Greetings, reader!
Well, my dear father Dave turns 60 years old this Sunday, so in his honor, I'm ranking the best performances by his favorite actor, Clint Eastwood, as well as the best-directed films by his favorite director - Clint Eastwood. There's a lot of overlap in these categories, as Eastwood stars in many of the films he's directed, but there are also many that he directed where he doesn't act, as well as some great performances by him in films directed by someone else. Anyways, here are the top 5 acting performances, as well as the top 5 best-directed films, by the man whose name spells 'Old west action' when you rearrange the letters.
#5 in directing performances: J. Edgar (2011)
Eastwood does a thoroughly solid job directing this biopic of notorious FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The script by Dustin Lance Black takes a surprisingly humane look at the man, not painting him as a full-scale monster as history often presents him, but rather taking a deep dive into why the complicated man was the way he was. Eastwood's skillful directing realizes this vision gracefully, and it is further complimented by the lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, who (as always) understood the assignment. It is a dark and dramatic biopic, and Eastwood's trademark gritty style fits it like a glove.
#5 in acting performances: Blondie in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
The charisma of a young Clint Eastwood in classic spaghetti westerns such as this one is a peculiar sort of charisma. He mostly makes gritty facial expressions and spits out equally gritty lines of dialogue every now and then. But it works like a charm - it's no wonder that the man is considered pretty much synonymous with the western genre. Eastwood in this film is one of the all-time classic western gunslinger performances, and no other actor could pull it off in quite the same way.
#4 in directing performances: Gran Torino (2008)
Eastwood's directing of this film (that he also stars in) is down-to-earth, even minimalistic to a degree. There's no stylistic flair and no extra touches, nor does the film need them: it's all about the dialogue, and the events in the film's small-scale setting, to the point that it almost feels like you're watching a stage play from the silver screen. Nick Schenk & Dave Johannson's script comes to life with just the no-bullshit straight-to-the-point atmosphere that the story and characters call for, making this into one of the finer offerings in Eastwood's directorial catalogue.
#4 in acting performances: Frank Morris in Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
My top 3 favorite Clint Eastwood role performances are all from films that he also directed, which means that Escape from Alcatraz is my all-time favorite performance by him in a film by another director. In this thrilling Don Siegel movie, Eastwood plays legendary real-life convict Frank Morris, the mastermind behind the most famous escape attempt from the notorious Alcatraz prison.
I was absolutely fascinated by this true story in my teen years (don't we all have that phase in our youths when we watch Prison Break for the first time and become heavily intrigued with all sorts of escape narratives? Oh, it's just me? Okay...), and when I finally got my hands on this cinematic adaptation of the escape, it certainly met my expectations. Eastwood's take on Frank Morris was exactly how I had imagined the man when reading about the escape, and he carries the role well with his trademark badass grittiness.
#3 in directing performances: Invictus (2009)
They say that the very best acting performances are born when the actors are being directed by the very best directors. Well, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon both earned Oscar nominations for their two performances in Invictus, and they are largely regarded as some of the very best work those two big names have done in their careers.
Eastwood's powerful directing helps elevate these performances to greatness, with especially Freeman's take on Nelson Mandela being extremely powerful and memorable. Clint does an excellent job bringing the challenging and gripping atmosphere of post-Apartheid South Africa to life, as he does directing the intense sport sequences as the film follows the South African rugby team's road to glory.
#3 in acting performances: Josey Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
With a sharp contrast to his western performances prior to this one, Eastwood took on the titular role of Josey Wales with an unforeseen level of seriousness. His characters had always been gritty, but being like that in a stylized Sergio Leone spaghetti western is one thing, while bringing the same energy into a more serious semi-revisionist western about a man who lost his family and is out for revenge is a whole other thing.
His grit has less mystery and more context here, making his role as the cold shell of a man into a very grim and powerful showcase of his acting chops. The same film barely missed out on my list of Eastwood's five best directing performances - it is very well-directed especially when considering that it's one of his first feature films, but it's not quite on the same level that he would gain in the next decades with more experience under his belt.
