It’s confusingly plotted. The acting is hammy. There’s a total lack of dynamism. Clint is alone for much of the film so has no one to play off or interact with. Indeed, he has to talk to himself most of the time. Meanwhile, stilted, static scenes of grumpy army generals standing around talking does not make for good drama.
A fundamentally misconceived mess.
There’s no tension or drama. But there’s plenty of sexism, homophobia and racism. There's also a clumsy sub-James Bond plot that doesn’t make sense, and a total lack of characterisation. Even the celebrated climbing sequences end up being dull.
Clint is usually reliable, so you can only wonder how this ended up being such a turkey.
During the training process there are age-related jokes aplenty (Eastwood seems obsessed by the topic) before the four guys actually go into space and things get (relatively) serious.
A few flaws. The Russian plot is never really explained. Also, the despatching of the bombs is oddly never shown. Were those graphics outside of the budget? Or did something get mangled in the edit?
James Garner seems underused.
Marcia Gay Harden is good as the scientist Sara Holland, who becomes Tommy Lee’s unlikely love interest.
Hardly a classic, but it’s a good-natured romp with some enjoyable comic moments.
The plot features a retired FBI agent attempting to catch a killer. The twist is that he is suffering heart problems, which make it even more difficult.
Eastwood is great, as always. In fact, this could have worked as the next Dirty Harry film, although the main character is perhaps too compassionate to be Callahan.
There are strong female characters – notably Anjelica Huston as Dr. Bonnie Fox. Jeff Daniels also co-stars.
Clint Eastwood directed, co-produced and scored the music for what may be the greatest film he’s ever been associated with. This is an incredibly powerful and moving drama.
Clint plays boxing coach Frankie, who reluctantly begins training a woman – Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) for the first time. Maggie comes from a poor background and her family is heartless and manipulative. Frankie represents the father she lacks, while Maggie fills a space in Frankie’s life caused by his estranged daughter. It seems like it’s going to be a boxing drama, but it takes on a far more personal and upsetting direction in the final third.
The writing and characterisation is brilliant, full of tenderness, compassion and nuance.
Morgan Freeman delivers a career-best performance as Eddie Dupris, the gym assistant and a former boxer.
Clint Eastwood stars as a former bounty hunter who helps a landowner (Robert Duvall) track down the Mexican revolutionary leader Luis Chama (John Saxon).
The landscape cinematography by Bruce Surtees is extraordinary. You could turn almost any frame into a poster. The soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin is perfectly judged, mixing western motifs with funkier elements.
Clint Eastwood is great, as ever. He’s essentially playing the same part he always plays, and you wouldn’t want it any other way.
The one highlight is the sequence involving a remote-control car carrying a bomb through the streets of San Francisco. But overall, it's a hammy, sad end to a great series.
On the plus side, Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack still sounds terrific – even though in terms of textures he's clearly enbraced the styles of the 1980s.
The story tells of a woman (Sondra Locke), who seeks revenge on the gang that raped her and her sister.
Eastwood and Locke have chemistry (they had been an item in real life), and Locke has a definite intensity. As usual with the Dirty Harry films, the villains are unfortunately one-dimensional and not convincing characters. The pleasure comes from watching how coolly Harry Callahan deals with them.
Music by Lalo Schifrin provides additional atmosphere, and the cinematography by Bruce Surtees is spectacular.
Eastwood is ideal in this role, which is perfectly tuned to his career-long preoccupations with violence, machismo and protocol.
Bee Vang and Ahney Her are excellent as the Hmong teenagers living next door to him in Michigan. There’s humour and compassion in the way that Kowalski first clashes with them and ultimately wants to defend them from the forces of oppression that he sees taking over America.
Tyne Daly of Cagney & Lacey fame plays Inspector Kate Moore and is wonderful in the role. She endures sexism and scepticism from Harry before eventually winning his respect.
Directed by James Fargo, the film is very nicely shot, with clever, well-judged framing of scenes making for satisfying visuals throughout. The villains seem unnecessarily hammy and one-dimensional, but the real theme of the film is Harry’s developing relationship with Kate and that more than makes up for it.
Eastwood plays a US Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam. It’s now 1984 and he’s reaching the end of his career. He’s tasked with training a platoon of seemingly useless young marines who he will eventually end up leading into battle in Grenada.
It’s quite uneven but there’s lots to enjoy. There’s a wry sense of humour. And the thread dealing with Eastwood and his estranged wife (Marsha Mason) adds a welcome dose of human drama. I like the way the tough-as-nails exterior slowly reveals the vulnerability within, even if his croaky voice is difficult to hear.
Mario Van Peebles is good as the cocky young singer who eventually develops a begrudging respect for his leader.
