Clint Eastwood – Rowdy Yates to Unforgiven
Clint Eastwood was born in California in 1930. He got his start in the movies as an uncredited actor in Revenge of the Creature (1955). His big breakthrough came out when he got a role as Rowdy Yates in 1959.
Eastwood made three movies in Italy that kicked his career into high gear. These movies dubbed as spaghetti westerns are; A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
These westerns allowed Eastwood to take his tough-guy act to bigger audiences. He made more westerns including the musical Paint Your Wagon (1969). He also made a few WWII movies with some of the bigger stars of the time.
Beginning in 1971 he began directing and taking full leading men roles such as The Beguiled and Play Misty for Me. This was also the beginning of the Dirty Harry film series – go ahead make my day punk.
He continued to make movies through the 70s but High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) were really outstanding.
Then he went into his monkey phase with Every Which Way But Loose (1978). It’s really an ape but monkey is funnier. It was followed by Any Which Way You Can (1980).
In spite of these monkey movies, he was popular through the late 80s with films such as Firefox (1982), Pale Rider (1985), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), all big hits.
After the fifth Dirty Harry, The Dead Pool (1988) Eastwood made the terrible Pink Cadillac (1989) and The Rookie (1990). it seemed his career was ending but he continued to work until he came out with the incredible Unforgiven (1992). For this film, he received the Best Director Oscar and was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.
By the mid-90s he started making more movies befitting his age. This includes The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Space Cowboys (2000). Once again it seemed that his star was fading and he popped back with Million Dollar Baby (2004) where at the Oscars he duplicated the results from Unforgiven.
He continued making and directing movies such as Mystic River (2003), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). He returned to acting in 2008 with Gran Torino where he crushed it as a cranky old racist. He repeated this role in Trouble with the Curve (2012).
Much like John Wayne, Eastwood started working with the same group of actors repeatedly. These include his former girlfriend Sondra Locke.
Reviewed Clint Eastwood Films
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