Reviewing the achievements of the world cinema of the last sixty years, one could, paraphrasing a well-known saying: wherever you see, Clint is everywhere! In this exclamation, of course, there is some exaggeration, but not so much. Just think, on May 31, 2025, the legend of the American and world screen, Clint Eastwood, turns 95 years old! In honor of this landmark event, we invite you to recall some of his movie performances. And our first (biased) top ten will be his acting work in films that made the name of this native of California world-famous.
10. “Escape From Alcatraz” (1979)
directed by Don Siegel
The scene of the fifth and last joint work of Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood was a supercitadel for criminals near Eastwood’s native San Francisco. And the plot of the film was based on a completely true story about the Escape From Alcatraz, which happened shortly before the closure of the infamous prison. Without revealing the plot twists and turns, we note that the famous film critic Vincent Canby from The New York Times called this tape a “first-class action movie,” noting that
“Mr. Eastwood fulfills the demands of the role and the film in a way that probably no other actor could. Is it acting? I do not know, but he is the most exalted figure in this landscape.”
Interest in this film has recently been fueled by the current eccentric guest of the White House, notifying Americans that he is going to reopen the infamous prison on Alcatraz Island soon. A few hours before this statement by the US president, the film was shown on one of the most popular TV channels in the USA, which are included in the audience menu and Donald Trump.
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9. “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” (1974)
directed by Michael Cimino
The director of this crime dramedy, who also acted as the screenwriter of the tape, conceived it specifically for Clint Eastwood. And his partner in chases and other adventures in the frame was a young, but already famous, starring in the cult “Last Picture Show”, Jeff Bridges. He later recalled Eastwood’s place on the set:
“I always went up to Mike and said: “I think I can do one more take. I have an idea. And Mike answered: I have to ask Clint. What Clint could give the go-ahead to: Give the guy a try.”
Random fellow travelers on the run from trouble – Thunderbolt, under the guise of a preacher and a Lightfoot (a kid who trades in car theft) form a memorable duet thanks to the game of both, now, Hollywood masters.
Watch the movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) online:
https://ok.ru/video/8752061942300
8. “Dirty Harry” (1971)
directed by Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood
In the same year, another joint work of Siegel and Eastwood was released on the screens, in the credits of this crime thriller they are both designated by its directors. This is how the essay about this tape begins in the book “Legends and Realities: The History of the American criminal film” by the wonderful Russian film critic Elena Kartseva:
“… the opinion that the law is “too soft” and “democracy is not for criminals” has, if it is fashionable to say so, not only everyday existence, but also breaks through on the screen. In this sense, the picture “Dirty Harry” is especially indicative. The task was simple: to convince the viewer that there are situations in which police officers get the right to put themselves above the law.”
But, really, what should a servant of the law do if a psychopathic serial killer caught by him and publicly confessed is released by the court just because of non-compliance with legal procedures?! It is curious that in his last year, perhaps the last as a director, the film “Juror No. 2”, Eastwood addresses the same topic, but from a different moral perspective.
7. “The Beguiled” (1971)
directed by Don Siegel
After Sergio Leone, Don Siegel became the main mentor in the world of cinema for Clint Eastwood. Their first joint work was the police action movie “Coogan’s Bluff” in 1968. And the time of action of “The Beguiled” takes us back to the years of the Civil War in the USA. But not to the battlefields, but to the girls’ boarding school, in which the wounded corporal-Northerner McBurney turned out to be. Disagreeing with the original comedic tone of the script, Eastwood insisted on its radical revision and that Don Siegel be in the director’s chair of the tape. It was an interesting acting experience for Clint, because the character he played became a victim of female passion and jealousy. Almost three decades later, in a conversation with his biographer, Eastwood will explain his interest in this role:
“My audience likes to be in the place of the winner. Critics don’t always like it. My characters are sensitive and vulnerable, but they are still winners. I don’t pretend to understand losers. When I read a script about a loser, I think about people who are losers in life, and they seem to want it to be that way. This is their obsessive philosophy.”
