1954–1962: Acting debut and Rawhide in an episode of
Rawhide, 1959 According to a CBS press release for
Rawhide,
Universal-International's camera crew was shooting in Fort Ord when an enterprising assistant spotted Eastwood and invited him to meet the director, although this is disputed by Eastwood's unauthorized biographer, Patrick McGilligan. According to Eastwood's official biography, the key figure was a man named Chuck Hill, who was stationed in Fort Ord and had contacts in Hollywood. Lubin suggested that he attend drama classes and arranged for Eastwood's initial contract in April 1954, at $100 per week. In May 1954, Eastwood made his first real audition for
Six Bridges to Cross, but was rejected by
Joseph Pevney. After many unsuccessful auditions, he was eventually given a minor role by director
Jack Arnold in
Revenge of the Creature (1955), a sequel to the recently released
Creature from the Black Lagoon. In September 1954, Eastwood worked for three weeks on Arthur Lubin's
Lady Godiva of Coventry, won a role in February 1955, playing "Jonesy", a sailor in
Francis in the Navy and appeared uncredited in another Jack Arnold film,
Tarantula, where he played a squadron pilot. In May 1955, Eastwood put four hours' work into the film
Never Say Goodbye and had a minor uncredited role as a ranch hand in August 1955 with
Star in the Dust, starring
John Agar and
Mamie Van Doren, the latter of whom he dated briefly. Universal presented him with his first television role on July 2, 1955, on
NBC's
Allen in Movieland, which starred comedian
Steve Allen, actor
Tony Curtis, and swing musician
Benny Goodman. Although he continued to develop as an actor, Universal terminated his contract on October 23, 1955. Eastwood joined the Marsh Agency, and although Lubin landed him his biggest role to date in
The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and later hired him for
Escapade in Japan (1957), without a formal contract, Eastwood was struggling. On his financial advisor
Irving Leonard's advice, he switched to the Kumin-Olenick Agency in 1956 and Mitchell Gertz in 1957. He landed several small roles in 1956 as a temperamental army officer for a segment of
ABC's ''Reader's Digest
series, and as a motorcycle gang member on a Highway Patrol'' episode. In 1958, he played a Navy lieutenant in a segment of
Navy Log and in early 1959 made a notable guest appearance as Red Hardigan on
Maverick opposite
James Garner as a cowardly villain intent on marrying a rich girl for money. In 1958, Eastwood was cast as Rowdy Yates in the CBS hour-long western series
Rawhide, the career breakthrough he had long sought. Eastwood was not especially happy with his character; Eastwood was almost 30, and Rowdy was too young and cloddish for his comfort. Filming began in Arizona in the summer of 1958. It took just three weeks for
Rawhide to reach the top 20 in TV ratings and, although it never won an
Emmy, it was a major success for several years, and peaked at number six in the ratings from October 1960 to April 1961. The
Rawhide years (1959–65) were some of the most grueling of Eastwood's career, often filming six days a week for an average of 12 hours a day, but some directors still criticized him for not working hard enough. By late 1963,
Rawhide was beginning to decline in the ratings and lacked freshness in the scripts; it was canceled in the middle of the 1965–66 season. Eastwood made his first attempt at directing when he filmed several trailers for the show, but was unable to convince producers to let him direct an episode.
1963–1969: Spaghetti Westerns and stardom In late 1963, Eastwood's
Rawhide co-star
Eric Fleming rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made western called
A Fistful of Dollars (1964), filmed in a remote region of Spain by a then–relatively unknown director,
Sergio Leone.
Richard Harrison suggested Eastwood to Leone because Harrison knew that Eastwood could play a cowboy convincingly. Eastwood thought the film would be an opportunity to escape from his
Rawhide image. He signed a contract for $15,000 in wages for eleven weeks' work, with a bonus of a
Mercedes-Benz automobile upon completion. Eastwood later said of the transition from a TV western to
A Fistful of Dollars: "In
Rawhide I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an
antihero." Eastwood was instrumental in creating the
Man with No Name character's distinctive visual style and, although a nonsmoker, Leone insisted Eastwood smoke cigars as an essential ingredient of the "mask" he was attempting to create for the character. "I needed a mask more than an actor," Leone would later explain, "and back then Eastwood had only two facial expressions: with the hat and without the hat".
