#208. Eastwood: the Director

After a while in front of the camera, some actors venture behind it and begin directing. Of course, unlike certain directors who make cameo appearances in their films (a la Alfred Hitchcock or Martin Scorsese); the directors who started with acting will often appear as the leading role in their movies. Clint Eastwood is just such a director. What’s almost ironic about Clint Eastwood’s career is that, while most people recognize him for his iconic roles in western and detective dramas, the Academy has recognized him for his directing. Only twice has he been nominated for Best Actor, but he has been nominated for Best Director twice as many times, having actually won two of the gold statues for his films that also attained Best Picture status. This week’s two films focus on Clint Eastwood’s career as a director.

Gran Torino
Year: 2008
Rating: R
Length: 116 minutes / 1.93 hours

Eastwood’s directing career started in 1971 with Play Misty for Me, in which he also acted as the lead role. The choice to be both behind and in front of the camera is probably due to the ease of communicating the desire of the director to the actor, thus simplifying and alleviating any problems that might arise during filming. In fact, perhaps due to the connection with the other actors and the ability to convey his needs as a director, it is no wonder the two films he was nominated for Best Actor were also films that ended up winning him both Best Director and Best Picture (for a grand total of four Oscars). However, as Clint Eastwood has aged, he has started to taper off in his acting/directing duality. As such, Gran Torino (2008) is the most recent film to feature Eastwood as the director and the actor.

If you would imagine Dirty Harry (1971) as a retired man living in Detroit, then you would adequately describe Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood). Because of an incident where his next-door neighbor’s son, Thao (Bee Vang), attempted to steal his car (the eponymous Gran Torino), he has reluctantly decided to let the boy pay off the infraction by doing chores around his house. Soon, the racist and stubborn old man is becoming a part of the Asian community that has taken over his neighborhood, partly because he stood up against the neighborhood gang. He also begins to warm up to Thao, taking him under his wing and showing him how to act like a man. Unfortunately, the gang violence escalates, leaving an already sick Walt with an option to end his life on his own terms. SPOILER ALERT At the reading of his will, his ungrateful family gets nothing, but Thao finally gets the Gran Torino.

Million Dollar Baby
Year: 2004
Rating: PG-13
Length: 132 minutes / 2.2 hours

Having acted for such great directors as Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood had a pretty good baseline to aim toward when he started to sit down in that director’s seat. His first nomination for directing ended up winning him the Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture, even if he didn’t win for Best Actor. Unforgiven (1992) was just the first in a string of films that recognized Eastwood’s directing talent. While he was merely nominated for Best Director and Best Picture for Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and just Best Picture for American Sniper (2014), he did manage to earn the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars alongside his second Best Actor nomination for Million Dollar Baby (2004). Of course, even if he didn’t win for acting in this film, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman did: earning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

Once again exhibiting all variations of the adjective “cantankerous,” Clint Eastwood portrays Frankie Dunn, a man who runs a gym in Los Angeles. On the side, Frankie manages and trains boxers. Unfortunately, his most promising protégé signs with another manager because Frankie won’t let him try for the championship. At the same time, Dunn is constantly telling Margaret “Maggie” Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) that she’s too old to start a boxing career, even though she keeps coming back to his gym asking to be trained. Maggie is relentless in her own training and her persistence and is eventually picked up by Dunn. He finds she has natural talent, which now means other managers are scared to put their fighters in the ring against her. Taking a risk, Dunn puts her in the junior welterweight class, eventually giving her a title match. His risk is then realized, and he must now make a decision about whether Maggie lives or dies.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 classics from Clint Eastwood

Bacon #: 2 (Space Cowboys / William Devane -> Hollow Man / Kevin Bacon)

#207. Rest in Peace

Through the course of our lives, we all have regrets. Unfortunately, many of these regrets come at the end of our lives, when it is sometimes too late to redeem ourselves. Either we’ve been haunted with a past mistake our entire lives, or we’ve just now realized that our attitude has been less-than-exemplary. Whatever the reason, if we get to the age where our lives are now nearing their end, we’ll want to put in a last-ditch effort to redeem ourselves with our loved ones and those around us. Consider the film The Bucket List (2007), wherein Jack Nicholson’s and Morgan Freeman’s characters have a list of things they want to do before they die. We all might have such a list, but as we get older, certain items on this list will be more difficult to attain, especially when it comes to forgiveness. This week’s two films feature main characters who want to go to the grave with a clear conscience.

Get Low
Year: 2009
Rating: PG-13
Length: 103 minutes / 1.71 hours

We’ve all made mistakes, but sometimes these mistakes can affect our entire lives. Whether it’s a poor investment decision or a sudden, freak accident that places you at fault, these life-changing mistakes often make us a pariah from society. We will try to escape our past, but it always seems to have a way of finding its way back to us, causing us to run away yet again and start anew. However, we reach a point in our lives when it’s time to stop running. It’s time to face the facts and to let everyone know the truth behind the rumors. After all, what will we be remembered by if a large blemish on our life’s story is left unremoved before we pass on to the afterlife? Until the truth finally is revealed, we are likely to die a disgrace, having never had a chance to go public with our side of the story.

Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) is a reclusive man who owns a large parcel of wooded land next to a small town. As such, the only information most townsfolk know about him is attributed to rumors and hearsay. When he appears in town with a large amount of cash and a request, some start to listen. The man who listens the most is Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), a financially struggling owner of a funeral parlor. He listens because Felix wants a “funeral party” where he will get to hear the rumors everyone knows, as well as to raffle off his land, as he has no heir. Frank sees this as an opportunity to use some of Felix’s money to help his business, but once the party begins, Felix reveals the truth about an incident from forty years ago, wherein he has since been accused of killing in cold blood. In reality, he was trying to save the woman he loved.

Gran Torino
Year: 2008
Rating: R
Length: 116 minutes / 1.93 hours

Tolerance is a quality of one’s personality which is often tied to the era in which they lived. While more modern generations have been taught to be more tolerant of other people, whether due to differences in gender, race, or age, there are still bastions of the old ways of thinking clinging on to their beliefs even today. Often, the older generations, after decades of being embittered toward those who are different than they are, have a difficult time adjusting to the globalized world where we now live. Faulty stereotypes often fuel the hatred these people have towards others, often pushing away everyone from their life, including their family and loved ones. This is unfortunate because the elderly often have a lot of sound life advice to pass on to the younger generations. With a final chance to change, perhaps they can be accepting and find acceptance themselves.

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) has a lot to be unhappy about. Long since retired from his job, his wife of 50 years recently deceased, and his neighborhood now filled with poverty-stricken Asian immigrants, Walt is stubborn to remain in his house instead of moving to a retirement home. Things are not the way they once were for Walt, but he is willing to defend his way of life. The son of his next-door neighbor, Thao (Bee Vang), attempts to steal his Gran Torino, which now places Walt squarely in the middle of a gang conflict, as they were initiating Thao with the car theft. The neighborhood sees Kowalski as a hero, even if he does not want the recognition of this particular ethnic group. However, his heart soon softens, and he takes on the role of a mentor for Thao, who has been forced to repay his crime with chores. Now a full part of the Asian community, Walt has one last chance to redeem himself and the neighborhood.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 final wishes

#151. Clint Eastwood

Few actors have been able to successfully pull off the “gritty, tough guy” motif as successfully as Clint Eastwood. Not to be confused with the muscle-bound men who populate The Expendables films, this type of character is usually emotionally hardened, but smart enough to survive in tough situations. The way Eastwood generally portrayed this character is with squinted eyes and a gravelly voice pushed through gritted teeth. Not only did Eastwood’s portrayal work, but it also worked in multiple formats. In fact, it worked so well that both of this week’s films were part of a series of films highlighting Eastwood’s character. Most actors would be lucky to be the main character in a film series, let alone two of them in subsequent decades. Even though he’s won most of his awards for directing, Clint Eastwood is best known for two acting roles.

Dirty Harry
Year: 1971
Rating: R
Length: 102 minutes / 1.7 hours

The first role Eastwood is known for is that of Detective Harry Callahan, a San Francisco cop who plays by his own rules, thus earning him the nickname of “Dirty Harry.” This main character was the titular character of four more films: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). Some of cinema’s most well-known, and oft-repeated quotes have come from Eastwood’s clenched jaw when he portrays Detective Callahan. Lines like, “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” and “Go ahead, make my day,” show this character’s confidence in tight situations. In fact, the American Film Institute has named Harry Callahan as the 17^th greatest movie hero, thus highlighting the importance this character has had in shaping American cinema.

Loosely based on the Zodiac killer, a San Francisco serial sniper just killed a girl in a rooftop swimming pool and has sent a ransom note to the city under the name of “Scorpio.” The inspector who found the letter, Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), is assigned to the case, despite some hesitance on the part of his superiors. After thwarting a robbery, Callahan is given a rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni). After killing two more people designated in the ransom note, the mayor of San Francisco finally decides to pay the ransom to save a girl who was buried alive by Scorpio. Harry and Chico are sent to deliver the money, but the deal goes south, and Gonzalez is shot, giving him reason to leave the force. As Scorpio increases his ransom and his innocent victims, Harry decides to do things his way, eventually settling the score with a guessing game of bullets.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Year: 1966
Rating: R
Length: 161 minutes / 2.68 hours

Just like John Wayne had cemented his role as one of the founding actors of the Western genre, Clint Eastwood’s characters in the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s made his name inexorably linked to images of the old west. Much like Dirty Harry started Eastwood in a series of films about a gritty detective, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) concluded a trilogy of films in which Eastwood portrayed “the man with no name.” Preceded by A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965), this film was not the end of Eastwood’s Western roles, as seen by his starring in Hang ‘Em High (1968), High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Pale Rider (1985) and Unforgiven (1992), the latter of which earned him his first Oscars, albeit not for acting, but instead for Best Director and Best Picture.

Part of what makes Eastwood’s character of “the man with no name” so intense is his lack of dialogue. The less we know about a skilled gunslinger, the more mysterious he becomes, especially if he’s the only one with any information on his background. Of the titular trio, Eastwood’s character is the “Good,” not necessarily because he is a force of justice, but rather that he doesn’t intentionally kill people without reason. Even if that reason is a buried Confederate treasure, he’s still considerate enough to split it with his partner, the “Ugly” Tuco Ramirez (Eli Wallach). Of course, both men have to outsmart the “Bad” Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) as they all have a piece of information that would make the discovery of the hidden gold much easier. After a trek across the desert, burning (or blowing up) bridges along the way, all three find themselves in a standoff for the horde of riches.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 excellent Eastwood personas

Bacon #: 2 (The Bridges of Madison County / Meryl Streep -> The River Wild / Kevin Bacon)