Clint Eastwood the director, appreciation thread

Not a big Locke fan, here, either. I still like Josey a whole hell of a lot, though. Still, Unforgiven is Clint's masterwork, IMO. I just can't get enough of that magnificent film.... Still have yet to see "Letters..."

__________________

Great review Pikey

__________________
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

I always liked Clint. I loved the spaghetti westerns, the cop movies and Play Misty for me. I've enjoyed some of the movies he directed but and I know people will probably get pissed with me over this, I did not like Unforgiven.

It never helps to see a movie that is so highly hyped because you expect so much. There was not a single character in the movie I liked, wanted to pull for or cared about. That kills a story for me.

It was dirty. I mean that literally. It looked like everyone and everything in it was filthy pretty much the whole movie. That's another big turn off.

At the end I was left saying, now why is this supposed to be so darn good? To which I had no answer nor did the person who saw it with me.

Still, I like Clint very much in a lot of his work. I respect what he's accomplished and how far he's come.

__________________
Bleacheddecay

Really? That leaves a whole lot of my very favorite films from the world off your list.


That's the most bizarre point of contention I've yet to hear. I never thought about the fact that the production went to great lengths to make sure everything looked and felt period correct to somehow be a negative. So, like, they probably should have stayed at a Motel 6 during their travels across the plains, and the people in that small isolated town surely could have taken a hot shower and used some conditioner in their hair. Did you see their clothes?!? It's like they were sewn by hand and then washed only sparingly in a river and then beaten with sticks and air-dried out in the elements. How utterly barbaric.

What other films do you have this issue with? Now you've got me curious.


Wow. A layered and insightful look at the hopeless cycle of violence, revenge and brutality wrapped in a pitch-perfect demythologizing of what was left of the Hollywood West enhanced by stunning cinematography, an elegant and elegiac score and some truly great performances by a top-flight cast and you had no clue?

Oh, well.



Well, he's no Robin Williams, but he holds his own.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I'm sure that's true. We can't all like the same things. Sometimes it would be nice but that's part of what makes life so interesting that we are all so different in some ways.

Good Lord, no, not a motel 6!

*chuckles*

That's a barbaric idea indeed. Hey, if it's great for some to be authentically dirty looking, each to thier own. I like to see things realistic to a point (props, clothing and so on) but not nasty dirty all the way through.

Any of the Pirate of the Caribbean movies and The 13th Warrior just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.

Of course the Pirate movies at least have some humor to offset things a bit. Thank goodness.

I have no idea why I would have a clue that this was consider such a good thing. I'm honestly not.

Demythologizing the what was left of the Hollywood West is what that was about?

Great. I rather like the Hollywood West.

I'm so not fond of hopeless cycles. I'd rather an escapist sort of experience, pleasant one. I've had enough of hopeless cycles in real life.

I'm glad you and others do enjoy it so much. It's good that there are people who enjoy each kind of film IMHO. Many enjoyed this one it seems. I can respect that even if I never will.

Well, he's no Robin Williams, but he holds his own.[/quote]

LOL! Indeed he does.

So you admit we all have different tastes, yet you still claim to be perplexed why others, maybe in this case many others, like all the things you dislike about Unforgiven? It's pretty simple, isn't it? You don't like its grittiness, its un-Hollywoodness, its darkness, its characters, etc. It seems pretty obvious then that those of us who do like it find all of those exact same things strengths.

You can't claim "different taste" for you opinion but then expect there's going to be some sort of reasoning on the other side that is going to make you see the light. Apparently it's one of those movies you just don't like. I happen to think it's one of the greatest films ever made, certainly one of the very best of that decade, and Eastwood's masterpiece. To me every single instant of it is perfection. For you, not so much.

I think that about ends the discussion for you. I can trot out my old flavor of ice cream analogy now, but frankly I don't have the energy. Suffice to say if you don't like strawberry ice cream there is no amount of evidence or enthusiasm for it anybody else could possibly present that's going to make you change your taste.

Dig?


Now if you want to get into specifics, fine, but if you expect somebody to justify their love for something that you just plain and simple don't groove to, well that's a big ol' waste of time. At least mine.

Sorry you feel it's a waste of time.

I was glad to hear your POV on this so far. That's all I was asking for. Thanks for your explanation to this point. It did clear things up for me to an extent.

I do like strawberry ice cream btw. Do you?

Thats our Pikey but don't let it put you of him

No, I won't. It's cool.

I'm not here to judge other's likes and dislikes. I like learning why though.

I'm not probably going to change my own likes and dislikes from that, nor will I likely stop expressing them, but it's still interesting to me to read what others are into and why.

I haven't updated this thread in a while, but Clint is currently filming his next project, The Changeling. No, George C. Scott fans, it has nothing to do with the 1980 haunted house movie of the same name. Based on a true story in 1920s Los Angeles, it stars Angelina Jolie as a mother who must fight a corrupt police department and fend off a commitment hearing to an insane asylum when in the wake of her young child's kidnapping she insists that the boy returned to her is not her son. The film also features John Malkovich, Colm Feore, Jeffrey Donovan and Amy Ryan.

