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A beginner’s guide to Clint Eastwood – My Blog

American actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood is widely considered by many to be one of the biggest stars of the 20th century while others regard him as a crumbling symbol of an obsolete idea of masculinity. Ranging from his iconic portrayal of the ‘Man with No Name’ to his directorial talent evident in films like Unforgiven, Eastwood’s cinematic legacy is full of prestigious accolades like multiple Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

In an interview, Eastwood once said: “For me, because I’ve directed myself so often, I go back and forth. I always carry a certain amount of it, but I can live and think about other things. The character is sort of seated in your mind before you do the picture. It’s like doing a play. You have it in your mind but you can have a life and go to dinner and then pull yourself into it. The only difference in movies is that you’re doing it a hundred times a day. It’s a technique that you develop over the years. Some people find it very difficult, others find it not easy but less difficult.”
He added, “Everyone directs movies differently, but the way I get that is just by doing it. Certain scenes I’ll rehearse if there are technical difficulties of lighting and camera. Fortunately I have a camera crew that’s very well oiled, so they pretty much know where I’m headed, without much explanation. And then, when we get to the point where I’m doing it, no one asks questions when I’m trying to get into the part. The objective is to make everything sound like the first time it’s said, so the only thing I can do is try to pick it up the very first time it is said.”
On his 91st birthday, we take a look at six definitive films from Clint Eastwood’s illustrious career as a celebration of his contribution to the world of cinema.

Clint Eastwood’s 6 definitive films:
Dollars Trilogy (Sergio Leone – 1964 to 1966)
Sergio Leone‘s famous trilogy of iconic spaghetti westerns featured Eastwood in his first iconic leading role. Consisting of A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone’s trilogy is now credited as the body of work that established the spaghetti western genre. Due to the unprecedented success of the films, Eastwood experienced stardom and acclaim.
The actor said: “I think [the Leone films] changed the style, the approach to Westerns [in Hollywood]. … They made the violence and the shooting aspect a little more larger than life, and they had great music and new types of scores. … They were stories that hadn’t been used in other Westerns. They just had a look and a style that was a little different at the time: I don’t think any of them was a classic story—like [John Wayne’s 1956] The Searchers or something like that—they were more fragmented, episodic, following the central character through various little episodes.”
The Man With No Name - Dollars Trilogy


Dirty Harry (Don Siegel – 1971)
One of Eastwood’s most popular film performances, he stars in Don Siegel’s 1971 neo-noir as a psychopathic police detective. The film drew inspiration from the events of the Zodiac Killer case and turned out to be a major critical and commercial success. It even inspired copycat criminals who tried to mimic the film’s excesses.
Eastwood admitted: “I was told when I first got the script that other actors had liked it but had reservations about the political elements of it. But even at that age, I was not afraid of it. To me, it was an exciting detective story. It was a fantasy. Here’s a guy who is so dogmatic that nothing is going to stop him when his mind is made up.”
Dirty Harry Do You ( I ) Feel Lucky Punk?  ( high quality )
High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood – 1973)
Influenced by the directors he had worked under, Eastwood directed his own competent western in 1973 where he starred as an enigmatic stranger who acts as the arbitrary enforcer of morality and justice. The screenplay was based on the actual 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese.
According to multiple reports, Eastwood wrote a letter to John Wayne suggesting a collaboration after the release of High Plains Drifter. However, Wayne was critical of Eastwood’s “violence and revisionist portrayal of the Old West” and declined the offer.
High Plains Drifter - Clint Eastwood Entry
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood – 1992)
Unforgiven is Eastwood’s memorable attempt to construct a compelling revisionist western. At the time of making it, the director said that it would be his last western before he moved on to new things. Unforgiven picked up multiple awards like including Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director among others.
“A lot of people said, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to be a cowboy actor.’ But I want to mix it up. I guess that’s why when I got (the script for) Unforgiven in the early ’80s I put it in a drawer for 10 years, I’d done a bunch of Westerns, I thought I should do some other things first. Then 10 years later I picked it up and re-read it and it felt fresh,” the actor commented.
Unforgiven (1992) Official Trailer - Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman Movie H
Mystic River (Clint Eastwood – 2003)
A film adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s eponymous novel, Mystic River investigates the relationship between childhood trauma and the fracture of the human psyche. It stars Sean Penn as a former convict whose life devolves into tragedy due to his painful past.
While speaking about his motivation to make the film, Eastwood said, “It’s very difficult to say what attracts you to the project, but I’ve always been very curious about victims of crime, victims of child abuse, one of the most hideous crimes we have on the planet.”
He added, “There’s a certain father’s nightmare in the drama of this film, how one [terrible] tiny incident affects so many people. It’s a kind of fate-driven story, a train you can’t get off, like it or not. Kevin has a speech at the end of the movie: ‘Maybe we all got in that car that day.’ It’s baggage these characters carry from when they are little boys.”
Mystic River - Theatrical Trailer
Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood – 2006)
This 2006 war film was made in conjunction with Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from a Japanese perspective. The film was more appreciated in Japan where it was a huge commercial success and received praise from audiences who felt that Letters from Iwo Jima worked because it actively discarded problematic stereotypes.
Eastwood recalled, “I got the idea to do The Letters from Iwo Jima, and I thought, ‘That’s so hard to do because it’s hard to find out much information on it.’ So I went to Japan and talked to the governor of the prefecture in charge of Iwo Jima and I told him that this is a story that has to be told from a Japanese point of view. And I think there’s an awful lot of relatives and people left over from that era who would love to imagine what it must be like to be in that situation.”
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) Trailer - HD