A Fistful of Dollars proved a landmark in the development of
spaghetti Westerns, with Leone depicting a more lawless and desolate world than traditional westerns, and challenging the American stereotype of the western herο by offering a morally ambiguous antihero. The film's success made Eastwood a major star in Italy In January 1966, Eastwood met producer
Dino De Laurentiis in New York City and agreed to star in a non-Western five-part anthology production,
The Witches (
Le Streghe, 1967), opposite De Laurentiis's wife,
Silvana Mangano. Eastwood's 19-minute installment took only a few days to shoot. Two months later he began work on
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, again playing the mysterious Man with No Name.
Lee Van Cleef returned as a ruthless fortune seeker, with
Eli Wallach portraying the Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez. The storyline involved the search for a cache of
Confederate gold buried in a cemetery. During the filming of a scene in which a bridge was blown up, Eastwood urged Wallach to retreat to a hilltop. "I know about these things", he said. "Stay as far away from special effects and explosives as you can." Minutes later, confusion among the crew over the word "Vaya!" resulted in a premature explosion that could have killed Wallach. All three were commercially successful, particularly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which eventually earned $8 million in rental earnings and turned Eastwood into a major film star being ranked for the first time on
Quigley's Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll in 1968 in fifth place. All three received poor reviews, and marked the beginning of a battle for Eastwood to win American film critics' respect.
Judith Crist described
A Fistful of Dollars as "cheapjack", while
Newsweek called
For a Few Dollars More "excruciatingly dopey".
Renata Adler of
The New York Times said
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was "the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre".
Time drew attention to the film's wooden acting, especially Eastwood's, though a few critics such as
Vincent Canby and
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times praised his coolness. Leone's cinematography was widely acclaimed, even by critics who disparaged the acting. playing a man who takes up a marshal's badge and seeks revenge as a lawman after being lynched by
vigilantes and left for dead. The film earned Eastwood $400,000 and 25% of its net box office. Leonard arranged for ''Hang 'Em High'' to be a joint production with United Artists; when it opened in August, it had the largest opening weekend in United Artists' history. ''Hang 'Em High
was widely praised by critics, including Archer Winsten of the New York Post'', who called it "a western of quality, courage, danger and excitement".
Jennings Lang arranged for Eastwood to meet
Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who later became Eastwood's close friend, forming a partnership that would last more than ten years and produce five films. Shooting began in November 1967, before the script had been finalized. The film was controversial for its portrayal of violence. Eastwood was paid $750,000 for the war epic
Where Eagles Dare (1968), about a World War II squad parachuting into a
Gestapo stronghold in
the Alps.
Richard Burton played the squad's commander, with Eastwood as his right-hand man. Eastwood was also cast as
Two-Face in the
Batman television show, but the series was canceled before filming began. Eastwood then branched out to co-star in a musical,
Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood and
Lee Marvin play gold miners who buy a Mormon settler's less favored wife (
Jean Seberg) at an auction. Bad weather and delays plagued the production, and the film's budget eventually exceeded $20 million, which was high for the time. The film was not a critical or commercial success, but was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
1970–1989: Directorial debut and Dirty Harry Eastwood starred with
Shirley MacLaine in the western
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), directed by Don Siegel. The film follows an American mercenary, who becomes mixed up with a prostitute disguised as a nun, and ends up helping a group of
Juarista rebels during the reign of Emperor
Maximilian I of Mexico. Eastwood again played a mysterious strangerunshaven, wearing a serape-like vest, and smoking a cigar. Although it received moderate reviews, the film is listed in
The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. Shot on location in Yugoslavia and London, the film received mostly a positive reception and its anti-war sentiments were recognized. Upon release the film received major recognition in France and is considered one of Eastwood's finest works by French critics. However, it grossed less than $1 million and, according to Eastwood and Lang, flopped due to poor publicity and the "emasculated" role of Eastwood. Eastwood's career reached a turning point in 1971. Before Irving Leonard died, he and Eastwood had discussed the idea of Malpaso producing
Play Misty for Me, a film that was to give Eastwood the artistic control he desired, and his debut as a director. The script was about a jazz disc jockey named Dave (Eastwood), who has a casual affair with Evelyn (
Jessica Walter), a listener who had been calling the radio station repeatedly at night, asking him to play her favorite song –
Erroll Garner's "
Misty". When Dave ends their relationship, the unhinged Evelyn becomes a murderous stalker. Filming commenced in
Monterey in September 1970 and included footage of that year's
Monterey Jazz Festival. The film was highly acclaimed with critics, such as
Jay Cocks in
Time,
Andrew Sarris in the
Village Voice, and Archer Winsten in the
New York Post all praising the film, as well as Eastwood's directorial skills and performance. Walter was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award (Drama), for her performance in the film.
