Eastwood's main weaknesses as a director. I outlined some of what I see as those weaknesses that appear pretty consistently in his filmography, and would like to hear whether you all agree, whether you have others, whether you actually see some of the things I cited as weaknesses as a strength, etc.
With no disrespect meant to Eastwood or those pushing 100...his main weakness is that he didn't retire from directing a few years ago. Other that that I think of Eastwood as one of the few directors who doesn't try and dress up his films with trendy CG or the latest camera/cinematography tricks. To me Eastwood's greatest strength is in his brutal honest story telling. I'd call him one of the greats.
Citizen rules, why do you say that his main weakness is that he didn't retire years ago?
I think "American Sniper" was well done on a technical level, and as an entertainment, I think it delivers. However, it pales in comparison to "Letters from Iwo Jima." Sniper is a pretty jingoistic film that fails to present, even in a limited fashion, the negative consequences that resulted for the Iraqis from our occupation, or any complexity to the motivations or depictions of either the populace at large or the enemy characters that are featured. This was so different than what he did in "Letters from Iwo Jima" that I couldn't believe that Eastwood made both films. I couldn't understand why Eastwood chose to make a quasi-hagiography of Chris Kyle when the truth of his contributions to history are much more complicated and much less universally admired. "Letters" was imbued with a lot of nuance, and was made with an aim towards presenting the Japanese as the flip side of the same coin as the American soldiers, who sought to serve their own society in the same way the American soldiers did, from their perspective, and who had the same hopes, dreams, fears and commitment to their own country. It really expertly depicted the other side in a way which was very human, and that stands apart for me from many other films in the genre.
Although I do think it successfully spotlighted the problem with PTSD and the psychological consequences that can emerge in those who are responsible for waging war, none of the complexity and humanizing aspects of portraying the enemy that was present in "Letters" was featured in "American Sniper."
Oh, I meant that his last film Cry Macho and The Mule weren't that great and so it would be a shame if his legacy ends on Cry Macho. So actually he needs to make one more film and knock it out the ball park. Agreed that Sniper & Letters are both a credit to his directorial skills.
Oh, I meant that his last film Cry Macho and The Mule weren't that great and so it would be a shame if his legacy ends on Cry Macho. So actually he needs to make one more film and knock it out the ball park. Agreed that Sniper & Letters are both a credit to his directorial skills.
I thought Richard Jewel was great, can't say on the last couple didn't really have interest in seeing it. I'd really like to see him get a hold of one last Western and cast his son Scott as the lead. Dude looks just like him. That would be a great way to go out.
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Could his judgement be less effective than it has been in the past? Sure. But I wouldn't say that poor judgement is the chief reason for a sub standard picture from him.
What do you think is the reason for sub standard films from him in recent years then? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts! I think you are right that the reason he continues to work is because he enjoys making films, but why can he not choose better projects then, if its not his judgment?
I thought this conversation thread fit better here, so continuing the discussion in this one.
What do you think is the reason for sub standard films from him in recent years then? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts! I think you are right that the reason he continues to work is because he enjoys making films, but why can he not choose better projects then, if its not his judgment?
Ya got me, AKA. Outside of the romance angle in this last one, it may be simply that there are very few stories with roles for a 90 year old man. If he does another one, I hope it's better material.
Ya got me, AKA. Outside of the romance angle in this last one, it may be simply that there are very few stories with roles for a 90 year old man. If he does another one, I hope it's better material.
To clarify, I was referring to his movies as a director as well as an actor, not just his acting roles.
As always, I look forward to his next film as a director! I will always be pulling for him to do well. After seeing "Cry Macho", I doubt he'll act again though.
I reviewed the Clint Eastwood flick Tightrope back on the FIRST PAGE of this thread, especially the history of how he directed it but did not receive credit. It is Eastwood's most clearly Neo-Noir piece, along with Sudden Impact, and one of the titles in the current Neo Noir Hall of Fame.
Still an interesting flick, coming up on its fortieth anniversary.
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Man, I haven't seen Tightrope in forever, and I barely remember it. As you said, it was kicking around a lot in the 80s on cable, so I saw it or pieces of it at various times, but was probably kicked out of the room once my mother tuned into the subject matter. Looks like it is available to rent on Apple TV, so I may have to fire it up, especially since it fits nicely into the neo-noir category/countdown.
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Man, I haven't seen Tightrope in forever, and I barely remember it. As you said, it was kicking around a lot in the 80s on cable, so I saw it or pieces of it at various times, but was probably kicked out of the room once my mother tuned into the subject matter. Looks like it is available to rent on Apple TV, so I may have to fire it up, especially since it fits nicely into the neo-noir category/countdown.
As a kid I found films like this and Bloodwork kind of confusing. It had the feel of a Dirty Harry film, but without the character.
Debut was very good (Play Misty For Me) but my favorite is "The Outlaw Josey Wales". He's the only American director left who's movies I will see, but only if he's in them, because "the leading man" seems to be dead.
From Variety... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Juror No. 2 Could Be Clint Eastwood’s Last Film — So Why Is Warner Bros. Burying It? Variety, October 24th, 2024 by J. Kim Murphy
AFI Fest, the longest-running film festival in Los Angeles, will cap off its 38th edition Sunday evening with the world premiere of Clint Eastwood‘s Juror #2 at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and Zoey Deutch will walk the red carpet, which marks the festival’s fourth world premiere of an Eastwood-directed feature. The courtroom drama is the filmmaker’s 40th directorial effort — and, given he’s 94 years old, it’s potentially his final one.