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‘Black movie queen’ Maureen O’Hara – a close colleague of John Wayne passed away in front of the audience’s mourning. – My Blog

The star of the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”, a familiar co-star of actor John Wayne, has passed away due to old age and weakness. Maureen O’Hara, an Irish star, was once known as “the queen of movies. color”, died at his home in Boise, Idaho, USA, on October 24, at the age of 95.


The information was confirmed by Johnny Nicoletti, her long-time manager. “She passed away in the loving arms of her family, as well as on the soundtrack of the movie The Quiet Man that she loved so much,” one Maureen O’Hara’s relatives shared.

During her illustrious career, O’Hara had five times played the screen lover of actor John Wayne. She appeared in many classic Hollywood films, such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952). , Our Man in Havana (1959) and The Parent Trap (1961).

However, she never received an Oscar nomination. A year before Maureen O’Hara’s death, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to present her with an honorary Oscar for her service to Hollywood.

During the 1940s, when color film began to flourish, Maureen O’Hara appeared in a series of compelling works such as To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945). and The Quiet Man.

Possessing fair skin, red hair, as well as green eyes, she “shines like the sun on a silver screen,” as the New York Times described it. It was Dr. Herbert Kalmus, the inventor of color film, who gave Maureen O’Hara the nickname “color film queen”.

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The reason why John Wayne is labeled ‘Draft Dodger’ in Wor ւ ԁ War II . – My Blog

When actor John Wayne visited American soldiers in Vietnam in the summer of 1966, he was warmly welcomed. As he spoke to groups and individuals, he was presented gifts and letters from American and South Vietnamese troops alike. This was not the case during his USO tours in 1942 and ’43.According to author Garry Wills’ 1998 book, “John Wayne’ America: the Politics of Celebrity,” the actor received a chorus of boos when he walked onto the USO stages in Australia and the Pacific Islands. Those audiences were filled with combat veterans. Wayne, in his mid-30s, was not one of them.


Around the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Wayne was not the big-name actor we remember him being today. He was fresh off the box-office success of the 1939 film “Stagecoach.”Being drafted or enlisting was going to have a serious impact on his rising star. Depending on how long the ԝаr lasted, Wayne reportedly worried he might be too old to be a leading man when he came home.

Other actors, both well-established and rising in fame, rushed off to do their part. Clark Gable joined the Army Air Forces and, despite the studios’ efforts to get him into a motion picture unit, served as an aerial ɡսոոеr over Europe. Jimmy Stewart was initially ineligible for the draft, given his low weight, but like some amazing version of Captain America, he drank beer until he qualified.In his 2014 book, “American Titan: Searching for John Wayne,” author Marc Eliot alleges Wayne was having an affair with actress Marlene Dietrich. He says the possibility of losing this relationship was the real reason Wayne didn’t want to go to ԝаr.

But even Dietrich would do her part, smuggling Jewish people out of Europe, entertaining troops on the front lines (she crossed into Germany alongside Gen. George S. Patton) and maybe even being an operative for the Office of Strategic Services.Wayne never enlisted and even filed for a 3-A draft deferment, which meant that if the sole provider for a family of four were drafted, it would cause his family undue hardship. The closest he would ever come to Worւԁ Wаr II service would be portraying the actions of others on the silver screen.

With his leading man competition fighting the ԝаr and out of the way, Wayne became Hollywood’s top leading man. During the ԝаr, Wayne starred in a number of western films as well as Worւԁ Wаr II movies, including 1942’s “Flying Tigers” and 1944’s “The Fighting Seabees.” According to Eliot, Wayne told friends the best thing he could do for the ԝаr was make movies to support the troops. Eventually, the government agreed.

At one point during the ԝаr, the need for more men in uniform caused the U.S. military brass to change Wayne’s draft status to 1-A, fit for duty. But Hollywood studios intervened on his behalf, arguing that the actor’s star power was a boon for ԝаrtime propaganda and the morale of the troops. He was given a special 2-A status, which back then meant he was deferred in “support of national interest.”The decision not to serve or to avoid it entirely (depending on how you look at the actor) haunted Wayne for the rest of his life. His third wife, Pilar Wayne, says he became a “super-patriot for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying at home.”

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John Wayne Wanted to Make His Home Alarm a Hilarious Tape Recording of His Voice: ‘I See You, You Son of a B****’

John Wayne Wanted to Make His Home Alarm a Hilarious Tape Recording of His Voice: ‘I See You, You Son of a B****’

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