#2 in directing performances: Unforgiven (1992)
This was the first time Eastwood was nominated for the Best Picture and Best Director categories in the Academy Awards - and he ended up winning both. This was quite the deserved win, as Unforgiven is an unforgettable film with a unique position in its genre: it can be seen as the last 'real western' due to its embracement of certain traditions in a dying genre, while also being seen as a revisionist western that broke new ground. Deconstructing the western genre by going against its clichés while also feeling like a true western at its heart is a difficult job for a film to accomplish, but Eastwood sure was the right man for the job.
Set in the small town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming in the 1880's, and consisting of character archetypes such as the sheriff (Gene Hackman), the young hot-shot gunslinger (Jaimz Woolvett), the old and retired legendary gunslinger grudgingly returning for one last job (you guessed it - Clint Eastwood) and his old partner-in-crime (Morgan Freeman), Unforgiven has all the elements for a classic western in its recipe. But Eastwood twists expectations into a strong and powerful statement, as the film's dark atmosphere and the deeper nature of the characters go against the expected stereotypes. No wonder this guy is my Dad's favorite director.
#2 in acting performances: Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino (2008)
Gran Torino is one of those select few movies where Clint's acting is even more impressive than his directing. On one hand, you could argue that the role in question is so close to home that he more or less doesn't need to 'act', as he plays the part of a grumpy conservative badass. I'd be shocked if it turned out that the film's iconic line "Get off my lawn" hasn't been uttered by the real-life Eastwood more than a few times in his life. That being said, playing a role close to home also brings its own unique challenges, in channelling oneself into the role yet managing to separate truth from fiction.
Eastwood walks this line well, and the gradual redemption arch of his character Walt Kowalski comes across with grit and grace. The film's highlights are the conversations between Kowalski and Father Janovich (Christopher Carley), as Clint manages to convey many complex emotions and philosophies through very little facial expressions and vague lines of dialogue. No wonder this guy is my Dad's favorite actor.
#1 in directing performances: Jersey Boys (2014)
Directing a musical requires tons of skill and work. While Jersey Boys is just on the edge of whether or not it qualifies as a musical per se, as the song-and-dance sequences are relatively few and the film has more spoken dialogue and non-music scenes than typical musicals, the movie does utilize many of the genre's elements nonetheless. It's not a production you might expect from the guy who brought us Million Dollar Baby and American Sniper, but it sure shows range and creativity on his part.
The delicate balance between mafia movie dialogue and Broadway musicals is quite excellent, as we follow an account of the band The Four Seasons, with attention paid both to the group's music career as well as their entanglements in organized crime. In the parts where people are bursting into song with wonderful choreographies, you'll chuckle at the mental image of macho tough-guy Clint Eastwood directing such a picture, but in scenes like the one where Tommy (Vincent Piazza) is threatened by loan sharks because he owes the Five Families 150 grand, you'll say "Yeah, this checks out".
#1 in acting performances: Bill Munny in Unforgiven (1992)
If The Outlaw Josey Wales was Clint Eastwood toning his gritty cowboy charisma down to a more realistic, down-to-earth and grim level, then Unforgiven is the last step in this process as the actor achieves 'serious western' perfection. His take on the 'retired old gunslinger grudgingly returning for one last job' trope isn't the typical R.O.G.G.R.F.O.L.J., as the anti-hero morals and dark backstory of Bill Munny give some powerful context to the character's attitudes.
While Best Director and Best Picture are the only Oscars Eastwood won for Unforgiven, he also got nominated for the Best Leading Actor category for the first time in his career for the same film. And no wonder why - his gripping performance is classy and complex, and my personal favorite from his prolific career. He's very much himself in essence, doing the sort of gritty and grumpy cowboy role one would expect, but the way he interprets the character's dark nature and weaves it into his performance throughout various nuances is truly impressive. As a director, Unforgiven is Eastwood's second-greatest achievement in my view, but as an actor, it is his finest hour.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I post my ranking of the films in the Harry Potter universe, including the newly released Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).
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