Xixax Film Forum

What do you think about him?
I like him more as a director than as an actor.

His direction is outstanding and that's what makes him a true artist. He's a good actor, but his directing is what's brought him the most acclaim.

i dont think it gets much better than him in the man with no name trilogy though

Quote from: ewardi dont think it gets much better than him in the man with no name trilogy though

Agree...sorry Da Man but Clint is The Man.

Anyone seen the 'coolest man alive' interview? That proves just that, Clint is the coolest man alive.

Clint Eastwood has enjoyed a long career because he's very savvy.  He alternates commercial fare with more challenging stuff -- following up Blood Work with Mystic River, for example, or directing Bird after making Dead Pool.

As an actor, he knows what his audience wants, but he sometimes likes to play with audience expectations -- as in Bronco Billy and Honkytonk Man and White Hunter, Black Heart.

Unforgiven is one of the few films that won the Best Picture Oscar that actually deserved the prize.  A Perfect World is underrated, and Bridges of Madison County is a wonderful change of pace.  The films he directs have a low-key, watchful quality, letting things unfold in a leisurely manner, and allowing actors room to find their characters.  This is evident in Mystic River as well.

I also agree with this:

Quote from: mollyWhat do you think about him?
I like him more as a director than as an actor.

and also with what Sydney said... he's not a bad actor at all, but he's just a fantastic director.

And isn't Philip Seymour Hoffman the coolest man alive? (Ehehe, he probbly isn't, but he's damn cool anyway...)

Quote from: RoyalTenenbaumAnd isn't Philip Seymour Hoffman the coolest man alive?

Dirty Harry would out cool him on any day of the week. Especially with a .44 Magnum.
"Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya Phil?"

Quote from: soixanteClint Eastwood has enjoyed a long career because he's very savvy.  He alternates commercial fare with more challenging stuff -- following up Blood Work with Mystic River, for example, or directing Bird after making Dead Pool.

As an actor, he knows what his audience wants, but he sometimes likes to play with audience expectations -- as in Bronco Billy and Honkytonk Man and White Hunter, Black Heart.

Unforgiven is one of the few films that won the Best Picture Oscar that actually deserved the prize.  A Perfect World is underrated, and Bridges of Madison County is a wonderful change of pace.  The films he directs have a low-key, watchful quality, letting things unfold in a leisurely manner, and allowing actors room to find their characters.  This is evident in Mystic River as well.

Exactly! It's like you can feel the texture of things, like they were actually used, not just put there only for the purpose of making a film. Also the sounds. It feels like he uses everything in the surrounding, accidental things to design the final outcome. His films are so rich with atmosphere.
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil is one of the most beautiful titles ever - sounds like a fairy tale, but  for the grownups, with juicy details. I like that film very much. Wacky people.

has anybody seen Bird? I really wanna, but can't find it here...

I asked in videostore for Taxy Driver, to show it to my friend, and the woman looked me like I asked her where did I put my taxy. Bird - I'm not even gonna try. Sad but true, some films will see our videostores only when their autors die, like Kubrick.

Quote from: SoNowThenhas anybody seen Bird? I really wanna, but can't find it here...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3365397522&category=2275

There's a great article about Eastwood's work as a director in a recent Film Comment, the one with Sean Penn on the cover.

Richard Schickel of Time seems to be the first major critic to take Eastwood seriously as a director, when he put Outlaw Josey Wales on his 10 Best of 1976 list.

Play Misty for Me, Eastwood's debut as a director, has influenced Fatal Attraction and many other thrillers.

He also did a change of pace romantic film, Breezy, in which he didn't appear.

Also, Eastwood's interest in jazz music finally found expression in Bird, a film I saw in 1988 and I need to see again.  Not sure if it's on DVD.

It is instructive to trace the respective careers of Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds.  Both of them were top box office draws in the 1970's, both specialized in macho action films, and both used their clout to become film directors.  Both of them appeared on the cover of Time in 1982.

While Burt tried to do a Dirty Harry with Hustle and Sharkey's Machine, Clint aped Burt's redneck comedies with Every Which Way But Loose -- and had a huge hit.

When Burt did Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit 2, Clint tweaked his own image in Honkytonk Man.  Just when it seemed that Clint was headed into obscurity in the 80's, he did another Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact, which made him cool again.  The line "Make my day" became the catchphrase de jour, and was even co-opted by President Reagan.

As if to answer his most truculent feminist critics, Clint's next cop film, Tightrope, featured a strong female protagonist.  Burt, meanwhile, was busy making stuff like Stroker Ace.

In 1984, Burt and Clint teamed up for the first time in City Heat.

i actually like midnight in the garden..etc.

Quote from: mollyWhat do you think about him?
I like him more as a director than as an actor.

I completely agree. Unforgiven is great, but Dirty Harry is nothing to me.

Quote from: godardianbut Dirty Harry is nothing to me.

Really? Eastwood's presence alone in films like that and in the Leone pictures are what's so memorable for me. The images of him stand out more than anything. But I do prefer him as a director.

Quote from: Cinephile

Quote from: godardianbut Dirty Harry is nothing to me.

Really? Eastwood's presence alone in films like that and in the Leone pictures are what's so memorable for me. The images of him stand out more than anything. But I do prefer him as a director.

I completely agree. Dirty Harry was a great movie and he pulled off the character like no other actor could have.

I haven't seen much of his directing, but from what I have seen, it is very impressive.  I will always like him as an actor and director. I don't know which one I prefer, because both are strong in their own way.

Your avatar is hilarious, Gloria

Dirty Harry (along with French Connection) is the paradigm for all police movies that have been made since 1971.  It also revealed the counter-reaction to the counter-culture of the late 60's and early 70's, a more conservative strain of philosophy that could be found in the films of John Milius, Michael Cimino and Paul Schrader.  Dirty Harry also divided critics into pro-Eastwood camps (led by Richard Schickel) and anti-Eastwood critics (led by Pauline Kael).  For better or worse, Dirty Harry represents a mythic vision of American manhood -- carrying a large gun, disrespecting bureaucratic meddling yet upholding the spirit of the law, strong, silent, equipped with a laconic sense of humor.  By any measure, Dirty Harry is one of the most important films of the past 40 years.

Quote from: soixanteDirty Harry (along with French Connection) is the paradigm for all police movies that have been made since 1971.  It also revealed the counter-reaction to the counter-culture of the late 60's and early 70's, a more conservative strain of philosophy that could be found in the films of John Milius, Michael Cimino and Paul Schrader.  Dirty Harry also divided critics into pro-Eastwood camps (led by Richard Schickel) and anti-Eastwood critics (led by Pauline Kael).  For better or worse, Dirty Harry represents a mythic vision of American manhood -- carrying a large gun, disrespecting bureaucratic meddling yet upholding the spirit of the law, strong, silent, equipped with a laconic sense of humor.  By any measure, Dirty Harry is one of the most important films of the past 40 years.

"Important" not necessarily meaning "good."

In for better or worse, it's clear to me that it's worse. I'm completely with Pauline on this one.

I'm also not sure I would put Paul Schrader in with the other "conservative" philosophers...

anti-Dirty Harry shouldn't be the same as anti-Eastwood

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: soixanteDirty Harry (along with French Connection) is the paradigm for all police movies that have been made since 1971.  It also revealed the counter-reaction to the counter-culture of the late 60's and early 70's, a more conservative strain of philosophy that could be found in the films of John Milius, Michael Cimino and Paul Schrader.  Dirty Harry also divided critics into pro-Eastwood camps (led by Richard Schickel) and anti-Eastwood critics (led by Pauline Kael).  For better or worse, Dirty Harry represents a mythic vision of American manhood -- carrying a large gun, disrespecting bureaucratic meddling yet upholding the spirit of the law, strong, silent, equipped with a laconic sense of humor.  By any measure, Dirty Harry is one of the most important films of the past 40 years.

"Important" not necessarily meaning "good."

In for better or worse, it's clear to me that it's worse. I'm completely with Pauline on this one.

I'm also not sure I would put Paul Schrader in with the other "conservative" philosophers...

Have you watched Schrader's 70's films lately?  Blue Collar has nothing positive to say about labor unions.  Compare it to Norma Rae in 1979, in which labor unions are depicted in a very rosy light.  

