In the days following his January
2009 daring and unconventional landing of a US Airways commercial flight on the
Hudson River, Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) ambles around
Manhattan stupefied at his newfound fame while reliving the incident in his
head before answering questions from an inane investigation committee fueled by
hindsight. Clint Eastwood’s take on the Miracle on the Hudson is quiet and
reflective with a well-cast Hanks in an inward looking lead performance. Still there is absolutely no dramatic pull, a pointless and
clumsy plot structure, and typical carelessness towards casting by the director
all resulting in something resembling a rushed network movie of the week. For
a better treatment of a similar subject (which was likely inspired by this
event) see Flight.
Sergio Leone's epic spaghetti western, which details the uneasy alliances formed by the eponymous characters (played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach) as search the unforgiving territories in search of Confederate gold, has been heralded as THE definitive western and makes many top 10 all time lists. Revisiting it again I was taken by the vacant landscapes, Ennio Morricone's inimitable score, Leone's brash direction, and the ending of the unrivaled final sequence. Clint's image was cemented here in this film, Van Cleef is an impeccable baddie, and Wallach's performance (forgetting how most of the film really centers on him) is kind of remarkable. Only complaint: for such a lengthy picture, the penultimate bridge detonation sequence really does slow things down.
A once vile drunk and murderous outlaw (Clint Eastwood) lives a reformed life on his barren pig ranch, a widower struggling to raise two young children, at the close of the Old West. When a prostitute is disfigured by visiting cattlemen in the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming a bounty is placed on their heads (against the orders of the no nonsense sheriff (Gene Hackman)) calling the aged, out of practice gunslinger along with his long serving associate (Morgan Freeman) back to his vicious ways. Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven is a stoic, uncompromising meditation on killing that turns the Western on its ear. Crafted from a thoughtful script from David Webb Peoples, it offers painterly scenery, a spectacularly haunting and meaningful finale, and an outstanding cast with tired, worn, and soberly powerful performances from Clint and Freeman, a brilliantly complex and hardened turn from Hackman and fine support from Richard Harris, Frances Fisher, and Jaimz Woolvett.
Clint Eastwood's filming of the smash Broadway musical, which details the founding of The Four Seasons (the hit pop vocal group headed by Frankie Valli and comprised of a quartet of Jerseyan delinquents) is tepid material at best and compounded by uncharasmatic acting, forced drama, lifeless musical numbers, and a total lack of a resolution.
A northern journalist (John Cusack) is enlisted to cover the annual party of a Savannah debutante (Kevin Spacey) when his errand boy and reputed lover (Jude Law) lashes out as the eccentric millionaire and later winds up dead. Quickly befriending his host, the reporter becomes central to the murder case and meets several unconventional types during his belated stay in the ghostly city. Clint Eastwood's filmization of John Berendt's novel is dull and overlong, with its murder mystery storyline and subsequent courtroom sequences playing second fiddle to atmosphere and Southern flavor (which are very well handled). Spacey's performance is colorful as are several supporting roles.
Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), a Texas rodeo rider with vague ambitions of being a cowboy, an ingrained sense of honor and justice, and a crack shot with a rifle learns of a series of American Embassy bombings and immediately enlists as a Navy SEAL. Upon completing the unsparing training and acquainting with the love of his life (Sienna Miller), he deploys to Fallujah for four separate tours where the horrors of war alienate him from his family and tear at his soul as he quickly becomes the most deadly sniper in all of American history. Clint Eastwood's production of Kyle's memoir is a late career rebound for the 84 year old virtuoso and a specific delineation of the terrors faced by our soldiers in the recent Middle East campaigns. While domestic scenes tend to drag, especially towards the finale (though they are not without power and substance), the battle scenes are flawlessly executed and contain a clarity that is usually not present in similar productions (the muddled action sequences of Black Hawk Down came most prominently to mind). Cooper offers a transformative performance (several times during my viewing I found myself amazed that I was watching the same actor) and Miller does her best with an underwritten part which only calls for her to worry and protest.
The Blues is an seven part series presented by several accomplished filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Charles Burnett, Mike Figgis, and Clint Eastwood who document the distinct American art form from its origins in West Africa which made its way through the slave trade to the Mississippi Delta and continuing right up until the present day. Each episode takes a different approach on the same subject, which tends to grow redundant as the series progresses, but is worth watching for its wealth of performances which range from B.B. King, Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, Dr. John, and Van Morrison in addition to the amazing archival footage.
