His first turn at directing was for the psychological thriller, "Play Misty for Me" (1971), in which he also starred. While the movie is not considered one of his greatest, it was highly praised and showed Eastwood's directing potential.
In recent years, Eastwood continues to act, but he gets the most attention for his movie directing. Several of the movies he directed have received the highest praise and awards. For the western movie "Unforgiven" (1992), Eastwood both starred and directed. This movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Eastwood received the award for Best Director. This movie has recently been remade as a Japanese jidaigeki.
Eastwood again won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director with his boxing movie, "Million Dollar Baby" (2004), in which he also starred. Other excellent and critically acclaimed movies directed by Clint Eastwood are "The Bridges of Madison County" (1995), "Mystic River" (2003), "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006), "Letters from Iwo Jima" (2006), "Changeling" (2008), "Gran Torino" (2008), and "Invictus" (2009). A musical directed by Eastwood, Jersey Boys (based on the Broadway musical), came out in 2014. A controversial Oscar nominated movie about the war in Iraq also came out in 2014, "American Sniper" starring Bradley Cooper.
* Despite Eastwood's long acting career, he has never won an Academy Award for his acting, although he has been nominated twice (Unforgiven, 1992; Million Dollar Baby, 2004). He has been nominated for Best Director by the Academy Awards four times, winning twice.
* Eastwood was mayor of the town of Carmel, California, from 1986-1988.
* Eastwood is also an accomplished musician. He composed much of the music for the soundtracks to many of his movies.
* "Letters from Iwo Jma" (硫黄島からの手紙, 2006), is almost entirely in Japanese. It shows the battle for a strategic island in the Pacific during World War II from the point of view of the Japanese. Another movie, "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006), shows the same battle from the point of view of the Americans.
Many of Eastwood's movies are available in our library.
[My personal thoughts and recollections about Clint Eastwood and his movies were supplemented with details, dates and numbers from Wikipedia. - Kevin]
Clint Eastwood Biographies:
Wikipedia
IMDb
Biography.com
My Bag clip, from 'Million Dollar Baby' listening exercise for handout.
Links to trailers & clips from some of Clint Eastwood's movies:
Play Misty for Me (1971) - psychological thriller; trailer
Pale Rider (1985) - western; axe handle fight scene
Mystic River (2003) - drama; trailer
Million Dollar Baby (2004) - boxing drama; trailer; also short boxing clip
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - war; trailer
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) - war; trailer; starring Ken Watanabe & Kazunari Ninomiya
Changeling (2008) - true historical drama; trailer; starring Angelina Jolie
Gran Torino (2008) - drama; trailer
Scene from Gran Torino (2008)
Invictus (2009) - true drama; South African history; trailer; starring Morgan Freeman & Matt Damon
J. Edgar (2011) - true biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, former FBI director; starring DiCaprio; trailer
Jersey Boys (2014) - musical about the American band, The Four Seasons; trailer
American Sniper (2014) - war; starring Bradley Cooper; nominated for Best Picture.
Two versions of "Unforgiven" (Japanese version not directed by Clint Eastwood)
Unforgiven (1992) - western; directed by Clint Eastwood
Unforgiven [許されざる者] (2013) - jidaigeki; Japanese remake; directed by Lee Sang-il
Morgan Freeman has starred in 3 movies directed by Clint Eastwood, and they all appear in this list of Top 10 Morgan Freeman Performances.
Watch one or more of the Clint Eastwood trailers or clips above and write a comment in the comment box below.
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