This should be a Fall 2008 release and is being produced by Ron Howard & Brian Grazer's Image Films. It was originally being set up as a project for Howard to direct, but when he decided to do Frost/Nixon first and had things like Dan Brown's Angels & Demons on his plate as well, they decided to send the script to Clint to see if he was interested, as it would be at least two years before Ron could go into production with it. Eastwood was instantly drawn to the material, and so it goes.

Attachments

 

I have long been a Clint Eastwood fan and if I had my way everyone would. Instead of gushing about his work I'll just share a story about my wife and how she became an Eastwood fan as well.

It started out as these stories typically do with her not really even knowing who he was or what kinds of films he's been apart of over the years, so one day she wanted to watch a western, I threw on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, "Is that Clint what's his name?" she said, I love this woman... Yes I said He's been making these types of movies for a really long time. so we watched it and she loved it, next we watched The Outlaw Josey Wales and then . For a Fistful of Dollars. I've been saving Unforgiven because I like to roll out the heavy stuff after she really starts to get into it.

So from there we watched a couple of his Dirty Harry films and again she liked them at one point she looked at me and said, "Now I know where you got that saying from!", like I said I love this woman. That was over a couple week period and since then I've put on several of his films and she's beginning to recognize them, it's easier when he's in them personally of course but she's paying a lot more attention to the credits as well. Million dollar Baby was very difficult for her because the family reminded her so much of her family. And the story itself was so difficult to enjoy because as most of us know life is extremely messy and Clint has always been able to get that across in a good deal of his films. She also enjoyed Heartbreak Ridge an underrated and overlooked film in its own right, and another that I've been butchering quotes from for years. True Crime and Bloodwork are the two most recent films we watched and she enjoyed those as well, True Crime has been a favorite of mine for a while now simply because of the scenes between Clint and James Woods the Editor, just brilliant comedy and casting. But of course when the love of my life started watching it with me early on she said "That's Dr. Burke!" which a lot of times is how she gets interested in a film long enough to really watch it, but whatever it takes right?

Over the next few months I'm planning to roll out The Bridges of Madison County I know her, she will love this movie and she will cry, and at some point she will look at me and say " I hate you" but that just means it made a big impression on her and I know she liked it. We're also coming back around to a western jag again and I've still got Unforgiven waiting in the wings so I can't wait to see what she thinks of it.

I guess really the only point to this little article is to show some of you folks that aren't fans that he's got a little something for every one and maybe you should give some of his stuff a try. I myself think he will forever be remembered as one of the all time American filmmakers. Oh, and I hope he lives forever because it will be a very sad day when we lose him.

__________________
We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Nice story Kittykat

I've only seen the god awfull Million Dollar Baby and Flags of our Fathers which was also pretty bad.

__________________

Clint is enjoying such an amazing hot streak that he manages to get competitive Golden Globe nominations in a year where he didn't even release a film! After the Weinstein's purchased the Iraq War homefront drama Grace is Gone at Sundance, they showed it to Eastwood hoping he would be inspired to write them a theme and new score. He loved the movie and did, and now he's gotten two Golden Globe nominations for his efforts, one for original score, and one for original song.


.

Attachments

 

I first became aware of his directing skills when I saw, Mystic River. It was radical.

MeatWad... Million Dollar Baby was awesome. Do you know anything about visuals? Eastwood's a freakin' genius when it comes to making shadows and light stand for something.

__________________

DANG IT!

I think I have asked you this before, but I don't recall a reply. Why is Million Dollar Baby God awful?

That's pretty crazy. That's kind of rare, isn't it? A movie star also composing music at a high-level, I mean. When's the last time it was done so well? Chaplin?

Yeah, Chaplin is the best and biggest example I can think of. Clint's a pretty special dude.

Robert Rodriguez could never be in the same league with Chaplin and Eastwood, but his eclecticism can't be overlooked. The man writes, directs, edits and composes, and he does it pretty well, too.

Earlier in this thread I said i stated that I just don't care for Eastwood's film. However, I feel it necessary to point how much I enjoyed Letters from Iwo Jima. I begrudgingly put it on my Netflix queue and I must say I enjoyed every second of it. It forced me to think about what I dislike about his films. And like I said before, I really think I just dislike his films in a really subjective way.

The story begins with the first Eastwood directed movie I watched: Unforgiven. It is often cited as his best work, as the greatest of all Westerns. It accurately showcased Old West living, dispelling the myths of John Wayne's West while retaining much of what made those movies great. Here's the problem: I do not like Westerns. I think this is why I never liked Unforgiven. However, the buzz the movie attained, coupled with my dislike for it and its genre, forced an irrevocable "over-rated" into my head when concerning Eastwood.

So Holden et all, I would like you to suggest some Eastwood movies for me. I already have opinions on the ones I have seen, so I must see others. I have ranked the movies I have seen below in the order I personally liked them:

Letters from Iwo Jima
Million Dollar Baby
Bridges of Madison County
Unforgiven
Mystic River

Now please keep in mind, my opinion may not change. I will also continue to think Mystic river is simply a bad movie. But I would like to give Clint another chance, so please fire away.

__________________
"What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present." - T.S. Eliot