Four days later, Warner Bros. will give Juror #2 a somewhat less distinguished treatment. The studio is putting out the feature in a limited release of less than fifty theaters, according to two sources with knowledge of the film’s distribution, with no current plans to expand to more locations in the following weeks.
While exact location counts are still being finalized, as it stands one week from opening day, Juror #2 is currently listing showtimes at four locations around New York City, five in the Los Angeles area and one in Chicago. Across the country’s twenty-five most populous cities, the film is listing pre-sales in fewer than twenty-five locations. The film’s official website only promotes showtimes in eighteen markets. Cineplex, Canada’s leading exhibitor chain, is opening the film in just one theater in Toronto out of 160 nationwide venues. While many indies never expand beyond a handful of theaters, it’s less common for releases from major Hollywood studios like Warner Bros. As things currently stand, Juror #2 will appear in far fewer auditoriums than other awards season releases like Anora and The Brutalist, which were made on leaner budgets, but will eventually unspool across thousands of screens.
“Juror #2 is releasing in the U.S., U.K., France, Spain, Italy and Germany with the full support of Warner Brothers,” said a spokesperson for the studio. “The film will have its worldwide debut at the AFI Film Festival this weekend.”
Sources tell Variety that Warner Bros. is considering not reporting box office grosses for the film — an atypical practice for a traditional Hollywood studio, though not an unprecedented one. Earlier this year, Disney placed Daisy Ridley’s biographical sports drama Young Woman and the Sea in an undisclosed number of theaters and elected against releasing grosses. Two weeks later, the film debuted on Disney+. The decision seemed bizarre to the few who noticed: a half-measure roll-out for a film that was originally commissioned as an exclusive streaming release, but shifted to a theatrical run after testing highly. Some noted that the release meant that Young Woman and the Sea had fulfilled the Academy qualifications to be considered for Oscar nominations, but that seems incidental given the film hasn’t received the promotional push required for a serious awards contender.
Similarly, Juror #2 was originally conceived as a streaming release, as first reported by Puck and confirmed by a source. The studio shifted to theatrical after screening the film, which was produced on a budget in the mid-$30 million range. While next week’s limited release will serve as an awards-qualifying run, sources tell Variety that the film is not being perceived as a major Oscar player internally at Warner Bros. Notably, Juror #2 isn’t featured on the company’s FYC 2024 webpage. It’s not entirely unexpected, given Eastwood hasn’t proven to be an awards player since American Sniper landed six Academy Award nominations in 2015. Only two nods have followed since: sound editing for Sully in 2017, and Kathy Bates in supporting actress for Richard Jewell in 2020.
Yet the hush-hush rollout for Juror #2 remains a peculiar approach for a filmmaker who still has commercial appeal. American Sniper was the highest-grossing domestic release of 2014. Two of Eastwood’s follow-ups, Sully and The Mule, both earned more than $100 million in North America. But in the contemporary theatrical landscape, badly rattled by the COVID pandemic, original adult-skewing dramas are perceived by studios to be much riskier theatrical prospects than they were even five years ago.
Warner Bros., the studio that Eastwood has partnered with for more than fifty years, seemed to be reevaluating its relationship with the filmmaker following the 2021 release of his most recent feature, Cry Macho. That Western drama, which saw a nonagenarian Eastwood directing himself as a former rodeo star finding redemption south of the border, was a box office flop, grossing $16.5 million globally against a production budget of $33 million. The film faced uphill challenges, launching in a theatrical landscape still in its first months of recovery from pandemic lock-downs. It also received a simultaneous streaming debut with a day-and-date launch on Max (then titled HBO Max), as with the rest of Warner Bros.’ theatrical slate that year.
The under-performance of the tepidly-reviewed Cry Macho allegedly emerged as a point of contention at the studio, amid shifting strategy in the wake of WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery, Inc. In May 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that then-newly-minted CEO David Zaslav questioned why Cry Macho was made after film leadership conceded that they had doubts the movie could turn a profit. “It’s not show friends, it’s show business,” the exec was quoted.
Nonetheless, Eastwood was back in Warner Bros.’ good graces by April 2023, when the studio greenlit Juror #2 under the leadership of Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who were tapped to lead the WB film division in the summer prior. But now, the studio seems to have little confidence in the film’s commercial prospects. One source close to Warner Bros. says that the decision to put Juror #2 in theaters at all represents a gesture of gratitude toward Eastwood, who has earned the company billions in box office grosses, as well as numerous awards, for films like Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. But does a limited rollout in a handful of venues truly qualify as an appropriate distribution plan for an industry icon who has remained loyal to a studio for decades?
In the current landscape, that’s apparently as good as it gets.
I'm so upset that Juror #2 is only being shown in 50 theaters, Zaslav you jerk! I've been watching Clint on TV and film since the 60s, and if this is indeed his final film, I really wanted to see it on the big screen, one last time. (I don't think my old car could make the 5-hour drive to the big city, not to mention I'm in a boot with some broken bones... so yeah, not going to happen)
I have an Eastwood list on another site, my top 10 has a few oddballs, but that's okay, that's what gives anyone's lists their own personality, makes them interesting to my mind.
In that top 10, at #10 is Richard Jewel, and I didn't mind Cry Macho - not saying the complaints aren't justified, it can be patchy, nonetheless... It touches on matters of masculinity, a subject that has found its way in several productions but takes on a different meaning at this late stage of his career. I liked it, despite the flaws - ranked it 21st. So, there's a few late career movies I enjoyed.
I did not know he ghosted Tightrope. I was aware of the Eastwood rule as it pertained to Josey Wales, but was unaware it cropped up again.
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