Hardcore takes a very dim view of the porn industry.  Pauline Kael took the film to task for being so moralistic.  In fact, Milius executive produced Hardcore.

Schrader's midwestern, Calvinist sense of guilt and shame permeates all of his work.

Quote from: soixante

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: soixanteDirty Harry (along with French Connection) is the paradigm for all police movies that have been made since 1971.  It also revealed the counter-reaction to the counter-culture of the late 60's and early 70's, a more conservative strain of philosophy that could be found in the films of John Milius, Michael Cimino and Paul Schrader.  Dirty Harry also divided critics into pro-Eastwood camps (led by Richard Schickel) and anti-Eastwood critics (led by Pauline Kael).  For better or worse, Dirty Harry represents a mythic vision of American manhood -- carrying a large gun, disrespecting bureaucratic meddling yet upholding the spirit of the law, strong, silent, equipped with a laconic sense of humor.  By any measure, Dirty Harry is one of the most important films of the past 40 years.

"Important" not necessarily meaning "good."

In for better or worse, it's clear to me that it's worse. I'm completely with Pauline on this one.

I'm also not sure I would put Paul Schrader in with the other "conservative" philosophers...

Have you watched Schrader's 70's films lately?  Blue Collar has nothing positive to say about labor unions.  Compare it to Norma Rae in 1979, in which labor unions are depicted in a very rosy light.  

Hardcore takes a very dim view of the porn industry.  Pauline Kael took the film to task for being so moralistic.  In fact, Milius executive produced Hardcore.

Schrader's midwestern, Calvinist sense of guilt and shame permeates all of his work.

Well, Fassbinder was also harshly critical of what passed for the Left in his milieu- that didn't mean he was against the idea so much as that he was trying to be honest in his work and figure out why people always seem to fail ideas. I think something similar could be said of Schrader.

In fact, Schrader himself, when speaking of Blue Collar, sounds most Fassbinderian:

"Just the self-destructiveness of the metaphor that people would attack the organization that was supposed to defend them. And how that kind of dead-end mentality is fostered by the ruling class in order to keep the working class at odds with itself."

That hardly sounds conservative. Most conservatives, intent on pretending that class (working or ruling) doesn't exist here, would undoubtedly find Schrader's idea there radical and inflammatory.

What I'm really resisting here is the assertion that Paul Schrader- whose work I find rich, complex, and ultimately very, very humane- could ever be placed near the reactionary plane of something simplistic like Dirty Harry.

While management is not depicted in a flattering light in Blue Collar, the union is just as bad.  They are pretty much unresponsive to the needs of the rank and file -- Zeke never gets his locker fixed, for example.

I don't think Schrader set out to make a conservative film -- he simply recorded life as it was lived back in the 70's.  Unions have always been sacrosanct in Hollywood -- whether in fictional films like Norma Rae or documentary films like Harlan County USA.  To depict unions in such an unfavorable way is unprecedented -- and also shows Schrader's willingness to seek out the truth, no matter where it leads.

I think that Taxi Driver, Hardcore and American Gigolo depict sexuality in a way that goes against the grain of the hedonistic culture of the 70's.

Quote from: soixante

I think that Taxi Driver, Hardcore and American Gigolo depict sexuality in a way that goes against the grain of the hedonistic culture of the 70's.

I see what you're saying, though I find the American Psycho eighties infinitely more hedonistic. In fact, when it comes to the really great stuff of the seventies, I don't think of hedonism and partying and indulgence (all of which really reached their nadir in the despondent Reagan eighties) so much as a spirit of inquiry, exploration, and experimentation (something I consider Schrader a part of, and Eastwood not).

Successful (American) films in the seventies: Shampoo (which I view not as a mindless celebration of hedonism, but as a very thoughtful observation), Harold and Maude, Network, Nashville, Dog Day Afternoon, etc... I dunno, to me, Schrader fits in with all that. Even if those films aren't challenging the dominant ideology in the same exact way, I do think they all share that question-authority tone. In the eighties, we had what you could rightly call a reactionary-conservative nosedive: Top Gun, Fatal Attraction, Rambo, etc... I don't think you could jumble American Gigolo in with those, really. It still maintains a degree of moral ambivalence, modulation, and searching that is what I associate with the seventies.

Yes, I'm a Velvet Goldmine believer. I think there were very admirable, very noble things about the seventies that are now sorely missing. And though I'm a big fan of Affliction and Auto Focus, I consider Schrader's work of the time one of those things.

The 70's were the richest period in American filmmaking history.  The films of the time reflected the cultural upheaval going on.  While Schrader was certainly part of all this, his work stood apart from everyone else's, because of his stern sense of morality -- even though his work was as rich and complex as anyone else's, Taxi Driver, Hardcore and American Gigolo upheld traditional values in the end.

Compare the protagonists of Easy Rider and Shampoo to Travis Bickle.  They are from L.A., they are hedonists, they live fast and loose, whereas Travis is from the Midwest, he feels sexual repression, and he feels alienated from the counter-culture (even though he goes to porno films, he has difficulty relating to people like Sport).

At the end of Shampoo, George's one true love, Jackie, leaves him for the rich Lester, which shows Towne's jaundiced view of romance in L.A., whereas Travis saves Iris and sends her back to her family in the Midwest.  There is at least a sliver of redemption in Taxi Driver, whereas in Shampoo we are given non-stop alienation (which is also evident in the work of Altman).

American Gigolo represents a transition from 70's subject to 80's style and treatment.  It is, after all, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, features the Giorgio Moroder disco score, and features slick production values.

Certainly the subject matter is very 70's -- male prostitution, at the Tiffany level.  In the beginning, the film takes moral rot for granted.  By the end, however, Julian Kay finds redemption the old-fashioned way -- he falls in love with a good woman.  He is "saved" from his promiscuous ways, and can now (presumably) lead a yuppie 80's lifestyle.

A friend of mine once noted that American Gigolo was great until the plot kicked in.  That is, the first 30 minutes are devoted to a fascinating exploration of an exotic lifestyle, and then the murder-blackmail plot turns the film into just another movie.  To me, this is a perfect metaphor for 80's filmmaking -- getting away from character studies and anthropolgical explorations and political statemtns, and focusing on telling streamlined stories (and revamping time-worn genres).

American Gigolo begins a trend that continued with subsequent 80's films like Body Heat, Jagged Edge and Fatal Attraction -- it signalled the end of the sexual revolution.  True, there was a great deal of hedonism in the 80's, perhaps more than in the 70's, but the cultural attitudes had changed.  No matter what people did privately, publicly buttoned-down traditional values were espoused (this smug hypocrisy was the target of American Psycho and Angels in America).  Schrader was the first filmmaker to sense that cultural change, which was in the air in the late 70's and would fully bear fruit in the 80's.

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: soixante

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: soixanteDirty Harry (along with French Connection) is the paradigm for all police movies that have been made since 1971.  It also revealed the counter-reaction to the counter-culture of the late 60's and early 70's, a more conservative strain of philosophy that could be found in the films of John Milius, Michael Cimino and Paul Schrader.  Dirty Harry also divided critics into pro-Eastwood camps (led by Richard Schickel) and anti-Eastwood critics (led by Pauline Kael).  For better or worse, Dirty Harry represents a mythic vision of American manhood -- carrying a large gun, disrespecting bureaucratic meddling yet upholding the spirit of the law, strong, silent, equipped with a laconic sense of humor.  By any measure, Dirty Harry is one of the most important films of the past 40 years.

"Important" not necessarily meaning "good."

In for better or worse, it's clear to me that it's worse. I'm completely with Pauline on this one.

I'm also not sure I would put Paul Schrader in with the other "conservative" philosophers...

Have you watched Schrader's 70's films lately?  Blue Collar has nothing positive to say about labor unions.  Compare it to Norma Rae in 1979, in which labor unions are depicted in a very rosy light.  

Hardcore takes a very dim view of the porn industry.  Pauline Kael took the film to task for being so moralistic.  In fact, Milius executive produced Hardcore.

Schrader's midwestern, Calvinist sense of guilt and shame permeates all of his work.

Well, Fassbinder was also harshly critical of what passed for the Left in his milieu- that didn't mean he was against the idea so much as that he was trying to be honest in his work and figure out why people always seem to fail ideas. I think something similar could be said of Schrader.