Dirty Harry (1971), written by
Harry and
Rita Fink, centers on a hard-edged New York City (later changed to San Francisco)
police inspector named
Harry Callahan who is determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means.
Dirty Harry has been described as being arguably Eastwood's most memorable character, and the film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop" genre. It was Siegel's highest-grossing film and the start of a series of films featuring the character Harry Callahan. Although a number of critics praised Eastwood's performance as Dirty Harry, such as Jay Cocks who described him as "giving his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character", the film was also widely criticized as being
fascistic. Following
Sean Connery's announcement that he would not play
James Bond again, Eastwood was offered the role but turned it down, saying, "that was someone else's gig. That's Sean's deal. It didn't feel right for me to be doing it." He next starred in the loner Western
Joe Kidd (1972), based on a character inspired by
Reies Lopez Tijerina, who stormed a courthouse in
Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, in June 1967. During filming, Eastwood suffered symptoms of a bronchial infection and several panic attacks.
Joe Kidd received a mixed reception, with
Roger Greenspun of
The New York Times writing that it was unremarkable, with foolish symbolism and sloppy editing, although he praised Eastwood's performance. Eastwood's first western as director was
High Plains Drifter (1973), in which he also starred. The film had a moral and supernatural theme, later emulated in
Pale Rider. The plot follows a mysterious stranger (Eastwood) who arrives in a brooding Western town where the people hire him to protect them against three soon-to-be-released felons. There remains confusion during the film as to whether the stranger is the brother of the deputy, whom the felons lynched and murdered, or his ghost. Holes in the plot were filled with black humor and allegory, influenced by Leone. The revisionist film received a mixed reception, but was a major box-office success. A number of critics thought Eastwood's directing was "as derivative as it was expressive", with
Arthur Knight of the
Saturday Review remarking that Eastwood had "absorbed the approaches of Siegel and Leone and fused them with his own paranoid vision of society".
John Wayne, who had declined a role in the film, sent a letter to Eastwood soon after the film's release in which he complained that "The townspeople did not represent the true spirit of the American pioneer, the spirit that made America great." Eastwood next turned his attention towards
Breezy (1973), a film starring
William Holden and
Kay Lenz about love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. Various actresses had lobbied for the title role, including Eastwood's future longtime companion
Sondra Locke, who at 29 was nearly twice the character's age. The film, shot very quickly and efficiently by
Frank Stanley, came in $1 million under budget and was finished three days ahead of schedule.
Breezy was not a major critical or commercial success. Although the film was a major success after release, grossing $58.1 million in the United States (a record for Eastwood), it was not a critical success.
The New York Times critic
Nora Sayre panned the often contradictory moral themes of the film, while the paper's
Frank Rich called it "the same old stuff". Eastwood's acting was noted by critics, but was overshadowed by Bridges, who was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Eastwood reportedly fumed at the lack of Academy Award recognition for him and swore that he would never work for United Artists again. Eastwood's next film
The Eiger Sanction (1975) was based on
Trevanian's
critically acclaimed spy novel of the same name. Eastwood plays Jonathan Hemlock in a role originally intended for
Paul Newman, an assassin turned college art professor who decides to return to his former profession for one last "sanction" in return for a rare
Pissarro painting. In the process he must climb the north face of the
Eiger in Switzerland under perilous conditions.
