Clint Eastwood’s career spans more than six decades, and is one of Hollywood’s few luminaries that is equally as renowned for his acting as his directing. Born in 1930 in San Francisco, Eastwood’s formative years were spent during the Great Depression, during which his family moved around in search of work. Eastwood has one younger sister (“Biography: Clint Eastwood” 1). Eastwood worked a series of odd jobs, mainly manual labor, until he was drafted into the army in 1950. During his time in the Army, Eastwood proudly recalls how he managed to skillfully avoid combat in the Korean War by becoming a lead swim instructor (Schickel 50). Eastwood exhibited traits of the proudly rebellious antihero that many of Eastwood’s films would later depict.
He was discharged from the Army three years later, after which he moved to Los Angeles and became interested in acting. His rugged good looks are what gained him access to Hollywood “despite minimal acting experience,” (“Biography: Clint Eastwood,” 1). After a few bit parts, Eastwood started his acting career in earnest with the television show Rawhide. Starring in Rawhide led to Eastwood being typecast into Western roles as a leading outlaw-protagonist, the quintessential loner cowboy who is full of toughness, courage, and frontier wisdom.
Eastwood has had a relatively tumultuous love life, which has perhaps added fuel to his depictions of masculinity on screen. In 1953 when he returned from his stint in the Army, Eaastwood married his first wife Maggie Johnson. They had two children together, and although were separated for years, did not divorce until 1984. Eastwood then lived with actress Sandra Locke for ten years (“Clint Eastwood Biography,” 1). After he and Locke broke up, 1996 Eastwood married a television reporter named Dina Ruiz, and they divorced in 2014 (“Clint Eastwood Biography,” 1).
Although Eastwood has been somewhat outspoken about his political views, he never used his celebrity status to wield power as a public servant. The only exception is that he did serve as the mayor of Carmel for two years; Eastwood still lives in Carmel. Eastwood at one time aligned himself with Republican values, spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention, has harshly and openly criticized President Obama, and yet he more recently shifted his attitudes on issues like gun control and same-sex marriage, now declaring himself as a libertarian (“Biography: Clint Eastwood” 1).
In 1964, while Rawhide was still in production, Eastwood started working with spaghetti Western specialist Sergio Leone. The first film he and Leone did together was A Fistful of Dollars, which was shot in Spain and “made Eastwood an overnight star,” (“Clint Eastwood Biography” 1). During the peak of the Western genre’s popularity, Eastwood continued to star in European productions including For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966). Eastwood then segued into crime dramas, starring in the 1971 film Dirty Harry and its sequels before getting behind the camera.
As a director, Clint Eastwood lacks the status of an auteur, if only because his films span too many different genres and impart so many different tones, moods, and themes. Eastwood has directed Westerns (like The Outlaw Josey Wales), thrillers (like Play Misty for Me), romances (like The Bridges of Madison County), biopics (like Bird) dramas (like Gran Torino), sports dramas (like Million Dollar Baby), action films, films about war, crime dramas, and even films about space. Eastwood’s oeuvre is expansive, and therefore it can be difficult to pinpoint elements of continuity in his style. Eastwood has earned two Oscars for Best Director: for Unforgiven (1993) and for Million Dollar Baby (2005).
In 1971, Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed film Play Misty for Me. Eastwood’s style of direction in Play Misty for Me was heavily influenced by Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, both of whom had also directed Eastwood in their own films. From Leone, Eastwood learned the art of “meticulous framing—with great attention to both foreground and background depth,” whereas his “efficiency-based approach, focusing only on the base needs of each scene, efficiency-based approach, focusing only on the base needs of each scene,” were pragmatic skills Eastwood learned from working with Siegel (Kozak 1). Play Misty for Me is in many ways a quintessential 1970s-era thriller, and yet it bears the distinct stamp of Eastwood’s burgeoning eye for cinema.
Eastwood never lets go of his affection for the Western genre, which is why he did go on to direct several of them himself. The first...
Clint Eastwood: Biography and Films Began film career as an actor Instantly iconic in his role in Dirty Harry: Violent, strong silent type Spaghetti Westerns: The man with no name, bent on revenge Work as director Play Misty For Me (1971): Story of a radio host being stalked Bridges of Madison County (1995): Love story with Meryl Streep, adaptation of well-known romantic novel Oscar-winning Unforgiven (1992): Eastwood directed an unconventional Western, after starring in so many himself.
Eastwood marches to his own drummer, often eschewing the Hollywood publicity and attention so many other personalities crave. He lives in Northern California, rarely gives interviews, and avoids the spotlight whenever possible. In fact, his personal of the cultural loner and reluctant hero on the screen seems to fit him perfectly off the screen, as well. Eastwood's films almost always embody good against evil and the very nature of the
Clint Eastwood Films Client Eastwood Films Clint Eastwood is often hailed as an adept actor but his work as a director is also legendary. His directing goes back to the early 1970's when he started off with Play Misty for Me. Since then, there have been some extraordinary movies that are ensconced in movie history. These movies include Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, J. Edgar and others. The genres he touches on include
Clint Eastwood's Movie This movie features the story of three people; Walt, Sue, and Thao. In this movie, the issue of socio-political aspects of human life features. The movie depicts Walt as a famous Korean War Veteran while Sue and Thao were Vietnam War victims. Walt is one of the major characters in the movie. He is an American Assembly line worker who lives in Highland Park, Michigan. He is handling
Dave, who is an introverted, haunted, loner, acts out his rage and hurt upon another man having sex with a child prostitute. Sean eventually locates Katie's murderers, who were related to and associated with her boyfriend of whom her father did not approve, but not before Jimmy accuses and kills Dave of Katie's murder because he does not believe Dave's confession of murdering the other man. By the conclusion
Also, these concepts emphasize the limits associated with the American peoples, as by being as realistic as they possibly could be they made it possible for viewers to accept that a Western did not necessarily have to involve a heroic cowboy running off into the sunset consequent to killing the bad guys and saving the damsels in distress. These films were all about presenting American values as realistically as possible
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