In fact, Schrader himself, when speaking of Blue Collar, sounds most Fassbinderian:

"Just the self-destructiveness of the metaphor that people would attack the organization that was supposed to defend them. And how that kind of dead-end mentality is fostered by the ruling class in order to keep the working class at odds with itself."

That hardly sounds conservative. Most conservatives, intent on pretending that class (working or ruling) doesn't exist here, would undoubtedly find Schrader's idea there radical and inflammatory.

What I'm really resisting here is the assertion that Paul Schrader- whose work I find rich, complex, and ultimately very, very humane- could ever be placed near the reactionary plane of something simplistic like Dirty Harry.

Schrader, both in print and in his film, is also quick to point out that the very people screwing these laborers is their actual union boss. Schrader's getting everybody in this one, no one gets painted rosy, because he is a mature filmmaker who doesn't take clear sides. That's why he's one of my favorites. I've worked a union job, and I find that the two biggest problems in regards to the workers' well-being are:

1. general laziness and ignorance on the part of the workers themselves
2. general corruption of union bosses, who set up an "us vs them" mentality, in order to swoop in and clean house while everyone else slugs it out.

Of course there are many good men working the union, but I found these above comments to be indicative of the majority.

Quote from: soixanteThe 70's were the richest period in American filmmaking history.  The films of the time reflected the cultural upheaval going on.  While Schrader was certainly part of all this, his work stood apart from everyone else's, because of his stern sense of morality -- even though his work was as rich and complex as anyone else's, Taxi Driver, Hardcore and American Gigolo upheld traditional values in the end.

I guess that, particularly in the case of Taxi Driver, I just don't see that.

My strongest reaction here is to your comparison of Eastwood and Schrader, asserting that they are somehow from the same school. So the proper comparison is between Eastwood's Dirty Harry and Travis Bickle.

To begin with, I clearly see the seventies as less "hedonistic" than you do- and its cultural "upheavals" as having a very positive side- and Eastwood's films as much more reactionary. But to me, the differences between Dirty Harry and Taxi Driver is obvious: The former is a celebration of vigilantism and a complete rejection of contemporary society and its shifting mores (which it knee-jerk equates with crime and terror). It is so small-minded and black-and-white in its "morality" as to be stupid. The latter, on the other hand, sees Bickle's inability to cope as triggered by the outside world, perhaps, but just as reflective of something in him. The world may be turbulent, but his reaction to it is at times both pathologic and misdirected. Travis Bickle is emblematic of a much more complex, humane, and empathetic vision of the world and society than Dirty Harry is.

To the degree that American Gigolo is a precursor to those atrocious, sleazy-moralistic films of the eighties I mentioned before, it is a failure (which it is considerd to be by many critics). I don't believe Schrader's goal has ever been moralism, at least not in any simplistic way; his espoused goal for American Gigolo was to be a latter-day Pickpocket, mapping a spiritual journey and exploring human conscience.

The "sliver of redemption" you speak of in Taxi Driver is, to me, not the result of a moralistic impulse, but of a humane one. The girl is saved at great psychological/spiritual cost (via violence) to both herself and Bickle. There is little triumph in the violence; it is excruciating. On the other hand, there are no such "slivers of redemption" in Dirty Harry. It's all "get the bad guys." We're meant to cheer when the "evil" people are blown away. Which is fine and definitely part of a movie tradition, but the particular, vehement tone of that series of films, where the violence is its own vengeful reward and there is a definite sadistic pleasure in it, is what makes them, in my opinion, the dregs of its era.

The main difference I see between Dirty Harry and Schrader: Dirty Harry looks at the then-contemporary world and says, "If only everything could just go back to the way it was before. Everything was fine before. Nothing needed to change. These changes are wholly destructive, and somebody has to stop them."

Schrader says, "There is confusion and turbulence in the world. How does this affect us on a personal and spiritual level? What can we do to help ourselves and others get through it? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?" He doesn't dismiss the changes in some reactionary way; he sees them as troubling and disruptive, which of course they are, but he's simultaneously much more pragmatic and much more idealistic than the Dirty Harry stuff would ever think to come close to.

To summarize my opinions on this: Dirty Harry = Small-minded, simplistic, reactionary, pandering, and not a little dumb. Schrader = An important, hardly judgmental (or "moralistic") chronicler of the inner effects of a confusing outside world.

Quote from: SoNowThenbecause he is a mature filmmaker who doesn't take clear sides. That's why he's one of my favorites.

And don't you think it follows, too, that the people behind Dirty Harry fail to come near the quality, interest, or longevity of what Schrader has done exactly because they completely fail not to take painfully clear sides? I think they, completely unlike Schrader, made something very close to propaganda.

Obviously, Taxi Driver is a richer character study than Dirty Harry.  Schrader is obviously a writer of great depth.  And if you read Pauline Kael's review of Dirty Harry, you'll find the most articulate criticism of that film that anyone's ever committed to print.

But read Richard Schickel's biography of Eastwood, in which he goes into great depth about Dirty Harry.  On the surface, Harry seems to represent the "law and order" and "silent majority" folks who elected Nixon in 1968.  He teases a black bank robber with the "well, do ya punk?" speech, he makes a racially disparaging remarks about his Hispanic partner, and the sniper is a seeming catch-all representative of the hippie movement (he even wears a peace sign belt buckle).

What many critics miss, I think, is that Harry has a dry wit.  One moment, he makes an inflammatory statement, the next he winks at the audience.

Oddly enough, there are a lot of parallels between Harry and Travis -- they are both trying to save young, innocent girls, they are both social outsiders, they are both lonely, they are both possessed with a sense of righteous anger, and they are alienated from modern, urban society.

Taxi Driver is a richer film because Travis' heroism has more ambiguity -- he originally plans to assassinate a Presidential candidate, then he decides to kill some pimps.  His urge to kill is socially acceptable, as long as the right targets get hit.

Still, there are interesting issues in Dirty Harry -- if Harry embodies law and order, why does he throw his badge away at the end?

The 50's are idealized by some as a wonderful era of prosperity and innocence, but obviously there were turbulent undercurrents going on at that time.  The 80's were supposedly a time of moral rectititude and flag-waving prosperity, but we know that things weren't that simple.

As for the 60's and 70's, there was indeed more good things than bad to result from the counter cultural revolution -- but there was also a very dark side.  During the same summer of 1969, we had both Woodstock and the Manson murders.  If Woodstock represents the positive side of cultural revolution (in which drugs can be used to expand consciousness), Manson represents the other side of cultural experimentation.

Dirty Harry is a cinematic rendering of this dark side of the counter culture.  Scorpio is sort of a stand-in for Manson, while Harry represents anachronistic American values (anti-lawyer, pro-gun, self-reliant).  To disregard the mythic significance of this film is to miss why Nixon got elected twice -- and then Reagan got elected twice.  Dirty Harry was really tuned in to what was going on in its time.

Well, if what you're saying is that we can see in Dirty Harry something emblematic (and symptomatic) of a certain way of thinking, then I suppose I'd have to agree with you there. I do find it disturbing that the tone of the films so wholly embraces what I see as a disturbingly shallow and reckless way of thinking... but that way of thinking is definitely there to see, a practically naked worldview. [/i]

Eastwood is on Leno right now (2/12).  Or catch it next week on the early morning rerun.

A 'Baby' for Eastwood
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Clint Eastwood will follow his award-winning "Mystic River" by directing, producing and starring in "Million Dollar Baby."

Sources said Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman are in negotiations to star alongside Eastwood.

The movie will be a Malpaso production in association with Lakeshore Entertainment and Albert S. Ruddy Prods. Warner Bros. Pictures will distribute domestically, while Lakeshore Entertainment handles international.

"Baby" is a tragic and platonic love story involving a fighter -turned- trainer and a woman in her early 30s who is determined to begin a boxing career.
 
"Baby" is based on two short stories from the collection "Rope Burn" by F.X. Toole. Ruddy and screenwriter Paul Haggis optioned the stories in 2001, with Haggis adapting them on spec. The project then landed at Lakeshore.

Along with Eastwood, the project's producers are Ruddy, Haggis and Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg. Lakeshore's Gary Lucchesi is executive producing.

Production is slated to start in June in Los Angeles.

I'm yet to decide if these news sound good or not... Well, it's Eastwood, so at least it will be an interesting movie  8)

Finally saw Million Dollar Baby....