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6. “Two Mules for Sister Sara” (1970)
directed by Don Siegel
The path to participation in the adventurous comedy western “Two Mules for Sister Sara” began during the rest hours on the set of the next picture of our Eastwood ten. Richard Burton’s wife, the incomparable “Cleopatra of the world screen” Elizabeth Taylor, showed Clint the script she liked, hoping to play the role of the main character in the future tape. But, the shooting from Spain, where it was convenient for her to shoot, was transferred to real Mexico, and the role of “sister Sarah” went to her friend, the fervent madcap Shirley MacLaine. The duet of either a cowboy or a mercenary Hogan, whose movie author was Eastwood and a militant nun, keeps the audience’s attention not only with the help of cinematic attractions (to use the term of the genius of world cinema Sergei Eisenstein), but, above all, due to the amazing game of this star couple. Being on an equal footing with Shirley MacLaine costs a lot! And Clint quite succeeded.
5. “Where Eagles Dare” (1968)
directed by Brian J. Hutton
It is Eastwood’s participation in this British-American film project that can be considered a fact of his recognition as an international-class movie star, because here he played one of the two main roles paired with an outstanding British master of theater and cinemaRichard Burton, nominated seven times for the Academy Award for his roles, which went down in the history of world cinema. The plot of the tape was a daring operation, disguised in German uniforms of British special forces and one American ranger (guess for yourself who played this role!) in a German castle, deep behind enemy lines. It was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alistair Maclean, known for his action-packed stories about the Second World War.
4. “An ordinary evening” in the movie almanac “Witches” (1967)
directed by Vittorio de Sica
The cult hero of the “dollar trilogy” got into the short film that concludes the benefit film almanac of Silvano Mongana, one of the brightest stars of the Italian screen of those years, already as a movie star. For the role of the husband, provoking his wife’s crazy fantasies with his boring decency, Clint Eastwood was offered a quarter of a million dollars, but in a cowboy way, he chose only 20 thousand green banknotes and a brand-new Ferrari as a reward. By the way, a year later Federico Fellini in his “Toby Dummy” (in the movie almanac “Three Steps in Delirium”) will macabrically beat this autotrophy of Eastwood and his superpopularity among Italian viewers of the second half of the sixties. And Clint’s on-screen deputy in this horror movie about the never-filmed “metaphysical western” will be a young British actor Terence Stamp, also at that time filming with the masters of Italian cinema.
3. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966)
directed by Sergio Leone
This epic film in terms of timing can most of all be considered a parable exposing the absurdity of war as such. The pursuit of gold against the backdrop of the infamous Civil War of the early 1860s does not imply that the heroes have a Kantian moral imperative. And yet, the Blonde, played by Eastwood, against the background of his accomplices, really seems to be “good”, having retained a germ drop of humanity in himself.
Watch the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) online
https://ok.ru/video/10849177766622
2. “For a Few Dollars More” (1965)
directed by Sergio Leone
In the next western, Leone offered Clint the role of a “bounty hunter” – a one-armed shooter. As in the first collaboration, the hero played by Eastwood is in no way a paragon of virtue, as it would be in classic American westerns. His Manco is a man without sentimentality, who is not averse to profit from gold and become one of the robbers from the highway (albeit with the ultimate goal of their elimination). But his laconic character gives rise to an inexplicable sympathy among the audience.
Watch the movie For A Few Dollars More (1965) online HD
https://ok.ru/video/28987624061
1. “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964)
directed by Sergio Leone
It was participation in this spaghetti Western that became the winning lottery ticket that brought good luck to the actor of second-rate television shows, seemingly doomed to eternal background stagnation. Played by Eastwood, in the first part of the “dollar trilogy”, the tramp shooter entered the film history as a Man without a name. This anonymity only added to the character of the magic of mystery. Note that a decade later, the creator of the film, which became the model for perhaps the most popular western subgenre, will play the namelessness of Clint’s character in the film he produced, calling it “My Name Is Nobody.” The first film of the dollar trilogy marked the beginning of the stellar career of the main cowboy of the planet. Happy birthday, Clint!
Watch the movie A Fistful of Dollars (1964) online
https://ok.ru/video/10362099010197
Read more: The 10 best films of Clint Eastwood-director.
I don’t know the details of Eastwood’s biography very well, and sometimes I even get confused in the sequence of spaghetti films, so maybe “A Fistful of Dollars” was really a “ticket to life” for Clint, but in my humble opinion “High plains drifter” (“Tramp of the Mountain Plains”) It is much higher, as well as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. These are the tops of the genre, IMHO, and “For a handful …” is, as it were, a demonstration of possibilities.