Mike Hoover taught Eastwood how to climb during several weeks of preparation at
Yosemite before filming commenced in
Grindelwald, Switzerland. Despite prior warnings about the perils of the Eiger, Eastwood insisted on doing all his own climbing and stunts. The film crew suffered a number of accidents, including one fatality. Eastwood cast former Bond girl
Claudine Auger as his love interest, but deleted her entire performance from the movie. Upon release in May 1975,
The Eiger Sanction was marginally successful commercially, receiving $14.2 million at the box-office, and gained mixed reviews. Joy Gould Boyum of
The Wall Street Journal dismissed the film as "brutal fantasy". Eastwood blamed Universal Studios for the film's poor promotion and turned his back on them to make an agreement with
Warner Bros., through
Frank Wells, that has lasted to the present day. , promoting
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), a western inspired by
Asa Carter's 1972 novel of the same name, has lead character Josey Wales (Eastwood) as a pro-Confederate guerrilla who refuses to surrender his arms after the American Civil War and is chased across the old southwest by a group of enforcers. The supporting cast included Locke as his love interest and
Chief Dan George as an elderly Cherokee who strikes up a friendship with Wales. Director
Philip Kaufman was fired by producer Bob Daley at Eastwood's command in October 1975, three weeks into the shoot, resulting in a fine reported to be around $60,000 from the
Directors Guild of Americawho subsequently passed new legislation reserving the right to impose a major fine on a producer for discharging and replacing a director. The film was pre-screened at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Idaho during a six-day conference entitled
Western Movies: Myths and Images. Invited to the screening were a number of well-known film critics, including Jay Cocks and Arthur Knight; directors such as
King Vidor,
William Wyler, and
Howard Hawks; and a number of academics. Upon its release in the summer of 1976,
The Outlaw Josey Wales was widely acclaimed, with many critics and viewers seeing Eastwood's role as an iconic one that related to America's ancestral past and the destiny of the nation after the American Civil War. The film would later appear in
Time "Top 10 Films of the Year". Eastwood was then offered the role of
Benjamin L. Willard in
Francis Coppola's
Apocalypse Now, but declined, for he did not wish to spend weeks on location in the Philippines. He also refused the part of a platoon leader in
Ted Post's Vietnam War film
Go Tell the Spartans, but was a major commercial success grossing $100 million worldwide to become Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date. Eastwood directed and starred in
The Gauntlet (1977) opposite Locke, Pat Hingle,
William Prince,
Bill McKinney, and
Mara Corday. In this film, he portrays a down-and-out cop assigned to escort a prostitute from Las Vegas to Phoenix to testify against the
mob. Although a moderate hit with the viewing public, critics had mixed feelings about the film, with many believing it was overly violent. Ebert, in contrast, gave the film three stars and called it "classic Clint Eastwood: fast, furious, and funny". In
Every Which Way but Loose (1978), he had an uncharacteristic offbeat comedy role. His character, Philo Beddoe, is a trucker and brawler who roams the American West searching for a lost love (Locke) accompanied by his best friend, Orville Boggs (played by
Geoffrey Lewis) and an orangutan called Clyde. The film proved surprisingly successful upon its release and became Eastwood's most commercially successful film up to that time. Panned by critics, it ranked high among the box-office successes of his career and was the second-highest-grossing film of 1978. Eastwood starred in
Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the last of his films directed by Siegel. It was based on the true story of
Frank Lee Morris who, along with
John and
Clarence Anglin, escaped from the notorious
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1962. The film was a major success;
Stanley Kauffmann of
The New Republic praised it as "crystalline cinema" and Frank Rich of
Time described it as "cool, cinematic grace". Eastwood directed and enacted the title role in
Bronco Billy (1980), alongside Locke,
Scatman Crothers, and
Sam Bottoms. Filming commenced on October 1, 1979, in the
Boise metropolitan area and was shot in five and a half weeks on a budget of $5 million. Eastwood has cited
Bronco Billy as being one of the most relaxed shoots of his career and biographer
Richard Schickel argued that Bronco Billy is Eastwood's most self-referential character. The film was a commercial disappointment, but was liked by critics.