The DJ (Clint Eastwood) of a coastal California radio station receives the title tune request from the same caller on a regular basis during his nightly slow jazz program and shrugs it off with a smile, dismissing the repeat caller as another lonely romantic. While in a bar one night (and on a break from his sweet girlfriend, played by Donna Mills) he is picked up by an assertive female (Jessica Walter) who becomes increasingly difficult to shake following their one night stand and demonstrates disturbing and escalating personality defects when she finally begins to get the picture. Playing a character Eastwood has said is closer to himself more so than any of the other more famous and macho personages he's depicted over his lengthy acting career, Play Misty for Me is a nice little, surely made thriller, his first in an equally distinguished career as a director (his mentor, the director Don Siegel, appears in a recurring cameo as a bartender). The overblown stalker story, which would have been presented cheaply and artlessly 99 times out of a 100, is competently done, with some fine touches added on (the Edgar Allan Poe connections in the denouement are particularly inspired). Clint is assured in his role and Walter, who is probably better known to modern audiences as the mom from Arrested Development, brings potency to her maniacal role.
Clint Eastwood stars as a brooding, enigmatic transient (playing against type, right?) who rides into a small town and defends its villagers against an evil mining company. Pale Rider is an overly simple, painfully obvious not to mention boring Western that doesn't hold a candle to any of the great films Eastwood has starred in or directed in the genre. Otherwise, I did enjoy some of the supporting performances, including Michael Moriarty, a young Chris Penn, and Richard 'Jaws' Kiel.
When NASA discovers an antiquated Russian satellite free falling towards Earth, the only hope in changing its trajectory is an old geezer (Clint Eastwood) who designed its system 30 years prior, and who is bitter as hell at being left out of the space program. He agrees to partake in the mission only if he can bring along his old, likewise forsaken crew (Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, Donald Sutherland) to live out their unlikely dream. The Eastwood helmed "Space Cowboys" is an entertaining geriatric fantasy with fun performances from its veteran cast, with Sutherland being a particular standout. It is fun until the final third when the mission reaches outer space and becomes anticlimactic and bogged down by technical details which fail to convey the enormity of the situation.
A team of British paratroopers, led by a stoic major (Richard Burton) and an American lieutenant (Clint Eastwood), parachute behind enemy lines to siege a mountaintop castle occupied by Nazis in an effort to rescue a general, whose knowledge of key Allied stratagems would turn the tables of war towards the Axis' favor. "Where Eagles Dare" is an gripping war picture that features gorgeously filmed European snowcapped locations, and the special treat of seeing two iconic, antithetical actors appearing in the same film. Following the excellent espionage set-up, however, the film does overplay its hand leading to one too many plot twists and a needlessly redundant final hour.
A grizzled, veteran scout (Clint Eastwood), losing his vision and vehemently stuck in his ways, finds himself being forced out by the Atlanta Braves organization, in favor of the younger, techno-oriented intermediaries. In order to save his job, but really as a swan song to his distinguished career, he takes a road trip with his equally emotionally distant daughter (Amy Adams) to North Carolina to scout a touted prospect. "Trouble with the Curve" comes billed as a counter to "Moneyball", last year's success which favored computer analysis over old-fashioned scouting, which is ironic in a way considering that this film's routine and corny screenplay seems like it was spewed straight from a mainframe. Robert Lorenz, a longtime Eastwood collaborator and first time director, seems to be mimicking his sensei rather than branching out on his own path, and the results are tenuous at best. It's welcomed to see Eastwood on the big screen, who is capable of carrying anything, and I am equally convinced of Adam's versatility also. I only wish that he would have opted to direct, and gone on to find some screenwriting talent that was worth a damn.
