There was a time when Clint Eastwood, in his twin guises of director and movie star, was simple and easy to pin down: a manly, macho, “think with your fists” sort of guy, the kind who was all about Westerns and war pictures and crime movies where the bad guys were easy to sort out and easier to kill. Pepper in a few comedies, but even those were pretty masculine and violent.

This state of affairs took a turn for the weird in the late ’80s, when Eastwood directed Bird, a jazz biopic, and White Hunter, Black Heart, an unclassifiable critique of moviemaking and moviemakers, and ever since then his career has lunged strangely from place to place, sometimes with success and sometimes not, but always exploring: there are many things you can say against Hereafter, for example, but one of them is not that it finds the director resting on his laurels.

Still and all, the film that remains the furthest outlier in the Eastwood canon, I am convinced, simply must be The Bridges of Madison County from 1995, which found the director/star trying his hand at a melodramatic weeper, what they would have called a “woman’s picture” back in the ’40s, which is about the same moviemaking epoch that the film hearkens back to.

That Dirty Harry Callahan, that the Man with No Name, would have seen fit to go for broke and make an unabashed chick flick is still surprising, but not half as surprising as the finished product, which adapts a by-all-accounts disposable romance novel into an absolutely devastating tragic love story, and is among the very best films in Eastwood’s career, as director or as actor.

And yet, it is also not very surprising at all. His entire living filmmaker tries so consistently and so re-recreating the bare-bones essence of factory-made cinema from the golden age of the studios: he is the most old-fashioned of directors His in that respect, and some of his best films have been dusty old formulas given a light contemporary dusting.

The Bridges of Madison County is assuredly a dusty old romance: save for the word “fuck” and some carefully PG-13, fire-dappled lovemaking scenes, there’s hardly a scene in it that wouldn’ve have played, more or less, exactly the same way in a movie made 50 years earlier. Perhaps it is the case that Bridges is more naturalistic, lit and shot to look much more like everyday reality, and acted with none of the swooning excesses that the soap-operatic scenario would have enjoyed in the immediate post-war era. But there’s a much shorter line between this and a Douglas Sirk picture than the vast gulf in personality separation Sirk from Eastwood would suggest.

Clint Eastwood sued several companies that sell CBD supplements in late July, alleging that they are falsely using his name and image to push products he would never agree to endorse.Two lawsuits filed in federal court in Los Angeles include allegations that companies have spread phony articles reporting that the 90-year-old actor-director is quitting the movie business to focus on a CBD business.

The lawsuits say Eastwood has no part in the manufacture, sale or promotion of CBD, a chemical derived from marijuana sold as a dietary supplement or often included in creams and ointments.In the suits that seek millions in damages, Eastwood names as defendants nearly 20 small companies, based in states including Arizona, California, Delaware and Florida, that sell CBD, along with up to 60 anonymous entities that may be named later.

One of the companies, Sera Labs, said in a statement that it “worked for a limited time with a publisher and gave them specific advertisements they could use which follow our very strict guidelines and shut down the ads immediately after learning that they used Eastwood’s name and likeness.”

The company said prohibit using such false claims in its ads and has severed all relationships with the advertiser, and it represents the same others in the industry to do the same industry.Other companies named in the suit, including Patriot Supreme and Norok Innovation Inc., did not immediately respond to messages seeking comments.

The suit says phony news articles on Eastwood and his supposed championing and selling of CBD have been spread via email and social media.The headline on one such story reads: “Big Pharma In Outrage Over Clint Eastwood’s CBD … He Fires Back With This!”

Another headline says, “Breaking News: Clint Eastwood Exposes Shocking Secret Today. “The story includes links to purchase what it claims are Eastwood’s CBD products and quotes from a fabricated interview where Eastwood says he has moved on from the film business. That article also includes fake testimonials about the products from several celebrities, the suit says.One of the suits also alleges that companies are using hidden tags and other tactics that link Eastwood’s name to their products in online searches.

For some casual movie fans, little is known about Sondra Locke beyond her connection to Clint Eastwood, her long-term boyfriend and frequent collaborator. While she was busy putting together a strong career, which included earning an Academy Award nomination for her acting debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and directing four films, Eastwood loomed over many of her achievements. And her relationship with the For a Few Dollars More star was not the only difficult chapter of her life.

It seemed that at every step along the way, Locke was met by a new obstacle to deal with and a new challenge to overcome. In her quest to achieve great success in Tinsel Town, she found herself at odds against her family, the industry, and, yes, Eastwood. In the end, she led a rather remarkable life that should have stood out on its own. She endured threats to her career, her livelihood, and even her life, but Locke’s legacy remains shrouded by the larger-than-life persona and name of her former significant other.

Here are some of the tragic details about Clint Eastwood’s ex-girlfriend, Sondra Locke.Sondra Locke was born in Tennessee as Sandra Smith. According to The Independent, her father was a soldier who was out of the picture before she was born. Her last name was later changed to that of her stepfather’s, Alfred Locke. She also took on the stage name, Sondra. As a young woman, Locke had dreams of becoming an actor, but her family dissuaded her.

In her autobiography, The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly, Locke recalls a rift growing between her and her mother for years, and at 19 years old, a fight between them gave her the push she needed to leave. She remembered her mother telling her she could “pack your bags, girl, and get outta here” if she wasn’t up for doing as she was told. So, Locke did just that, and she never looked back.

Locke wrote in her book that, in nearly 30 years, she and her mother had “a handful of conversations and short visits.” Locke would never truly reconcile with her parents, but she had no regrets. “It made no sense for any of us to spend our lives pretending to have relationships that did not really exist,” she explained in the memoir. “And even though it is my nature to feel responsible and guilty, even when I’m not significant, I never felt that way about my decision to walk away from my parents’ home.”

Sandra Locke and her ‘Prince Charming’ didn’t last : Sondra Locke met Clint Eastwood in 1975 while shooting The Outlaw Josey Wales. The two instantly fell in love. Locke embarked on a 14-year relationship with the man who, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 1996, she once believed was her “Prince Charming.” She also starred in six films with him along the way.

That said, it sounds like Locke’s time with “Prince Charming” wasn’t exactly a fairy tale. She claimed Eastwood became possessive, and when she tried to expand her career without him, he allegedly reacted negatively. “I worked exclusively with Clint,” she said in 1996 (via E!). “He didn’t like the idea of ​​me being away from him.”