It was the most contrived, predictable, 'tug-at-the-heart-strings' oscar pandering, lesson teaching, bullshit movie I've seen since Gladiator

Quote from: Find Your MagaliGreat idea.

Another part of me is already wondering what it would be like to edit the films together into one sprawling magnum opus that tells the fuller story of Iwo Jima. Can you imagine?

What, like Tora, Tora, Tora?

DGA to fete Eastwood with Lifetime Achievement Award

Clint Eastwood has been tapped to receive the DGA's highest tribute, the Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his distinguished career behind the camera, the DGA said Thursday. Eastwood will be honored at the 58th annual DGA Awards on Jan. 28 in Los Angeles. "As one of the most prolific, versatile directors in the history of the medium, there isn't a genre that Clint Eastwood hasn't mastered in the more than 25 films he has directed over the past 35 years," DGA president Michael Apted said. "His ongoing body of work continues to touch generations of moviegoers and bring huge audiences into movie theaters. He does it all with great class, intelligence, and style." The honor, first presented in 1953, has only been given 31 times, first with Cecil B. De Mille and, most recently to Mike Nichols in 2004. Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" won both the DGA Award for directoral achievement and the Academy Award for best director and best picture last year. Eastwood is currently finishing "Flags of Our Fathers." Other previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra and John Ford.

yay!!

Eastwood is versatile.  In 1982, he directed two movies in completely different genres -- Firefox, a Tom Clancy-esque spy thriller, and Honkytonk Man, a low-key character study of a down-and-out country and western singer.

In 1990, he directed White Hunter, Black Heart and The Rookie -- two very different films.  Or compare Heartbreak Ridge to Bird -- a macho Marine action film and a biopic of a heroin-addicted jazz genius.

Bridges of Madison County and Absolute Power -- two completely different genres.

Space Cowboys and Mystic River -- yet again, two quite different genres.

The only thing Eastwood hasn't directed is a musical.

or a gay western.

give him time.

"Unforgiven" wasn't a gay western?

No... no it wasn't.

BAFTA lauds Eastwood with Kubrick award

Clint Eastwood has been named the recipient of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles' most prestigious film accolade, the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.

The award will be presented at the 15th annual Britannia Awards, which are scheduled for November 2 at the Century Plaza.

"Clint Eastwood is an undisputed international icon and an enormous creative force, both behind and in front of the camera," BAFTA/LA chairman Peter Morris said. "It is our distinct pleasure to honor him with our highest film award."

Eastwood is producing and directing the DreamWorks/Warner Bros. Pictures World War II drama "Flags of Our Fathers," about the Battle of Iwo Jima, which will be released in October. He is concurrently producing and directing a companion film, "Letters From Iwojima," told from the Japanese perspective, which will be released next year.

Eastwood has directed more than 25 films, including "Million Dollar Baby," for which he won the best picture and best director Oscars, and "Unforgiven," for which he won his first Oscars for best picture and director. "Unforgiven" also garnered BAFTA nominations for directing and producing. For "Mystic River," Eastwood received Oscar nominations for best picture and director.

Eastwood began his acting career in the mid-1950s, making his breakthrough in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964. His onscreen credits range from "Dirty Harry" to "Kelly's Heroes" to "Every Which Way but Loose" to "The Bridges of Madison County" He received best actor Oscar nominations for "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby."

Previous recipients of BAFTA/LA's Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award include Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Michael Caine and Martin Scorsese.

'I figured I'd retire gradually, just ride off into the sunset ...'
Clint Eastwood is one of the legends of American cinema, and still prodigious at 76 having just completed two acclaimed films. Tonight he is in line for yet another Oscar - some journey for the cowboy who first appeared in Rawhide in 1959. Last week in Paris the Observer's own legend, film critic Philip French, met the American director to discuss a shared love of westerns, the Golden Age of Hollywood and a lifetime in films.
Source: The Observer

Clint Eastwood is the last major figure in international cinema to have served, and benefited from, an extended apprenticeship. Born in May 1930, the son of a blue-collar oil worker who moved around California during the Depression, he had numerous jobs, an interrupted education and an obligatory stretch in the army before becoming a minor contract performer at Universal. Luck intervened when he was signed up to play Rowdy Yates in the long-running TV western series, Rawhide. Luck intervened again when Italian director Sergio Leone, searching for a cheap Hollywood star, brought Eastwood to Italy in 1964 for the first major spaghetti western, A Fistful of Dollars. Eastwood continued to work on Rawhide while two profitable sequels were made, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This trilogy of violent, cynical movies made him world famous.

Hollywood rushed in and Eastwood became a star. Most important, he established a long-running partnership with maverick director Don Siegel. Their major success was the controversial cop movie Dirty Harry (1971), and Eastwood made his directorial debut the same year in Play Misty for Me, in which Siegel had a cameo role.

After that, Eastwood took his career in his own hands, acting, directing and producing. His first, fully achieved masterwork was The Outlaw Josey Wales, made in the bicentennial year of 1976, and he went on to win Oscars for best film and director on two films, Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby

At 76, he has reached his peak with two movies about the Second World War battle for Iwo Jima. Flags of Our Fathers looked at three of the American invaders who helped raise Old Glory over Mount Suribachi and, as a result of an iconic photograph, were whisked home to figure in war-bond rallies. Letters From Iwo Jima, made in Japanese, looks at the invasion from the Japanese point of view. The latter has been nominated for best picture, director and screenplay at tonight's Oscars.

I first met Clint Eastwood 30 years ago at an extraordinary conference of historians, sociologists and film-makers gathered at Sun Valley, Idaho, in the bicentennial week of 1976 to address ourselves to the theme, 'Western Movies: Myths and Images', organised by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Levi-Strauss Corporation, the so-called Cowboys' Tailor. I was there to give a lecture on 'Politics and the Western'. Eastwood was the guest of honour, presenting the world premiere of The Outlaw Josey Wales. I'd rarely encountered a film-maker so open and relaxed.

When we met in Paris last week, he was the subject of the latest editions of France's movie journals, Cahiers du cinema and Positif, and visible everywhere. Looking fit, upright, relaxed, cheerful, he flashed that welcoming grin that is the other side of the taut, menacing face of the Man With No Name in the Leone westerns and the ironically quizzical Inspector Harry Callaghan.

Our conversation took place at the Ritz, the day before he received the Legion d'honneur from President Jacques Chirac.

PHILIP FRENCH What drives you on? You've been involved as director, producer, actor in more than 60 movies in the past 40-50 years and yet a contemporary like Warren Beatty makes one film every five or six years and Terrence Malick makes one every 15 years. Is it the fun of making movies? Is it the Protestant work ethic?

CLINT EASTWOOD It's just a bit of work ethic. It becomes part of my life and, if I have any virtues, which are probably not many, I get fairly decisive about things. When I find something I like, I usually know it pretty soon and I don't have to talk myself into much. I probably shoot from the hip a little more than Warren Beatty or other people. They probably ponder things more and I say: I like this, let's go. I don't sit and dwell on it too much. I dwell on it as I make it.

I guess everybody's a little different. Warren got up at the Golden Globes and he says: 'How do you it - having to do two pictures in one year?' But when I was growing up, Howard Hawks and Raoul Walsh and all those directors made several pictures in one year. There's no big deal. Nowadays, everybody makes a deal that you can't do it, it's an impossible feat. It wasn't an impossible feat. Some of those B movie guys would get the script on Friday night and Monday morning you're starting and here's your cast. They just went with it. It's like being a musician. If you play every day, your embouchure is strong. If you play once every two years, you have to build up all over again.

PF There is a lot of quiet subversion in your movies. The historical revisionism, challenging the conventions of the western, especially in Unforgiven, the treatment of euthanasia in Million Dollar Baby. Are you able to get away with, or to put these ideas across, because you are perceived as a conservative, an upholder of traditional views?

CE I don't know. I heard people criticise me who hadn't even seen Million Dollar Baby. I've heard people say he's done this thing about euthanasia and they'd get all upset. I'd go - wait a second, have you seen the picture? Are you interested in the people? Are you interested in the plight of a man who has never had a relationship with the daughter he wanted to have a relationship with? There'd been something in their history that has been negative and he finally finds the surrogate daughter that he loves desperately and then loses her. Did they really analyse the circumstances? No - so they make a critical judgment. If you analyse the circumstance then it becomes an interesting challenge.