Janet Maslin of
The New York Times wrote that film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while", and praised Eastwood's directing, intricately juxtaposing the old West and the new West. Released later in 1980,
Any Which Way You Can was the sequel to
Every Which Way but Loose and also starring Eastwood. The film received a number of bad reviews from critics, although Maslin described it as "funnier and even better than its predecessor". Eastwood directed and starred in
Honkytonk Man (1982), based on the eponymous
Clancy Carlile's depression-era novel. Eastwood portrays a struggling western singer Red Stovall who suffers from tuberculosis, but has finally been given an opportunity to make it big at the
Grand Ole Opry. He is accompanied by his young nephew (played by real-life son
Kyle) to
Nashville, Tennessee, where he is supposed to record a song. Only
Time gave the film a good review in the United States, with most reviewers criticizing its blend of muted humor and tragedy. Nevertheless, the film received a more positive reception in France, where it was compared to
John Ford's
The Grapes of Wrath, and it has since acquired the very high rating of 93percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Around the same time, Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the
Cold War-themed
Firefox (also 1982). Based on a 1977
novel with the same name written by
Craig Thomas, the film was shot before but released after
Honkytonk Man. Russian filming locations were not possible due to the Cold War, and the film had to be shot in
Vienna and other locations in Austria to simulate many of the Eurasian story locations. With a production cost of $20 million, it was Eastwood's highest budget film to that time.
People likened Eastwood's performance to "
Luke Skywalker trapped in Dirty Harry's Soul". By this time, Eastwood received 60 percent of all profits from films he starred in and directed, with the rest going to the studio.
Sudden Impact was his final on-screen collaboration with Locke. She plays a middle-aged painter who, along with her sister, was gang-raped years before the story takes place and seeks revenge for her sister's now-vegetative state by systematically murdering the rapists. The line "
Go ahead, make my day" (uttered by Eastwood during an early scene in a coffee shop) has been cited as one of cinema's immortal lines. It was quoted by President
Ronald Reagan in a speech to Congress, and used during the
1984 presidential elections.
Tightrope (1984) had Eastwood starring opposite
Geneviève Bujold in a provocative thriller, inspired by newspaper articles about an elusive Bay Area rapist. Set in New Orleans to avoid confusion with the
Dirty Harry films, Eastwood played a divorced cop drawn into his target's tortured psychology and fascination for
sadomasochism.
Tightrope was a critical and commercial hit and became the fourth highest-grossing
R-rated film of 1984. Eastwood next starred in the crime comedy
City Heat (also 1984) alongside
Burt Reynolds, a film about an ex-cop turned private eye and his former police lieutenant partner who get mixed up with gangsters in the
Prohibition era of the 1930s. The film grossed around $50 million domestically, but was overshadowed by
Eddie Murphy's
Beverly Hills Cop. Eastwood made his only foray into TV direction with the
Amazing Stories episode "Vanessa in the Garden" (1985), which starred
Harvey Keitel and Locke as a married couple. This was his first collaboration with
Steven Spielberg, who later co-produced
Flags of Our Fathers and
Letters from Iwo Jima. He would revisit the Western genre when he directed and starred in
Pale Rider (1985), a film based on the classic western
Shane (1953) and follows a preacher descending from the mists of the Sierras to side with the miners during the
California Gold Rush of 1850. The title is a reference to the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of the pale horse is Death, and shows similarities to Eastwood's western
High Plains Drifter (1973) in its themes of morality and justice as well as its exploration of the supernatural. It was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best western to appear for a considerable period, with
Gene Siskel of the
Chicago Tribune remarking, "This year (1985) will go down in film history as the moment Clint Eastwood finally earned respect as an artist." Eastwood co-starred with
Marsha Mason in the military drama
Heartbreak Ridge (1986), about the 1983 United States
invasion of Grenada. He portrayed a United States Marine Corps
Gunnery Sergeant veteran of the Vietnam War who realizes he is nearing the end of his military service. Production and filming were marred by internal disagreements between Eastwood and long-time friend and producer Fritz Manes, as well as between Eastwood and the
United States Department of Defense, which had expressed contempt for the film. At the time, the film was a commercial rather than a critical success, and has only come to be viewed more favorably in recent times. The film grossed $70 million domestically. Eastwood starred in
The Dead Pool (1988), the fifth and final film in the
Dirty Harry series. It co-starred
Patricia Clarkson,
Liam Neeson, and a young
Jim Carrey who plays Johnny Squares, a drug-addled rock star and the first of the victims on a list of celebrities drawn up by horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson) who are deemed most likely to die, the so-called "Dead Pool". The list is stolen by an obsessed fan who, in mimicking his favorite director, makes his way through the list killing off celebrities, of which Dirty Harry is also included.
