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Clint Eastwood: The Last Man Standing
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Book Review of American Rebel: the Life of Clint Eastwood by Marc Eliot, 2009, Harmony Books.
As he approaches his eightieth year Clint Eastwood stands atop the international film world as its elder statesman. As in almost all of his Westerns he is the last man standing as the smoke clears at the end of the final gunfight. In American Rebel, Marc Eliot painstakingly records Eastwood’s fifty year journey from TV Westerns to the highest grossing film star on earth. Clint Eastwood started out digging swimming pools and pumping gas in Hollywood and ended up as perhaps it’s greatest living icon. Unlike some previous biographers such as Richard Schickel, Eliot pulls no punches in covering his private life.
The subjects of Eliot’s previous biographies include: Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant , Bruce Springsteen and Walt Disney.
Eastwood’s story is a rarity in Hollywood in that he made a successful transition from the small to the large screen; but he did it in a roundabout way. After becoming a household name after five years starring in the TV series Rawhide, then unknown Italian film maker Sergio Leone invited Eastwood to make a film in Spain, and the Spaghetti Western was born. He was to star in over sixty films. Among the most memorable are: A Fistful of Dollars 1964, For a Few Dollars More 1966, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966, Hang 'Em High 1968, Where Eagles Dare 1968, Dirty Harry 1971, Play Misty for Me 1971, High Plains Drifter 1973, The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976, Bronco Billy 1980, The Gauntlet 1977, Every Which Way But Loose 1978, Firefox 1982, Sudden Impact 1983, City Heat 1984, Heartbreak Ridge 1986, Pale Rider 1985, The Dead Pool 1988, Pink Cadillac 1989 The Unforgiven 1992, Bridges of Madison County 1995, Space Cowboys 2000, Million Dollar Baby 2004 and Gran Torino 2008.
Eastwood is perhaps most famous for his iconic five film Dirty Harry series playing maverick San Francisco Police detective Harry Callahan. Critics have described Harry is either a sadistic fascist pig (Pauline Kael) or a realist hero who identified with the victims of crime (Richard Schickel). Eliot points out that Harry is reminiscent of joyless cops like Joe Friday (Jack Webb) of TV’s Dragnet and “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection 1971, but he is much more frightening because he obviously enjoys torturing his “opponents”; taking pleasure in asking an assailant “Do I feel lucky? Well do ya’ punk?” as he shoves his long barreled .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson in his face. Later in the film Harry echoes Will Kane (Gary Cooper) in Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon when he pitches his badge into the river in the final scene.
Perhaps Harry’s most iconic line come from Sudden Impact Harry stops in his favorite diner for his morning coffee, he observes a robbery in progress, he proceeds to blow away all the robbers but one who holds a gun to the head of Loretta the waitress (Mara Corday), threatening to shoot. Of course Harry does not give in, he points his Magnum into the man's face daring him to shoot, saying "Go ahead, make my day". Famously President Ronald Reagan reprised the line in a press conference in response Congressional opposition.
Eliot relates the many stories of Eastwood’s “womanizing” ; and endless details of his long time relationship with the married Sondra Locke and their legal squabbles culminating in the infamous “palimony” suit. He also reveals some very interesting tidbits, such as the fact that Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were both released on the same day in 1955 by Universal.
After his last Sergio Leone Western, Eastwood decided that he wanted to try his hand behind the camera. He had always been a quick study. He absorbed the techniques and methods of the numerous directors who worked on Rawhide in including action film veteran Don Segal who he used in his Dirty Harry films. He understood the difference between TV and Film production. Because of budget limitations television scripts were more wordy, having to describe scenes that would be too expensive to film. Like many of the great directors stemming from the silent era, such as John Ford and King Vidor, Eastwood understood the importance of the visual over the verbal he had always been a an actor of few words, trying to pair his dialogue to a minimum. He is most often compared to the taciturn Gary Cooper; but in many of his films Eastwood makes Coop seem almost chatty by comparison. He is cinema’s Calvin Coolidge. One line in High Plains Drifter is typical of his sparing use of words; a dwarf named Mordecai (Billy Curtis) asks the newly arrived stranger ; “What did you say your name was?” Eastwood replies “I didn’t”
According to Eliot, Eastwood developed an economical no nonsense style using one or two takes. His sets were very informal, with no storyboards. Eastwood disliked using the term “action” to start a shot, feeling that the word tend to put the actors on edge and created stiff, less than spontaneous performances. Among his directorial efforts are: Play Misty for Me 1971, Bird 1988, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 1997, Mystic River 2003, Million Dollar Baby 2004, Flags of Our Fathers 2006, Letters from Iwo Jima 2006 and Changeling 2008.
In his early years, Eastwood’s work received little critical acclaim, but in 1992 at the age of sixty-two The Unforgiven finally brought him long overdue recognition with Oscars for Best Picture and Director. Many nominations followed, including two for Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima. In 1995 he received the coveted Irving G. Thalberg Award for excellence in his overall body of work. And in 2004 Million Dollar Baby won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director; only the Oscar for Best Actor has eluded him.
The avid golfer and golf course owner once philosophized "To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you're wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation."
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