I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more. Consequently, I think the difference in my country, the difference in the parties, is there's no difference. There are just a lot of people trying to keep their jobs. I'm cynical in that aspect.

I think I can make them [challenging movies] because I do them boldly and because I'm at an age where ... what can they do to me? Once you're past 70, what the hell can they do to you?

You just go ahead and do it. If you put your toe in the water, it's not going to work. You have to jump in.

PF You just spoke about your age. How did you feel about the physical toll and the challenge of it as you were about to embark on this project, with the budgets, the locations, large complicated scripts?

CE No problem. I felt fine. I was in a good physical and mental condition. I have the advantage of a lot of years of experience, and if I can't put it together, then I should not be doing it. You have to feel confident. If you don't, then you're going to be hesitant and defensive, and there'll be a lot of things working against you. In my career as a director, there's always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: what is this thing all about and why am I telling the story. Does anybody really care about seeing this? At that time you have to say: OK, forget that and just go ahead. What were your first impressions, all the things you remember when you fell in love with the project? Put your head down and continue. You can never look back. I don't have that now. I had that maybe 15, 20 years ago. I'd get that moment, the reflective moment. It would come and pass real quickly but now I know it's going to be there, so I don't pay any attention to it. It's just a little bird talking. You just say: get out.

PF Which of the directors from the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood would you most have liked to work with and will regret not having worked with?

CE When I came into the business in the Fifties, a lot of those people were starting to retire. I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him. I did work with Bill Wellman on the Second World War film Lafayette Escadrille. I would have liked to work with Mr [Howard] Hawks and Mr [Raoul] Walsh. I once talked to Alfred Hitchcock about working with him. He had a screenplay in mind but he was just in retirement. I asked: when does he want to do this? They said: well, he's probably not going to do the picture - he's just at that stage where he's not physically up to it. I said: OK, I'd love to go meet with him. So I did, and that was great fun. Working with Don Siegel was close to that [working with the greats] because he had worked for so many of those golden age people as second unit director. I learnt what it's like to make something out of nothing. Don used to love to tell a story about Jack Warner. He told Warner that something was too difficult. Warner looked at him and said: 'When is it not difficult? Get out there and do it.'

PF We first met 30 years ago. Would you have been surprised if someone had said to you then that you would make 30 more movies in the next 30 years but only two of them would be westerns?

CE You're the first person who has pointed this out to me, but I'm surprised. I remember that conference very well. There were a lot of people in the western genre who are no longer with us and it was a fascinating time. I did Josey Wales, and then Pale Rider and Unforgiven. I guess, because I had done quite a few westerns in the early days, that I might have made a few more, but I got away from it in the later Seventies and Eighties, and we were doing The Escape from Alcatraz and Every Which Way But Loose and Bronco Billy. I went off in different directions.

But in 1980, I read a script called The William Munney Killings, which was the working title of Unforgiven; I thought, gee, this would be a great western, but I think I should be a little bit older to do it. And so I bought the screenplay and put it in a drawer, and then, about 1990 or 91, I thought: whatever happened to that? I read it and fell in love with it all over again, and I said that this is nice, and this should be my last western.

PF When it opened, The Outlaw Josey Wales was seen as a political film, an allegory about Vietnam and its aftermath, presented as being about the Civil War. How conscious were you of using the western in that way?

CE I was conscious of it to the extent that I thought it was different from some of the westerns I had done, where the lone person comes to town, gets into conflict. In Josey Wales, from the very beginning, the hero was a person who was a fugitive from war and from the tragedy of war, and all he wanted to do was be left alone. It seemed like the more he tried to be left alone, the more things happened around him, and he was destined to be a warrior whether he liked it or not. But yes, I tried to show, even in that film, the futility of it all. I guess nothing's different today.

PF John Wayne once said that whenever he received a script that wasn't set in the west, he always tried to imagine what it would be like as a western. Does that seem overly reductive to you and how do you react to and evaluate the scripts you come across?

CE I evaluate the scripts or the book, or whatever I'm taking the material from, on its merit. I never compare them to a western. I don't feel I'm married to the genre, though I was brought up in the west, rode some horses when I was young, and fantasised about the western, as everybody did. When I see a story, I ask: is this something I'd like to be in? Is this something I'd like to see? And if I'd like to see it, would I like to tell it?

Now, in senior years, I look at it more from a directorial standpoint. In the early days, I would have looked at a film project like Million Dollar Baby [which Eastwood directed and starred in] and first thought: is this something I'd like to be in? Whereas my first thought of Million Dollar Baby was: is this something I'd like to direct, and then [second] would I like to be in it? Because I'd just finished Mystic River [directing], I was mostly interested in being behind the camera, figuring that my retirement would be rather gradual, and then some day they'll say, get out from behind the camera, and I'll go into the sunset. But right now, I've been enjoying things the way they are.

PF How did you come across James Bradley's book Flags of Our Fathers? It obviously wasn't a film you'd see yourself as being in.

CE A friend of mine is the owner and publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone, the local newspaper in the Monterey peninsula, and he called me one day and asked: have you read this book, Flags of Our Fathers? So I read it and found in it, in a non-fictional way, what we'd done in Bridges of Madison County in a fictional way: having the child find out about their parents after they had passed away. Here was a true story of a guy who didn't know what his father did and the mystery is: why didn't his father ever confide in him about the story? Then we find it was the experience of war, and the guilt of false heroism and all kinds of stuff that made him somewhat of a recluse.

I became fascinated by that, and I tried to buy the book. But it had already been bought by DreamWorks, so I thought Steven Spielberg had some plans for this property. A couple of years after that, I was at an event and Steven came up to me and said: have you ever read Flags of Our Fathers? I told him I'd always liked the book, and he said: would you consider coming over to our company to take it over and direct it? And I said OK. The conversation was just that long. We shook hands and that was it.

PF The emotive word 'father' in the title. Is that important to you personally, in regard to the generation before you, particularly of your father, and what they went through in the Depression and the Second World War?

CE Yes. You always think of what your father did as a young man. My father wasn't in the military, but the great majority of people were at that particular time. We'd just come out of the Depression and went into the war. That's what made America such a good fighting force. It's because they were a bunch of skinny kids off of farms, and out of cities, and they weren't going to have any of this being attacked.

PF When did the idea emerge of making two movies, one from the American point of view, one from the Japanese? Was Spielberg immediately responsive ?

CE The idea occurred at a meeting between Spielberg, screenwriter Paul Haggis and myself. We were talking, philosophising, about the screenplay and how it should be done. I said: I wanted to go to Iwo Jima to look at the island: would it be it feasible to film there? It had been given back to the Japanese in the mid-Sixties, and I didn't know what to expect. We visited the governor of Tokyo - Iwo Jima comes under his jurisdiction - and he gave us approval to look at the island and feel how it was for the marines to come on that deep black sand, with 100lbs on their backs, and climb through that with people shooting at you.

At that point, I started thinking: what was it like for the defenders? I climbed into the caves, through tunnels no bigger than a fireplace, and so I became interested: what are these guys like? I started reading material on General Kuribayashi [the Japanese commander at Iwo Jima] and Baron Nishi [a tank commander]. These people had lived in America and had friends there, and with a few changes of the political structure would have remained friends.

And what's so different about Kuribayashi from every other father in every other country and every other society? Really nothing. All of a sudden, a rich story emerged that would not only be different but would maybe give us some of the communality between the young people being sent off to war, regardless of what society they're in, what culture they're from.

PF You've made two very different movies. One is about horrendous sacrifice that was part of a victory in a just war, as it was considered at the time, and is, by most people, still considered. The other film is a tragic story of defeat and the destruction of a culture. Did you see this when you were conceiving the movies?

CE Yes, I saw the possibilities of this. I wanted to tell full, separate stories and analyse what it is that defeated a group of people, the last elements of a certain mentality, a certain type of culture. The last just war. I'm sure people go into wars thinking they're just, but the Second World War was the great unification of people, because being attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor changed America's mentality. There was a great division in the country then over isolationism: 'We shouldn't be bothering about the European war, that's somebody else's problem', as opposed to the other group that said: 'Yes, we should be coming to their aid.' And there we are. We go off into Korea, which was a police action, it wasn't called a war, and then Vietnam and everything. I guess the Second World War is the last war we really wanted to win.