The Dead Pool grossed nearly $38 million, relatively low receipts for a
Dirty Harry film. It is generally viewed as the weakest film of the series, though Roger Ebert thought it was as good as the original. Eastwood began working on smaller, more personal projects and experienced a lull in his career between 1988 and 1992. Always interested in jazz, he directed
Bird (1988), a biopic starring
Forest Whitaker as jazz musician
Charlie "Bird" Parker. Alto saxophonist
Jackie McLean and
Spike Lee, son of jazz bassist
Bill Lee and a long time critic of Eastwood, criticized the characterization of Charlie Parker remarking that it did not capture his true essence and sense of humor. Eastwood received two
Golden Globes for the film, the
Cecil B. DeMille Award for his lifelong contribution, and the
Best Director award. However,
Bird was a commercial failure, earning just $11 million, which Eastwood attributed to the declining interest in jazz among black people. Carrey would appear with Eastwood again in the poorly-received comedy
Pink Cadillac (1989). The film is about a bounty hunter and a group of white supremacists chasing an innocent woman (
Bernadette Peters) who tries to outrun everyone in her husband's prized pink
Cadillac. The film failed both critically and commercially, earning barely more than
Bird and marking a low point in Eastwood's career.
1990–2009: Critical acclaim and awards success Eastwood directed and starred in
White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an adaptation of
Peter Viertel's
roman à clef, about
John Huston and the making of the classic film
The African Queen. Shot on location in Zimbabwe in the summer of 1989, the film received some critical attention but with only a limited release earned just $8.4 million. Eastwood directed and co-starred with
Charlie Sheen in
The Rookie, a buddy cop action film released in December 1990. Critics found the film's plot and characterization unconvincing, but praised its action sequences. An ongoing lawsuit, in response to Eastwood allegedly ramming a woman's car, resulted in no Eastwood films being shown in cinemas in 1991. Eastwood won the suit and agreed to pay the complainant's legal fees if she did not appeal. The film was nominated for nine
Academy Awards (including
Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for
David Webb Peoples), and won four, including
Best Picture and
Best Director for Eastwood. In 2008
Unforgiven was ranked as the fourth-best American western, behind
Shane,
High Noon, and
The Searchers in the
American Film Institute's "
AFI's 10 Top 10" list. Eastwood played Frank Horrigan in the
Secret Service thriller
In the Line of Fire (1993), directed by
Wolfgang Petersen and co-starring
John Malkovich and
Rene Russo. Horrigan is a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent haunted by his failure to save
John F. Kennedy's life. The film was among the top 10 box office performers in that year, earning $102 million in the United States alone, and 25 years after he was first listed on Quigley's Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, Eastwood was voted number one again. Eastwood plays a Texas Ranger in pursuit of an escaped convict (Costner) who hits the road with a young boy (
T.J. Lowther). Janet Maslin of
The New York Times wrote that the film marked the highest point of Eastwood's directing career, and the film has since been cited as one of his most underrated directorial achievements. At the
1994 Cannes Film Festival Eastwood received France's
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal, and in 1995, he was awarded the
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the
67th Academy Awards. the film relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for
National Geographic who, while photographing historic covered bridges in Iowa, meets and has an affair with an Italian-born farm wife, Francesca (Streep). Despite the novel receiving unfavorable reviews,
The Bridges of Madison County film was a commercial and critical success. Roger Ebert wrote, "Streep and Eastwood weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that comes with middle age." The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for
Best Motion Picture – Drama and won a
César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. Streep was also nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller
Absolute Power (1997), alongside
Gene Hackman (with whom he had appeared in
Unforgiven). Eastwood played the role of a veteran thief who witnesses the Secret Service cover-up of a murder. The film received a mixed reception from critics. Later in 1997, Eastwood directed
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, based on the novel by
John Berendt and starring
John Cusack,
Kevin Spacey, and
Jude Law. The film met with a mixed critical response. Eastwood directed and starred in
True Crime (1999). He plays Steve Everett, a journalist and recovering alcoholic, who has to cover the execution of murderer Frank Beechum (played by
Isaiah Washington).