Directed by Ted Post, it looks great, with imaginatively and intelligently framed shots. There are gorgeous old American cars and luxurious open spaces.
There’s an excellent soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin.
It’s quite unusual in tone and pace, being a slow-burner that’s gently funny. Eastwood looks incredibly old and his voice is sometimes a barely audible croak. That all works with his character, though, even if it can make for uncomfortable viewing. Adams steals the show by exuding charm. Timberlake is less convincing, and I found his performance a little generic. My heart sank when John Goodman walked on as Eastwood’s boss, but he exercises more restraint than usual.
All in all it’s a pleasing film that won’t change the world but which achieves what it sets out to.
Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas lead a group of American soldiers in France on a mission to retrieve a stash of Nazi gold, aided by Donald Sutherland.
It tries to be a comedy, but isn’t funny. It completely lacks dramatic tension, too, so it can’t work as a war film either. The beginning is painfully slow. When the mission finally gets underway it improves a little but the ending is a major disappointment.
I have no idea what the film was trying to achieve. Clint Eastwood is wasted in his part, and there’s even a fake “Western” scene added in to make the most of his popularity in that field. His 1970 haircut makes no attempt to look like it’s from the 1940s. Likewise, Donald Sutherland’s awkward, embarrassing hippy character is a deliberate anachronism. But why? Is it intended to be a subversive parody of contemporary (i.e., 1970) American culture?
There could have been a decent wartime comedy or satire in there somewhere, but director Brian G. Hutton fails to find it.
One of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, and not in a good way.
Clint Eastwood plays Frank Morris, who plans to escape from the maximum-security prison island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
It’s tense and atmospheric, but also compassionate. Eastwood doesn’t say much, as usual, but he conveys a lot with his eyes and face. Patrick McGoohan plays the sadistic warden.
It’s based on a true story, making it more fascinating. And I really like the open-ended nature of the ending.
While robbing a billionaire’s mansion, a skilled burglar named Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) witnesses a crime involving the US President (Gene Hackman) and his secret service operatives. Because of the President’s careless actions in an affair with the billionaire’s wife, his mistress ends up getting shot. Detective Seth Frank (Ed Harris) begins to investigate the death, for which Whitney now finds himself the main suspect.
All three male leads are charismatic and appealing. The secret service team are less impressive, although there’s a funny and clever scene in which the President dances with his Chief of Staff (Judy Davis). It’s moments like this – and a scene in which Ed Harris shows his attraction to the burglar’s estranged daughter Kate (Laura Linney) – that exhibit the warmth and intelligence that make the film so enjoyable. There’s also fun to be had in Whitney’s skill as a master of disguises, and there’s a fairly touching thread in which – despite everything – Luther and Kate begin to re-connect.
It’s absolutely terrifying. Clint Eastwood is superb as the DJ who doesn’t grasp the gravity of the situation quickly enough. Donna Mills plays his girlfriend Tobie (“the foxiest chick on the peninsula”). And Jessica Walter plays the stalker Evelyn, who is convincingly mad throughout.
The scenery is terrific. The music played on the radio – popular jazz of the time – is wonderful. “Misty” itself is a song by Erroll Garner that features prominently. The film also includes “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack, plus actual in-concert scenes shot at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
The two leads are both absolutely excellent – top-class acting, especially from Streep. On the downside, the framing story set in the present day is clunky and poorly acted. The son played by Victor Slezak is particularly awkward. But the main love story, which forms the bulk of the film, is touchingly “real”.
Clint Eastwood is a stranger who rides into a remote mining town whose inhabitants conceal a shameful secret. At the same time, the town folk learn that three dangerous local criminals are heading back that way...
Written by Ernest Tidyman (who also wrote Shaft and The French Connection), it’s an odd film indeed – a sort of surreal, ambiguous morality tale with skewed morals. It even appears to be OK with the idea of rape. Maybe it was brave of Clint Eastwood to portray himself as someone so difficult to like, but this choice does have the effect that there’s absolutely no one in the film who you can relate to.
Scary music by Dee Barton adds atmosphere.
The title is bafflingly unrelated to the story.
A cattle herder wrongly accused of murder (Clint Eastwood) is hung by a gang of nine men. Somehow he survives. After his innocence has been established, he begins working as a marshall and sets about tracking down the villains who wronged him.
It’s remarkable how young Eastwood looks. Hang 'Em High was made after the Sergio Leone trilogy, but somehow he seems less haggard and more baby-faced than he did in those films.
The “political” thread about Oklahoma’s bid for statehood is intriguing, as this seems to be used to justify the town’s bloodthirsty love of capital punishment.
There are elements of horror and melodrama. When the romance with Inger Stevens kicks in, it seems to become a different kind of film altogether. The results are wildly uneven but still fascinating.