PF In making a revisionist picture, do you think you've been harder on your own country than on the Japanese? Is there a certain imbalance?

CE No, I don't think so, because they're just different. I wouldn't call them unbalanced because I believe that the American hierarchy, as portrayed in Flags of Our Fathers, was not portrayed in a bad way. You can see the urgency because of the war-time mentality. But by the same token, you can see the sadness in it, the mass confusion of it all. But we're not showing the story of MacArthur or any of the generals or admirals of the Pacific War. We see General Kuribayashi through the eyes of a conscriptee. I don't think there's a lack of balance there; I think that it's just different. I suppose you could have told Flags of Our Fathers from the viewpoint of a military commander, and that would have been different, but these pictures are about the common man - the common man that's required to, at an average age of 19, go abroad and do all this stuff. And I'm sure that the Japanese average was similar, if not younger. The films are meant to be about them.

PF When you were making Letters From Iwo Jima, did you think that you were making not an American film but a Japanese movie? And were you influenced by your experience on the sets of the films with Sergio Leone where the director had to communicate in non-verbal ways or through translators?

CE I just approached it like I was telling a Japanese story of the Japanese people; I didn't think of it in terms of an American movie. I always thought, here's what we're doing story-wise - and I wasn't taking sides in it really. Sergio had the same obstacle as I had. He didn't speak English at all at that time, and I didn't speak Japanese. We had to communicate through interpreters and it worked out OK. The thing we had to overcome here, which Sergio didn't have to overcome, is we had to tell the story in the dialect of 65 years ago, which is a different Japanese dialect than they use now and a lot of different vocabulary. We had a few older Japanese actors, who knew of the older style and so we were aware of that. So not only am I doing it with a language I don't know, I'm doing it with a dialect I've never heard of. When we recorded the kids - because that was a real instance where [a group of children] made this live radio broadcast and sung a song for the men on Iwo Jima - we had to make sure that they learnt the dialect. It was tricky because it had never been recorded. It had only been sent out over the airwaves at that time.

PF Is there anything that has surprised or pleased you about the response you had to the two movies in both Japan and in America?

CE Yes. The response has been really good in Japan. I didn't know what it was going to be, to tell you the truth, as it's bringing this story that no Japanese studied at school. No great volumes have been written about it, and most of the veterans of Iwo Jima were just like Bradley [one of the American flag-raisers depicted in Flags of Our Fathers], only more so. They just didn't talk about it.

I never had the pleasure of meeting any of them because we couldn't find any who wanted to talk about it. It's a little bit different for the Japanese to have some gringo come in there and tell some story they have heard very little of or, for some of the older generation, that has stayed buried. The men of the Iwo Jima Association, I think, were glad to see some tribute being paid to the 21,000 men who were buried, and the 8,000-12,000 still interred in the island with no identification possible. I think they were looking for some closure, and from the letters I've gotten there seems to be an appreciation.

PF What are the war movies you've most admired in the past that have influenced you, and you would most like your films to be compared with?

CE Well, I'd like them to be not compared with anything. I'd like them to be on their own. Films I liked were always obscure little films: Lewis Milestone's A Walk in the Sun, Sam Fuller's Steel Helmet, Ted Post's Vietnam film Go Tell the Spartans. I haven't seen Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front in many years, but it looked at the First World War from the German point of view, and maybe there's a certain similarity to Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. I'm an aficionado, like everyone else, of Akira Kurosawa. His Samurai movie Yojimbo became A Fistful of Dollars. My admiration for him as a director led me into the career I had with Leone and beyond. Circumstances. The wheel goes around.

PF A final question. If you were walking past the National Film Archives and it was burning down, and you could rush in and pick out two films to preserve for posterity, which would you choose?

CE I'd probably have to grab three: Bill Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident, The Grapes of Wrath from John Ford and Steinbeck, and John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Eastwood, Jolie catch 'Changeling'
Grazer, Howard to produce pic
Source: Variety

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment are fast-tracking "The Changeling," with Clint Eastwood looking to direct and Angelina Jolie in talks to star.

Scripted by J. Michael Straczynski, the film will become a co-production of Imagine and Eastwood's Malpaso. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will produce with Malpaso's Rob Lorenz.

Plan is to start production later this year.

Jolie would play a woman whose son is abducted but retrieved; she suspects, however, that the returned child is not her kid. The woman must then confront corruption in the LAPD. Story is based on true events in 1920s Los Angeles.

U and Imagine have been high on the project since acquiring it last summer and placing it on a shortlist of films that Imagine partner Howard intended to direct next. When Howard instead committed to adapt the Peter Morgan play "Frost/Nixon," he and Grazer began thinking of other filmmakers. Since they expect to follow up "The Da Vinci Code" with a pic based on the Dan Brown novel "Angels & Demons," it was clear Howard wouldn't get to "The Changeling" for two years.

Howard, Grazer and Imagine exec Jim Whitaker then called Eastwood and asked him to read the script. Though a fixture at Warner Bros., Eastwood had to enlist outside partners to get his most recent films going: "Million Dollar Baby" and the dual pics "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima."

Jolie, who'll next be seen as Marianne Pearl in "The Mighty Heart" and then in the Bob Zemeckis-directed "Beowulf," will have to juggle "The Changeling" with another plum project. She's booked to star in "Atlas Shrugged," a Randall Wallace-scripted adaptation of the Ayn Rand classic for Lionsgate.

as long as its not a remake.  though angelina is a dead ringer for george c. scott.  but whats with all the imaginary kid movies?  flightplan, the forgotten, bunny lake is missing, this.  i havent seen any of them and i'm already tired of this genre!

Quote from: modage on March 09, 2007, 08:40:00 AM
but whats with all the imaginary kid movies? flightplan, the forgotten, bunny lake is missing, this.

Quote from: Pubrick on January 30, 2007, 11:58:03 PM
america hates its youth. sequel to Youth Without Youth: America Without Youth

Eastwood, Damon on Board Mandela Film
Source: Variety

Warner Bros. is in talks to finance The Human Factor, with Clint Eastwood eyeing it as a directing vehicle, and Matt Damon in preliminary talks to play the captain of the Springboks.

Morgan Freeman had already signed on to play Nelson Mandela in the project, an adaptation of the John Carlin book "The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World."

Freeman and Revelations partner Lori McCreary are producing with Mace Neufeld, and South African screenwriter Anthony Peckham (Don't Say a Word) wrote the script.

The story is set right after the fall of apartheid, and after Mandela was released from a long imprisonment and became South African president. Mandela recognized the significance when South Africa was selected host of the 1995 Rugby World Cup after the team had been barred from even competing since the 1980s because of apartheid.

3 join Jolie for 'Changeling'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore and John Malkovich have joined Angelina Jolie in "Changeling," a true life drama that Clint Eastwood is directing for Universal and Imagine.

The story follows a woman (Jolie) whose son goes missing in 1920s Los Angeles. The police return the wrong child and the woman is thrown into an insane asylum for disagreeing with the LAPD. When it seems that her real son has been murdered by a child serial killer and the child returned admits to fraud, she takes her case to the city council and takes down the mayor, the police chief and several corrupt officers, concurrently sparking changes in the insanity legislation.

Donovan will play a police captain, Feore the chief of police and Malkovich a reverend.

Also joining the cast are Jason Butler Harner ("John Adams"), who portrays a mechanic accused of murdering the woman's son, as well as Amy Ryan and Michael Kelly.

my friend recently used the word "quiff" which i thought was awesome.  and he said it was from an Eastwood film called Heartbreak Ridge and the full line is...

"I've drank more beer, pissed more blood and banged more quiff than all you numbnuts put together"

so i wrote that down on a piece of paper in my wallet and have been waiting to use it in conversation.  first i have to memorize it though.

Clint to drive 'Gran Torino'
Actor to star and direct film for Warner Bros.
Source: Variety

Clint Eastwood will next direct and star in "Gran Torino" for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures. Pic is skedded for a December release.

"Torino" marks the first time Eastwood has appeared on screen since "Million Dollar Baby," released in late 2004.

Details of "Torino" are being kept under tantalizingly tight wraps. Existence of the film, and Eastwood's role, were only revealed on Tuesday when Warner quietly dated the movie for sometime in December.

Producers are Rob Lorenz, Eastwood's partner at Malpaso Prods., and Billy Gerber. Exec producers are Jenette Kahn and Adam Richman at Double Nickel Ent.

