An homage to Clint Eastwood, the iconic Western star, examining how he became one of America’s most revered filmmakers.<\/b>
\nThere\u2019s no putting Clint Eastwood out to pasture. Clint turns 91 today, and it\u2019s worth celebrating the fact that this Hollywood legend is still turning out work at a faster clip and higher quality than practically anyone in the business. Granted, prolific doesn\u2019t always mean better, and it can be frustrating to see his fans greet every new film as a fresh masterpiece, when only a fraction of them truly deserve the title. But consider that since the turn of the century, he has given us 17 films including \u201cMystic River,\u201d \u201cMillion Dollar Baby,\u201c \u201cLetters from Iwo Jima\u201d and \u201cAmerican Sniper\u201d (the latter earned more than half a billion dollars, baby). Four decades ago this year, Eastwood made his directorial debut in \u201cPlay Misty for Me,\u201d and for a time, he was dismissed as one of those \u201cactors who directs\u201d \u2014 a condescending label typically slapped on dilettantes who did the job just once, like Marlon Brando (with \u201cOne-Eyed Jacks\u201d) or Steven Seagal (\u201cOn Deadly Ground\u201d). But here we are, with 39 movies made in nearly as many years \u2014 that\u2019s counting Clint\u2019s upcoming \u201cCry Macho,\u201d a grizzled-cowboy-makes-good saga in which he also appears \u2014 and the world has come around to recognizing Eastwood as a filmmaker first and an actor second. It helped that the French took him seriously, as press agent Pierre Rissient and other Paris-based champions insisted on treating Eastwood as an auteur early on. Five of Eastwood\u2019s films have competed in Cannes, including \u201cWhite Hunger Black Heart,\u201d in which he played a loosely fictionalized version of John Huston, another \u201cactor who directs\u201d \u2014 and who did his best work behind the camera. Like Huston, Eastwood can\u2019t be pegged down to a single genre, having tried his hand at many, from action (you can feel Don Siegel\u2019s influence in \u201cSudden Impact\u201d), romance (\u201cThe Bridges of Madison County\u201d), war (\u201cThe Flags of Our Fathers\u201d), musical (\u201cJersey Boys\u201d) and of course, Western. Apart from his \u201cshoot first, ask questions later\u201d Dirty Harry character \u2014 who appeared in five movies spanning the \u201970s and \u201980s \u2014 Eastwood is most associated with the Western, having effectively replaced the earlier tradition of a friendly, white-hat hero with a stoic, understated character of ambiguous intentions. At 34, the actor already had crow\u2019s feet when he shot \u201cA Fistful of Dollars,\u201d the 1964 spaghetti Western that effectively made him a star. The skin around Eastwood\u2019s eyes creased like leather every time his Man With No Name squinted in that film, underscoring the fact that he wasn\u2019t some twenty-something upstart catching a break, but a man whose rugged mug masked a certain life experience. Rugged yet handsome, since Eastwood\u2019s undeniable beauty was a factor as well \u2014 and the very quality that \u201cDirty Harry\u201d director Siegel leveraged in Civil War reverie \u201cThe Beguiled,\u201d causing a house full of Southern ladies to swoon over this wounded Union Army stud. Early on, Eastwood didn\u2019t have the same power to choose projects that we see today \u2014 which might explain a seemingly daffy outlier like \u201cEvery Which Way but Loose,\u201d though the orangutan buddy movie proved to be his biggest box office success, so it can\u2019t have been all that terrible a decision. Overall, Eastwood has remarkably consistent in his choices, chiseling out one of the clearest and most iconic screen personas of his generation. It helps that he stopped acting in other director\u2019s films (the last of those was back in 1993, headlining Wolfgang Petersen\u2019s \u201cIn the Line of Fire\u201d), which further allowed him to shape his own brand. And even certain off-screen missteps \u2014 like the 2012 RNC convention bit where he addressed an empty chair \u2014 felt like a natural extension of the surly \u201cGet off my lawn!\u201d guy he\u2019d been developing in movies. Eastwood\u2019s most enduring film as director and star, \u201cUnforgiven,\u201d makes especially keen use of the actor\u2019s \u201cbaggage,\u201d effectively deconstructing the image he\u2019d cultivated over the duration of his career to date, reaching all the way back to his Rowdy Yates character on the \u201cRawhide\u201d TV series. That more nuanced recasting of that eager enforcer role emerged in the trilogy Eastwood made with Sergio Leone, and grew grittier still in \u201cHigh Plains Drifter\u201d and \u201cPale Rider,\u201d before finally being overturned altogether for \u201cUnforgiven.\u201d With that project, knowing we\u2019d be rooting for him, Eastwood encouraged us to question the motives of revenge and the morality of those who use violence to solve problems. Whereas Leone pushed his shooting style to self-aware extremes \u2014 dramatic angles, extreme close-ups and music cues that threaten to upstage the action \u2014 Eastwood has conspicuously resisted that tendency in his own approach. As both director and star, he embraces the \u201cless is more\u201d philosophy, such that his technique rarely calls attention to itself. He famously doesn\u2019t indulge multiple takes or endless shooting days, committing to practically whatever performance his actors give \u2014 which works great when paired with professionals, but less successful when working with child actors (\u201cChangeling\u201d) or non-professionals (\u201cThe 15:17 to Paris\u201d). Nor is he fussy about the screenplays, which is a shame, since a handful of his best-loved movies could have been a whole lot better if their writers had invested more effort up front. Personally, I\u2019m partial to \u201cA Perfect World,\u201d the film that immediately followed \u201cUnforgiven,\u201d a 1960s-set crime movie with conscience, in which Kevin Costner\u2019s escaped convict character takes a young Jehovah\u2019s Witness hostage on a cross-country pursuit. And though it has its detractors, I consider \u201cMystic River\u201d the best film Eastwood has made this century: a wrenching, noir-toned look at the American Dream turned upside-down. That movie, like the Dennis Lehane novel that inspired it, recognizes the enormous effort that working-class parents invest in creating a better life for their children even as it confronts the turmoil that ensues when someone breaks that chain of hope by hurting or killing a child. It\u2019s Greek tragedy transposed to the streets of Boston. So many filmmakers lose their touch past a certain age. That\u2019s why Quentin Tarantino has pledged to call it quits after his 10th film, for fear that he can\u2019t sustain the quality over time. But Eastwood ain\u2019t going anywhere, like a gunslinger with a seemingly endless supply of ammunition, still shooting after all these years.<\/p>\n