A southern farmer joins a group of Confederate bandits after his family is slaughtered and finds himself on the run after he is betrayed by the leader of his group. While violently ducking Union soldiers, he teams with a Cherokee Indian and a group of settlers while preparing for the onslaught that is certain to come. "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is an early directorial effort from Clint Eastwood, and one that sought to replicate the success of his Dollars Trilogy of a decade earlier. Instead, and as a result of poor, simplistic screenplay by Phillip Kaufman (who was initially slated to direct), we are given a saccharine, hokey version of The Man with No Name in what is still a pretty violent western (Eastwood did a better job with this task a few years prior in "High Plains Drifter"). I did want to note that John Vernon (Dean Wormer) has an excellent turn as Eastwood's reluctant betrayer. "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is a film of noble intentions and one not without merit, that gets bogged down by the limitations of its screenplay.
After dismissing a top SCLC member before heading out to meet Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and blackmail him into securing a wiretap for the organization, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover begins to dictate his memoirs. Beginning as a fervent young federal agent who made his name during the Red Scare of 1919 and the Palmer Raids, Hoover's durable career would be one of intimidation and rule bending, but also one which strengthened and organized our national policing abilities making the country safer. He also held dark and unaccepted secrets that would have been as damaging as any of the information contained in his private files. "J. Edgar" is a continuation of the rich and powerful filmmaking that Clint Eastwood has made standard in his work. In an unlikely collaboration with Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black ("Milk"), the two arrive at a middle ground resulting in an extremely compelling film which handles the homosexual elements with restraint and nuance, while presenting a contemptible yet sympathetic view of one of the most controversial figures in 20th Century American history. Leonardo Dicaprio again delivers a riveting historical portrayal as a disappears in the role of Hoover through over half a century of his life. Armie Hammer, who had his breakthrough role(s) as the Winklevoss twins in last year's "The Social Network", is incredible here, especially in the aged scenes, as Clyde Tolson, the fashionable and shy companion of Hoover. I did feel the movie mishandled its female characters, first with the role of Hoover's mother played by Judi Dench. Dench is over the top and obvious as the domineering matriarch and the scenes feel life out of "The Aviator", another Leo biopic. The other female role is that of Hoover's secretary (Naomi Watts, excellent despite), whom he gave full trust and access to his private files. The relationship is never fully developed and we get very little time of Dicaprio and Watts interacting on screen. The rest of the movie including the scenes between Leo and Hammer, and the historical ones come off remarkably and are the result of great craftsmanship and wonderful acting. Even at 137 minutes, I thought the film felt short and would have liked to see a more encompassing picture (1935-1962 are omitted). Still this is engrossing picture of a contentious man and another wonder from the now 81 year old Eastwood.
A drifter rides into a small southern town and is greeted with unwelcoming gazes from its residents as he passes by. Confronted by three men in the saloon, he soon takes them out when they make a move when he is having a shave across the street. Due to the fact that the three dead men were hired to protect the town as well as the gunfighter's considerable skills, the townspeople hire him to stave off three convicts about to be released whom the local mining company railroaded a few year's back. Yet this is not a simple revenge story, and the town may have bit off more than they can chew with the gunfighter who may have motives of his own and what awaits all involved is a showdown of biblical proportions. In his second film as a director, Clint Eastwood plays The Stranger character that brought him so much acclaim in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. High Plains Drifter is an antiwestern, competently directed by Eastwood which maintains an eerie mood and incorporates supernatural elements into its story. It is unlike most other Westerns as it presents a reprehensible hero and acts as a treatise against cowardice and religious hypocrisy. Actor Geoffrey Lewis also adds to the picture making an extremely effective villain. I read that crowds ate this up when released, but I am curious how they reacted to Clint's character. I was taken aback in an early scene when he is confronted by a fiery woman and drags her by her hair to a barn and essentially rapes her, and his behavior remains despicable throughout the picture. High Plains Drifter is a fresh take on a genre that can seem generic at times, and the eerie mood sustained in the film make this a fine entry.
I wanted to revisit Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, fearing I may not have gotten enough out of it the first time around, and I'm glad I did. From a sensitive and nicely woven multi thread story from stalwart screenwriter Peter Morgan, Eastwood continues to demonstrate his directorial prowess with this examination of three people dealing with different types of grief. It is a tough subject to tackle and an even more difficult task to make engaging and all involved do a wonderful job at pulling it off. Additionally, the film includes a fine performance from Matt Damon and a terrifyingly beautiful tsunami scene that opens the film.