It's unclear when the movie will begin shooting, or if it has already begun production. Eastwood is known for quick production turnarounds.

"Torino" means Eastwood will be theaters twice in a short period with films he has directed. On Nov. 7, Universal and Imagine open Eastwood's Angelina Jolie starrer "Changeling," a child abduction drama.

Eastwood last directed companion films "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima."

Also for Warner, Eastwood is set to direct Nelson Mandela pic "The Human Factor." That project is in development.

Matt Damon to 'Factor' in rugby role
Actor joins Freeman in Eastwood's WB drama
Source: Variety

Matt Damon has committed to star in "Human Factor," joining Morgan Freeman in the Clint Eastwood-directed film for Warner Bros.

Shooting will begin early next year in South Africa.

Damon will play rugby star Francois Pienaar, who created, with Nelson Mandela, an event that gave whites and blacks in South Africa a common cause to rally around as the country was trying to heal from the wounds of apartheid.

The Anthony Peckham-scripted drama is an adaptation of John Carlin's book "The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World."

Mandela, freed from 27 years in prison and elected president, decided to get behind South Africa's Springboks team when the country was selected as host country for the 1985 Rugby World Cup. The Springboks had been banned from international competition because of the country's apartheid practices.

The majority of blacks viewed the team as a symbol of exclusion, but they rooted along with white countrymen as the Springboks won in overtime against New Zealand to capture the Cup. Pienaar was the Springboks captain who developed a relationship with Mandela during the team's run.

Freeman and Revelations partner Lori McCreary will produce with Rob Lorenz and Mace Neufeld. Freeman got Mandela's blessing and brought the project to his pal Eastwood and also to WB, where both Revelations and Eastwood's Malpaso have their overall deals.

Damon wrapped the untitled Paul Greengrass-directed Universal drama based on "Imperial Life in Emerald City," and he's currently starring for Steven Soderbergh in "The Informant" for Warner Bros. He plans to rest up in the fall and make "Human Factor" his next starring role.

Spike Lee gets in Clint Eastwood's line of fire
· Director told to 'shut his face' after race comments
· Row over black casting in second world war films
Source: The Guardian

Clint Eastwood has advised rival film director Spike Lee to "shut his face" after the African-American complained about the racial make-up of Eastwood's films.

In an interview with the Guardian published today, Eastwood rejected Lee's complaint that he had failed to include a single African-American soldier in his films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both about the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.

In typically outspoken language, Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn't raise the flag. The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

"The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go: 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate." Referring to Lee, he added: "A guy like him should shut his face."

Lee's comments came during a press conference to promote his own war film, Miracle at St Anna, at the Cannes film festival last month. "Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen," Lee said. "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that ... But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

Lee's own film, about members of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought in Italy, is an attempt to set second world war history straight.

Eastwood, who described himself as libertarian - "Just stay out of everybody else's hair" - has a reputation for outspoken remarks. He once said he would kill fellow film-maker Michael Moore if he showed up uninvited at his house. His 2004 double-Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby was criticised by Christian groups who objected to part of the plot involving "assisted suicide".

Defending the racial make-up in his films as historically accurate, Eastwood referred to another of his films, Changeling, which was set in Los Angeles before the city had a large group of African-Americans. "What are you going to do, you going to tell a fuckin' story about that?" he said. "Make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is. When I do a movie and it's 90% black, like Bird, then I use 90% black people.

"He was complaining when I did Bird (the 1988 biopic of Charlie Parker). Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that's why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else."

Eastwood's next project, The Human Factor, will be about Nelson Mandela's attempts to foster national unity in post-apartheid South Africa. Asked if he would remain historically accurate with depictions of the former president, he said: "I'm not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy."

Quote from: MacGuffin on June 06, 2008, 10:42:30 AM
"A guy like him should shut his face."

marquee?

Quote from: JG on June 06, 2008, 07:16:27 PM

Quote from: MacGuffin on June 06, 2008, 10:42:30 AM
"A guy like him should shut his face."

marquee?

I second that. Fucking hilarious.

'Gran Torino' gets Dec. 17 slot
Clint Eastwood's drama hits in time for awards season
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" guns into the marketplace on Dec. 17.

Warner Bros. will give the Eastwood-helmed and -toplined drama a limited release in the midst of kudos season, with a platformed campaign into wide release to play out over subsequent frames. Warners had it tagged as an unslotted December release for months, but domestic distribution president Dan Fellman locked into the date after meeting with the filmmaker on Wednesday.

"It's a film that's sure to have great appeal both with moviegoers and critics," Fellman said.

"Torino" is one of two fourth-quarter releases considered early candidates for awards-season nominations. Universal's Eastwood-directed Angelina Jolie starrer "Changeling" bows wide on Friday.

In "Torino," Eastwood plays a grouchy widower spurred to tough action when his neighborhood is beset by violent gangs. The film gets its title from his character's vintage 1973 Ford Gran Torino.

Opening on a Wednesday, "Torino" will face boxoffice competition over the subsequent Dec. 19 weekend that includes two wide-release star vehicles -- Sony's Will Smith starrer "Seven Pounds" and Warners' own Jim Carrey-toplined "Yes Man."

Eastwood, Spielberg talking thriller
DreamWorks holds onto Morgan's 'Hereafter'
Source: Variety

Clint Eastwood is in talks to direct the supernatural thriller "Hereafter" for DreamWorks.

Company, led by principals Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, picked up the spec penned by "Frost/Nixon" scribe Peter Morgan in March when it was still a part of Paramount Pictures. DreamWorks held onto the project as part of its separation pact with the Melrose studio and has been wooing Eastwood to board the project for months.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it is described as in the vein of "The Sixth Sense."

Kathleen Kennedy is producing.

Eastwood, who has two films in awards season contention this year -- "The Changeling" and "Gran Torino" -- previously worked with Spielberg on "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," both of which Spielberg produced.

Clint Eastwood film lands familiar name
Director's son Scott joins Nelson Mandela drama
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Like father, cast son.

Scott Eastwood has nabbed a role in the untitled Nelson Mandela drama being directed by his father, Clint, for Warner Bros. and Spyglass Entertainment.

The younger Eastwood joins Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in the real-life story of how Mandela, as the new South African president, worked with the captain of the national rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite the country after apartheid. Eastwood will play a member of Pienaar's team, which makes a run at the 1995 World Cup Championship.

South African writer Anthony Peckham adapted the screenplay from John Carlin's book, "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation."

Clint Eastwood, Lori McCreary, Robert Lorenz and Mace Neufeld are producing the film. Freeman, Tim Moore, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are exec producing.

Scott Eastwood, whose credit often reads "Scott Reeves," also had roles in his father's films "Gran Torino" and "Flags of Our Fathers." The actor, repped by UTA and Joanne Horowitz Management, also appeared in "An American Crime" and "Pride."

Clint's Mandela film due Dec. 11
Eastwood's 'Invictus' stars Freeman, Damon
Source: Variety

Warner Bros. will open Clint Eastwood's "Invictus," the Nelson Mandela pic toplining Morgan Freeman, on Dec. 11.
Matt Damon also stars.

Film's working title had been "The Human Factor," adapted from John Carlin's tome "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation."

"Invictus" follows Mandela's attempt to use the 1995 Rugby World Cup to heal his nation following his release from prison, the fall of apartheid and his election as president of South Africa.

Damon portrays Francois Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team.

Eastwood drew the title of the film from a short poem often recited by Mandela. "Invictus," penned by William Ernest Henley, speaks to the will to survive in the face of adversity.

"Invictus" isn't the first picture to claim Dec. 11. Also opening that weekend is Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones," from Paramount and DreamWorks.

The Dec. 11 release puts "Invictus" and "Lovely Bones" in the heart of awards season.

Eastwood, Hollywood's most prolific director in the past several years, opened two films in fall 2007 and another two in 2008, "Changeling" and "Gran Torino."

"Gran Torino," in which Eastwood also starred, is the filmmaker's most successful box office title to date, earning $148 million domestically and $112.5 million overseas, where he also enjoys iconic status.

Warners, which has long been in business with Eastwood, released "Gran Torino."

As of now, "Invictus" is set to open wide, although that could change.

