Top Ten Tuesday: Our Man Clint!

J. EDGAR opens in theaters this Friday and it is the 33rd film directed by Clint Eastwood. Beginning with the thriller PLAY MISTY FOR ME in 1971, Eastwood has directed  westerns, action films, comedies, and dramas. From the very early days of his career, Eastwood had been frustrated by directors insisting that scenes be re-shot multiple times and perfected, and when he began as a director in 1971, he made a conscious attempt to avoid any aspects of directing he had been indifferent to as an actor. As a result, Eastwood is renowned for his efficient film directing and to reduce filming time and to keep budgets under control.

As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, J. EDGAR explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Academy Award nominee Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the title role. J. EDGAR also stars Academy Award® nominee Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy and the screenplay is by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black (MILK)

Here are, according to We Are Movie Geeks, the top ten best films directed by Clint Eastwood

10. A PERFECT WORLD

A PERFECT WORLD was Eastwood’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning UNFORGIVEN and was a complex, fascinating essay on the irreconcilable tension between being drawn to someone with charisma and being repulsed by someone, sometimes the same person, who is evil. Clint took a back seat to star Kevin Costner who played smart and charming as an escaped con/kidnapper. The little boy who he snatches grows to like his abductor, but the guy is a violent criminal. The ending was tough, because the movie is showing us the nastiness the guy is capable of and it’s hard to take. But it’s true to the lesson here: we admire people for their charms not their morals.

9. BRONCO BILLY

BRONCO BILLY is Clint Eastwood’s loving tribute and sly send up of the western movie heroes he grew up watching as a lad( and perhaps a parody of his own early film cowboy image ). This 1980 from from a script by Dennis Hackin stars Clint as the owner star of a down-on-its-luck traveling wild west show. although he can’t afford to pay them, his crew is fiercely loyal especially Doc Lynch( the delightful Scatman Crothers ). Along the way they are joined by a now penniless spoiled, rich gal played by Clint’s frequent co-star Sondra Locke. Of course she falls for the gruff, no nonsense cowpoke and becomes part of the trick shooting act( after the regular girl quits after Billy botches the trick in a very funny opening scene ). In another memorable sequence Billy foils a bank robbery after one of the robbers breaks the piggy bank of a young boy. This film didn’t fare well at the box office perhaps because movie audiences wanted to see Clint blow away the bad guys with his magnum or punch them out with the help of his orangutan pal, Clyde, but it’s gained a reputation as an almost Capra-like love letter to the myths of the  old West.

8. GRAN TORINO

“Get me another beer, dragon lady. This one’s empty!” is my favorite of many great lines from GRAN TORINO and the one that I growl at my wife daily. GRAN TORINO manages to list seemingly every slang word for every ethnic group that there is (it avoids the N-word, choosing “Spooks” instead). It has themes similar to Clint’s THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES in that both movies deal with an angry, lonely man gradually allowing people back into his life after bottling up his emotions for a long time following a trauma (both characters also spit beef jerky constantly and have to deal with a cantankerous old woman who doesn’t like them very much). It’s also a kind of urban Western update of THE SHOOTIST (directed by Clint’s old friend and mentor Don Siegel and John Wayne’s last movie) in that Clint’s dying character Walt Kowalski picks a fight with the evil local gang in the hope he’ll catch a bullet and go out in a blaze of glory rather than succumb to the slow agony of cancer (just like John Wayne did). If it’s his last acting role, like he’s said, Clint will have gone out with a blaze of glory himself.

7. LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

When Clint Eastwood announced that while he would be making the film version of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley and Ron Powers he then stated that he would also be working on a film which would tell the story of the battle from the Japanese side called LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. this news caught many film-goers by surprise. This major World War II battle would be brought to the screens twice and the great All-American director Clint Eastwood would devote one version showing the view of our Pacific enemy. Not many thought he could pull this off, but FLAGS and LETTERS opened within months of each other in 2006 and while both enjoyed terrific notices, some critics and academy members thought that LETTERS was the superior film.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA focuses on the weeks leading up to and the days after the allied forces invading the island occupied by the Japanese forces. The conflict is seen primarily through the eyes of lonely soldier named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) who just wants to return to his life at home as a baker and commanding officer General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) who spent time in the United States. The General has been given the hopeless task of defending the island after his superiors inform him that no food, or troops will be sent to help. He and his men are expected to die for the honor of Japan. The film shows the great importance of honor to these people. The soldiers are taught that being captured alive would bring shame to their family. In a horrific scene several soldiers discharge grenades they are holding rather than be taken. While sending letters back to his family, the General tries to stop some of the brutal measures inflicted on the foot soldiers from the other officers. As the end nears, Saigo will do anything to survive while the General reflects on the happy times he spent with the people who are now his enemy. This is a rare film about World War II told from a perspective not often presented and Clint Eastwood showcases his superb filmmaking skills in telling this engrossing story.

6. MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is one of WAMG’s top ten picks for a number of reasons. First off the film has an amazing cast; Kevin Spacey, John Cusak, and Jude Law. It was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood in 1997. John Kelso (John Cusak) is sent to write a magazine story about a prominent Savannah citizen, Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), Christmas party. Kelso attends the party and is intrigued with Jim Williams and other people at the party, especially Williams’ young and violent lover, Billy (Jude Law). Later, Billy is found dead and Jim Williams is accused of the murdering him. Kelso decides to stay on in town to cover the murder trial and the ensuing characters that he meets along the way makes for an interesting journey through the streets and alleys of Savannah. Clint Eastwood does a great job of showcasing the city of Savannah; it too has a starring role in the film. I love this movie because of its overall beauty in an otherwise ugly situation. The characters are believable and interesting. No matter how many times I have watched this film, I never grow tired of it.

5. THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES

“Well, you gonna pull those pistols or stand there whistling Dixie?” Eastwood starred in and directed, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES in 1978 and his direction shows him at a sort of tipping point between Sergio Leone and Eastwood’s own later films. Gigantic close ups of wet faces and glistening teeth alternate with grandiose high shots of galloping horses. Eastwood’s Josey Wales is his familiar Western figure, taciturn, slightly mean, given to spitting tobacco juice on dogs, full of provocative lines; Bounty Hunter: “A man’s got to make a livin” Josey: “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy”. When he tries to speak in ritualized and poetic English to the Comanches, while making a peace proposal, he fails. Perfumed speech is not his forte. And when he rides off into the sunset, it’s without any suggestion of remorse for the hundred or so dead bodies he’s left in his wake.

4. MILLION DOLLAR BABY

One of the great qualities of Clint Eastwood’s directing career is his way of surprising moviegoers. A case in point can be found in 2004’s MILLION DOLLAR BABY. The screenplay by Paul Haggis based on the short stories of F.X. Toole seems to be the standard rags to riches sports flix this time set in the world of woman’s boxing. Clint gets some terrific performances out of Hilary Swank as the plucky, determined boxer Maggie Fitzgerald and Morgan Freeman as wise, world-weary ex- boxer Eddie “Scrap Iron” Dupris. Both actors were awarded Oscars for their work. Even with his great work behind the camera, Clint gives one of the best acting performances as Maggie’s tough, grizzled coach Frankie Dunn. Maggie works hard to finally convince Frankie that’s she worthy of his mentoring. After Frankie finally agrees there’s the expected grueling training sequences inter-cut with scenes of the two getting to know and respect each other. It’s shown that Frankie is estranged from his own children while Maggie’s family is un-supportive and highly dysfunctional. Soon Frankie and Maggie’s relationship grows into a father-daughter bond. As the film builds to the boxing movie cliche finale of the win at the big championship bout it takes a completely unexpected tragic turn and the bond between Frankie and Maggie is put to the ultimate test. MILLION DOLLAR BABY takes the sports movie and turns it into a tender, family drama and is one of Clint Eastwood all-time great cinema triumphs. BABY joined THE UNFORGIVEN as an Oscar winning Best Picture and another well deserved Best Director award winner for Eastwood.

3. HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is probably Clint Eastwood’s darkest western and that’s saying a lot. The hero is a mysterious, ghost-like figure and he fights against the evil and corruption that infests a small town in the middle of nowhere. Eastwood is fighting a lone battle , and his only sidekick is the midget Mordecai, while almost all other inhabitants of the town of Lago are corrupted or/and cowardly. This is Clint Eastwood’s first Western film that he directed, and it’s clear and evident that the guy not only loves the genre that made his name, but he also knows what makes it work. When working for Sergio Leone, Eastwood was obviously taking notes because HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER oozes the mythical aura of many of Leone’s finest genre offerings

2. MYSTIC RIVER

3 childhood friends, Jimmy, Dan & Sean, drifted apart after a terrible tragedy & grew up in the same city. Destiny pitted them again & it’s brutal tragedy again. Jimmy’s 19 year old daughter murdered & Dave is the strong suspect. Sean is a cop trying to solve the crime before something unusual done by uncontrollable with situational fix. Its superb script & screen play & I must praise Dennis Lehane for it. But the real laudable act is done by old macho cowboy named Clint Eastwood. This is Clint Eastwood’s finest achievement as a director along with his other Oscar winning nuggets like Unforgiven & Million Dollar Baby. With awesome cast & finest performances of Sean Penn, Tim Robbins &Kevin Bacon he shapes a master crime thriller. Robbins and Penn both recieved Oscars for their roles. Marcia Gay Harden has done amazing justice to her role as psychologically confused wife of Tim Robbins. A must-see modern Greek tragedy.

1. UNFORGIVEN

In many interviews Clint Eastwood has said that UNFORGIVEN is his Western swan song, and it’s that’s the the case heâ’s left the genre with an all time classic. Clint plays an outlaw named Bill Munny who has given up that life for his late wife and is struggling to make a go out of farming and raising his two children.When a group of prostitutes in the town of Big Whiskey offer a bounty on a cowboy who cut up one of their own, Bill feels he must take up his guns again. Picking up his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) rides into the town, meets a young upstart named The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolett), and incurs the ire of the town sheriff Little Bill Dagget (an Oscar winning performance by Gene Hackman). “Little” Bill has no tolerance for bounty hunters and demonstrates by brutally beating English Bob in the town square. The script by David Webb Peoples is a thoughtful meditation on the consequences of revenge and violence. In one memorable scene Munny and the Kid have gunned down several of the thugs from the brothel incident. Gasping and shaking the Kid says,”They had it comin!” to which Munny soberly replies, “We all got it comin’, kid.” At the end of the movie, Clint dedicates the film to his two cinema mentors, Sergio Leone (FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) and Don Siegel (DIRTY HARRY). The Motion Picture Academy thought this film was in the same class as the films of those two great directors and awarded Clint a well deserved directing Oscar along with Best Picture.