True Crime received a mixed reception, with Janet Maslin of
The New York Times writing, "his direction is galvanized by a sense of second chances and tragic misunderstandings, and by contrasting a larger sense of justice with the peculiar minutiae of crime. Perhaps he goes a shade too far in the latter direction, though." The film was a box office failure, earning less than half its $55 million budget and was Eastwood's worst-performing film of the 1990s aside from
White Hunter Black Heart, which had a limited release. Eastwood directed and starred in
Space Cowboys (2000) alongside
Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and
James Garner. Eastwood played one of a group of veteran ex-test pilots sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite. The original music score was composed by Eastwood and
Lennie Niehaus.
Space Cowboys was critically well-received and holds a 79 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes, although Roger Ebert wrote that the film was, "too secure within its traditional story structure to make much seem at risk". The film grossed more than $90 million in its United States release, more than Eastwood's two previous films combined. Eastwood played an ex-
FBI agent chasing a sadistic killer (
Jeff Daniels) in the thriller
Blood Work (2002), loosely based on the 1998
novel of the same name by
Michael Connelly. The film was a commercial failure, grossing just $26.2 million on an estimated budget of $50 million and received mixed reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes describing it as, "well-made but marred by lethargic pacing". Eastwood directed and scored the crime drama
Mystic River (2003), a film dealing with themes of murder, vigilantism and sexual abuse and starring
Sean Penn,
Kevin Bacon, and
Tim Robbins. The film was praised by critics and won two Academy Awards – Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins – with Eastwood garnering nominations for Best Director and Best Picture. The film grossed $90million domestically on a budget of $30million. In 2003, Eastwood was named Best Director of the Year by the
National Society of Film Critics. The following year, Eastwood found further critical acclaim with
Million Dollar Baby. The boxing drama won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (
Hilary Swank) and Best Supporting Actor (
Morgan Freeman). He also received a nomination for Best Actor, as well as a
Grammy nomination for his score, and won a Golden Globe for Best Director, which was presented to him by daughter Kathryn, who was
Miss Golden Globe at the
2005 ceremony.
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times lauded the film as a "masterpiece" and the best film of the year. Eastwood directed two films about World War II's
Battle of Iwo Jima released in 2006. The first,
Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of
Mount Suribachi and featured the film debut of Eastwood's son
Scott. This was followed by
Letters from Iwo Jima, which dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote home to family members.
Letters from Iwo Jima was the first American film to depict a war issue completely from the view of an American enemy. Both films received praise from critics and garnered several nominations at the
79th Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, and
Best Original Screenplay for
Letters from Iwo Jima. At the
64th Golden Globe Awards Eastwood received nominations for Best Director in both films.
Letters from Iwo Jima won the award for
Best Foreign Language Film. Eastwood next directed
Changeling (2008), based on a true story set in the late 1920s.
Angelina Jolie stars as a woman reunited with her missing son only to realize he is an impostor. After its release at several film festivals the film grossed over $110 million, the majority of which came from foreign markets. The film was highly acclaimed, with Damon Wise of
Empire describing
Changeling as "flawless".
Todd McCarthy of
Variety described it as "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed" and that the film's characters and social commentary were brought into the story with an "almost breathtaking deliberation". For the film, Eastwood received nominations for
Best Original Score at the
66th Golden Globe Awards,
Best Direction at the
62nd British Academy Film Awards and director of the year from the London Film Critics' Circle. Eastwood ended a four-year "self-imposed acting hiatus" by appearing in
Gran Torino (also 2008), which he also directed, produced and partly scored with his son Kyle and
Jamie Cullum. Biographer Marc Eliot called Eastwood's role "an amalgam of the Man with No Name, Dirty Harry, and
William Munny, here aged and cynical but willing and able to fight on whenever the need arose".
Gran Torino grossed almost $30 million during its opening weekend release in January 2009, the highest of his career as an actor or director.
Gran Torino eventually grossed over $268 million in theaters worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far (without adjustment for inflation). Eastwood's 30th directorial outing came with
Invictus (2009), a film based on the story of the
South African team at the
1995 Rugby World Cup with
Morgan Freeman as
Nelson Mandela,
Matt Damon as rugby team captain
François Pienaar, and
Grant L. Roberts as
Ruben Kruger. The film was met with generally positive reviews; Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars and described it as a "very good film... with moments evoking great emotion", while
Variety Todd McCarthy wrote, "Inspirational on the face of it, Clint Eastwood's film has a predictable trajectory, but every scene brims with surprising details that accumulate into a rich fabric of history, cultural impressions and emotion." For the film, Eastwood was nominated for Best Director at the
67th Golden Globe Awards.