Damon set for Eastwood's 'Hereafter'
Warner Bros. thriller to begin lensing this fall
Source: Variety

Matt Damon will star in "Hereafter," Clint Eastwood's next producing-directing project for Warner Bros., with lensing on the thriller set to begin this fall.

For Eastwood, the project's a move into supernatural territory. Warner Bros. is keeping the logline under wraps beyond describing the project as a thriller in the vein of "The Sixth Sense."

Peter Morgan, who received an Oscar nomination for "Frost/Nixon," penned the script.

Eastwood's producing through his Warner-based Malpaso banner with Kathleen Kennedy and Eastwood producing partner Robert Lorenz. Kennedy and Marshall's company will receive a production credit.

Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Morgan and Tim Moore are exec producing. Project was originally set up at DreamWorks.

Damon can currently be seen in Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant." He will be seen starring opposite Morgan Freeman in Eastwood's "Invictus," the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's underdog rugby team to help unite their country. "Invictus" is set to open Dec. 11.

'Hereafter' calls Bryce Dallas Howard
Damon co-stars in Eastwood's supernatural thriller
Source: Variety

Bryce Dallas Howard has signed to star opposite Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood's supernatural drama "Hereafter" for Warner Bros.

"Hereafter," penned by Peter Morgan, tells the story of three people -- a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — who are touched by death in different ways. "Hereafter" is produced by Eastwood, Kathleen Kennedy and Robert Lorenz. Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Peter Morgan and Tim Moore are the exec producers.

Filming's taking place in Paris, London, Hawaii and San Francisco. Pic's slated for release in December 2010.

Howard will next be seen in indie drama "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond," opening in January, and in Summit's "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" in June.

She's currently producing the Untitled Gus Van Sant Project.

I saw Invictus last night.

I'm calling it Clint Eastwood's "This isn't normally the kind of movie I direct but the story's great so what the hell." ..film.. It's a good movie but falls a little flat in the sentimentality department. I never felt attached to the story like I was with say, Million Dollar Baby. Maybe it was the performances. Matt Damon wasn't the right person for his character. I felt someone less known could have brought greater impact to the role. I know he was nominated for a Golden Globe but.. meh. The whole thing just feels wooden and contrived. It's a good story which could have been better told.

what about that fuckin "color blind" song during mandela's visit that time

fuckin lol @ that

Clint Eastwood eyes J. Edgar Hoover project
Teaming with Imagine on screenplay from 'Milk' scribe
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Clint Eastwood is lining up his next directing project, a biopic of controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Eastwood is teaming with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment on the pic, which was initially set up at Universal, where Imagine has been developing it. Dustin Lance Black, who wrote biopic "Milk," penned the script.

Hoover was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935 and turned it into an efficient crimefighting organization. He remained its director until his death in 1972, but his sculpted persona was already coming apart at the seams; he employed the FBI to harass political activists and used illegal methods to make secret files on leaders. Many biographies also assert the man was a closeted homosexual and cross-dresser.

The Hoover project isn't set up at a studio, though it will most likely end up at Warner Bros., where Eastwood and his Malpaso shingle are based, as a Malpaso-Imagine production. Malpaso's Robert Lorenz also would serve as a producer in addition to Eastwood and Grazer.

There is a small connection between Hoover and the studio: Warners hired Hoover to act as a consultant on its 1959 movie "The FBI Story" and on the ABC spinoff series "The F.B.I."

Eastwood, who is in post on his drama "Hereafter," worked with Imagine in 2008 on the 1920s-set Angelina Jolie drama "The Changeling."

Leonardo DiCaprio Eyes J. Edgar Hoover Role In Biopic For Eastwood and Grazer
By MIKE FLEMING; Deadline Hollywood

EXCLUSIVE: Leonardo DiCaprio is in early talks to play FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in Hoover, an epic drama that Clint Eastwood will direct and that he and Brian Grazer will produce with Rob Lorenz through Imagine and Malpaso. Talks with Leo are just getting underway, but I'm told that DiCaprio will play the lead role in the film written by Dustin Lance Black, with production to begin later this year. The project began at Universal, where Imagine is based, but is mobilizing at Warners, where Eastwood's Malpaso has long called home, and where Eastwood is in post production on Hereafter, the film that stars Matt Damon.

Sources tell me that Imagine had been developing "the story of the beginning of the FBI" for a year when it finally showed the script to Universal, where the reaction was negative. "This is exactly what we don't want to make," Uni execs reacted. "It's period, and we have lost enough money with these things." But then Grazer got the screenplay to pal Clint (they did The Changeling and have had a personal relationship ever since), the two men met about it in mid-February, and suddenly Universal has a tough decision to make since. As a Uni exec admits, "Clint is an amazing director with an extraordinary trach record, and you can't possibly dismiss anything he gets excited about. The first question now to ask is how much will it cost to make?" Universal's reticence is understandable, as the studio has endured a rough run with adult-themed dramas. The film will prove a better fit at Warner Bros.

This will be DiCaprio's first film with Eastwood. This role sounds as ambitious as his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Howard Hughes in the Scorsese-directed The Aviator. In Hoover, he takes on one of the other formative figures in 20th Century America. Hoover formed the country's federal jurisdiction law enforcement system with the establishment of the FBI and, while he might have come in with high ideals as a public servant, he increasingly became a manipulative power broker with a closet full of his own secrets. When Hoover is depicted in films, it is usually in unflattering fashion. But I've heard this script described as "peeling back the curtain on the life of Hoover" with no cross-dressing claims.

Quote from: SoNowThen on November 24, 2003, 12:13:16 PM
has anybody seen Bird? I really wanna, but can't find it here...

did anyone saw it? I just did yesterday and I don't know what to think of the whole thing but was very impressed with a lot of it.

I never expected the "bebop" approach to the narrative which makes it hard to adjust at the beginning, but then everything is so detailed and emotional in it, and it's such a long film with so many little moments in it, by the end you have a very deep portrait of the man. Whitaker is incredible here, easily his best performance ever. He glues it all together in more than one way, this film needed this performance to even get close to it's ambitions.

Some of the filmmaking is definitely more extravagant technically than what I'm used from Clint Eastwood, I thought for a bunch of moments I was seeing a Scorsese or Spike Lee movie, particularly during a perfect steadycam shot that lasts for a while, following a random character who appears only in that one sequence. That shot illustrates the nature of the narrative that this script and director weave with such apparent ease, it just seems to flow in the moment and get back to track like a jazz piece. The mood is also expertly crafted, and the dark cinematography with those long sequences of jazz playing help to really make you feel inside this world.

The film had, for me, some problems that maybe in a second viewing could fade, mainly relating to Diane Lenora's performance, and some of the dialogue feeling a bit overdramatic. But this is essential viewing if you like filmmaking, I would say.

DiCaprio With Beyoncé In 'A Star Is Born'?
BY NIKKI FINKE | Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: I hear Clint Eastwood is using his time with Leonardo DiCaprio on the J Edgar Hoover biopic to discuss the director's new Warner Bros project A Star Is Born. Clint is hoping to team Leo with Beyoncé, who's already set for the musical. Clint is producing through Malpaso as well as helming the script by Will Fetters. Producers are Billy Gerber and Basil Iwanyk and Jon Peters (who made the infamous version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson). The project has been at WB for several years, and there'd been talk of pairing Beyoncé and Will Smith. But casting Leo as the male lead would make for a much more interesting movie. There have been a trio of A Star Is Born versions made since the 1930s, the last one coming in 1976 with Kristofferson playing the boozer and Streisand the wannabe.

Clint Eastwood In Negotiations To Direct 'American Sniper' For Warner Bros
BY NIKKI FINKE, Deadline

I've learned that Warner Bros wants to fast-track production for the first quarter of 2014 and is in "tentative negotiations" with Clint Eastwood to direct. This is after Steven Spielberg this month took American Sniper out of his crosshairs, after declaring in May that he would next helm the film about decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, with Bradley Cooper playing the marksman. DreamWorks joined Warner Bros in a co-production when Spielberg said he would direct the script by Jason Hall. Both Spielberg and DreamWorks pulled out completely so there's no extra expense to Warner Bros.

American Sniper has Cooper not only starring but producing with Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan. Eastwood is prepping to direct the movie version of Jersey Boys for Warner Bros. Production on that film will start at the end of August on the studio lot and is produced by Graham King and Rob Lorenz.