10/19/2010 review I came across a review of this film with the title "Saint Clint" and the article refers to the "heavy handedness" of this and possibly to some of his other directorial work. I would agree with that assessment if Clint Eastwood were not such a masterful storyteller and sure handed director with such a distinctive style and naturalistic approach to filmmaking (Is it fair to knock a legend because he is old-fashioned and in his 80s? Does every journalistic piece have to be politically slanted? Do the majority of movie critics even like movies?) Yes there are political undertones in the film, but down in its bare bones this is a nicely told story that is both literate and yes, moving. It tells the story of a medium and several people dealing with different stages of grief. It is leisurely paced, subtitled at parts, and I would not recommend it to the Jackass demographic. It is nicely written by the talented Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) and again wonderfully handled by Clint (while watching his films, I catch myself thinking, "in any other hands.") It also must be said of Matt Damon that he has grown as an actor, and if the trailers for True Grit are not misleading, I bet that this is the year he walks home with a Golden Statue (for acting).
These words are spoken to Chan (soon-to-be) Parker by a club manager in reference to a hot new headliner about to play the club by the name of Charlie Parker. They reflect Chan's feelings towards the man she married as well as his music, and if I may make a stretch, they also reflect the film's sentiments towards Parker, in a film that loves him warts and all. Bird is a loving biopic brought to the screen and directed by Clint Eastwood, a lifelong jazz lover and musician himself, and this can be seen as a postcard to the music he loves so much. Through jumps in time from the past to the present, the film follows Charles "Yardbird" Parker from his struggles growing up in Kansas City to his coming of age, moving to New York and achieving greatness as a jazz saxophonist with a gift for improvisation, during the 40s and 50s. During his triumphs, he also meets his wife, struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, and battles depression and mental illness. By the time of his death in 1955 at the age of 34, the coroner assumed his age to be 65 from the appearance of his worn out face. Forest Whitaker gives a virtuoso performance as the jazzman, portraying him as a sad figure who speaks intelligently and doesn't seem to enjoy any of the vices in which he partakes. Diane Venora is spotty as his long suffering wife and seems to have trouble hitting notes sometimes while hitting them so well at other times. Bird is a loving portrait of a great musician that tends to get sidetracked. Replete with great music and complete songs, something rare in pictures, Bird is an ambitious and engrossing, if overlong, biopic.
Here are two song clips, one from the film, the other from a live session with Parker in 1953:
The title refers to the cover story of a 1965 issue of National Geographic, and when two grown siblings find that their recently deceased mother’s will stipulates that she wishes to be thrown off of one of these bridges, they are more than perplexed. Why would she not want to be buried in the spot reserved for her next to her loving husband? We learn the answer to that question as a four day love affair between the woman and a visiting photographer is revealed through flashback. This could have been a soapy mess, but thanks to the fine direction of Clint Eastwood, it proves to be a thoughtful rumination and honest portrait of a true love that was never meant to be. Playing an Italian immigrant, whose dreams did not involve growing up on an Iowan farm, but whose life somehow ended up that way, Meryl Streep is luminous and Clint shows vulnerability while retaining his tough guy persona as the photographer. The movie is a little long yet nonetheless intelligent, effective, and affecting.
In late 2006, I had the good fortune of being able to see both of Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima's films he had released that year in the same night. Although Flags of Our Fathers had been released a couple months prior, it opened in the dollar theater the same night Letters from Iwo Jima made its initial run. So I attended Flags of Our Fathers and after being underwhelmed by that film as well as tired, I was not sure I could handle another film. Yet, I convinced myself to go see Letters from Iwo Jima and it turned out to be not only a great theater going experience, but also what I believe to be the best war film, and possibly one of the best movies ever committed to film. Letters follows the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese side, and follows it from several different kinds of soldiers to gain different perspectives. From the brilliant general who does not proscribe to the ancient Japanese methods of war, to the traditional officers, to the lowly soldier who misses his family back home, and even the ex-Olympian turned officer, Letters from Iwo Jima portrays the war in several different lights, resulting in an all encompassing portrait of battle. Ken Watanabe is wonderful as the conflicted general and Kazunari Ninomiya is affecting as the lowly baker turned soldier. Letters from Iwo Jima paints a horrible picture on a beautiful canvas, that results in Clint Eastwood's best work in a brilliant career as well as a multifaceted war picture.
****