Hereafter received mixed reviews from critics, with the consensus at Rotten Tomatoes being, "Despite a thought-provoking premise and Clint Eastwood's typical flair as director,
Hereafter fails to generate much compelling drama, straddling the line between poignant sentimentality and hokey tedium." Around the same time, Eastwood served as executive producer for a
TCM documentary about jazz pianist
Dave Brubeck,
Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way (also 2010), to commemorate Brubeck's 90th birthday. Eastwood directed
J. Edgar (2011), a biopic of
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, with
Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. The film received mixed reviews, although DiCaprio's performance as Hoover was widely praised. Roger Ebert wrote that the film is "fascinating", "masterful", and praised DiCaprio's performance.
David Edelstein of
New York magazine, while also praising DiCaprio, wrote, "It's too bad
J. Edgar is so shapeless and turgid and ham-handed, so rich in bad lines and worse readings." Eastwood starred in the baseball drama
Trouble with the Curve (2012), as a veteran baseball scout who travels with his daughter for a final scouting trip.
Robert Lorenz, who worked with Eastwood as an assistant director on several films, directed the film. During
Super Bowl XLVI, Eastwood narrated a halftime advertisement for
Chrysler titled "
Halftime in America" (2012). The advertisement was criticized by several U.S. Republicans, who claimed it implied that President
Barack Obama deserved a second term. In response to the criticism, Eastwood stated, "I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America." Eastwood next directed
Jersey Boys (2014), a musical biopic based on the
Tony Award-winning
musical of the same name. The film told the story of the musical group
The Four Seasons. Eastwood directed
American Sniper (also 2014), a film adaptation of
Chris Kyle's eponymous memoir, following Steven Spielberg's departure from the project. Released on Christmas Day,
American Sniper grossed more than $350 million domestically and over $547 million globally, making it one of Eastwood's biggest movies commercially. His next film,
Sully (2016), starred
Tom Hanks as
Chesley Sullenberger, who successfully landed the
US Airways Flight 1549 on the
Hudson River in an emergency landing, keeping all passengers on board alive. It became another commercial success for Eastwood, grossing over $238 million worldwide. He directed the biographical thriller
The 15:17 to Paris (2018), which saw previously non-professional actors
Spencer Stone,
Anthony Sadler, and
Alek Skarlatos playing themselves as they stop the
2015 Thalys train attack. The film received a generally negative reception from critics, who were largely critical of the acting by the three leads. Eastwood next starred in and directed
The Mule, which was released in December 2018. He played Earl Stone, an elderly drug smuggler based on
Leo Sharp, Eastwood's first acting role since
Trouble with the Curve in 2012. On the eve of
The Mules opening, news belatedly surfaced that Eastwood's ex-significant other Sondra Locke had died over a month earlier on November 3; no explanation was given for the
media blackout. Given Locke's extensive history of deceiving the public, scholars deduced that she must have requested the blackout in her final wishes, so as to prevent her true age from being broadcast to the world. but DiCaprio and Hill would ultimately serve only as producers on Eastwood's film. The film stars
Paul Walter Hauser in the titular role, along with
Sam Rockwell,
Kathy Bates,
Jon Hamm, and
Olivia Wilde in supporting roles. Filming began on June 24, 2019, and
Richard Jewell was released on December 13, 2019. In October 2020, it was announced that Eastwood would direct, produce, and star in
Cry Macho, an adaptation of
the 1975 novel of the same name, for Warner Bros. Pictures. Production of the film took place in New Mexico between November and December 2020. It was released on September 17, 2021, to mixed reviews and
commercial failure. In April 2023, reports emerged that Eastwood would direct and produce
Juror #2, from a screenplay by Jonathan Abrams. The film stars
Nicholas Hoult,
Toni Collette,
Zoey Deutch,
Kiefer Sutherland, and
J.K. Simmons. Production began in June 2023, but was temporarily suspended due to the
2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, resuming in November 2023. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. and released in November 2024, to generally favorable reviews. It has been rumored that
Juror #2 may be Eastwood's final directorial effort, though insiders deny this. == Directorial style ==