“The Worst Movie Ever Made”: One Of Clint Eastwood’s First Westerns Was So Bad It Made Him Want To Quit

Advertisement

Clint Eastwood may be one of Hollywood’s biggest names and most generational talents, but that doesn’t mean that every movie he’s been involved with has been a hit. For every Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven comes an Ambush At Cimarron Pass, which was Clint Eastwood’s biggest critical failure upon its release in 1958. Eastwood was integral in the development of the Western genre in the USA, and while most of his projects helped progress the industry, this box office bomb did the opposite.

Luckily, despite the backlash that Ambush at Cimarron Pass received at the time, it didn’t prevent Eastwood from making some great movies in the decades that followed. His career continued to grow, he was given plenty more parts, and people eventually forgot about this small misstep. However, the project is still clearly bugging the actor, as he revealed in an interview with Hollywood Reporter that he considers it “the worst movie ever made.”

What Ambush At Cimarron Pass Is About
The Film’s Plot Raises Some Questions

In Ambush at Cimarron Pass, Clint Eastwood plays a young Confederate soldier named Keith Williams who’s fixed in his views and comes into conflict with a transport officer named Blake, as he’s carrying a prisoner through dangerous lands. When the tensions eventually reach breaking point, the group splits into two and takes their own respective journeys through the American West, with one side raiding camps and stealing horses, while the other tries to hunt them down and retrieve the cargo. Like many Westerns of that era, it’s filled with action and a detailed narrative to keep audiences invested.

While there are plenty of different plotlines at work, Ambush at Cimarron Pass is essentially about the conflict between Confederate soldiers and the American military, particularly in an era of such lawlessness. Eastwood’s character exemplifies this, serving as the catalyst that eventually causes hell to break loose. It’s one of the actor’s more provocative and less constrained roles, which is perhaps why he felt so conflicted about it at the time. Eastwood has appeared in many Westerns, but he’s usually the smooth-talking leading man, not the loose-cannon anti-hero.

Clint Eastwood Said Ambush At Cimarron Pass Is The Worst Film Ever
The Actor Didn’t Hide His True Feelings

Speaking with Hollywood Reporter about his extensive career, Eastwood dropped a subtle comment about Ambush at Cimarron Pass being “the worst film ever made,” claiming that when he watched it for the first time, it made him consider leaving the profession altogether. The film was reportedly made in eight days, which Eastwood describes as “el speedo grande,” but this can’t have been a good thing for the project’s optics. Film production typically took less time in the ‘50s than it does now, but just over a week is extremely rushed for a project of this scale.

It wasn’t Eastwood’s performance that most were criticizing […] instead, it was the poor production and messy storytelling that unraveled the film.

Speaking to his experience watching Ambush at Cimarron Pass, Eastwood claimed that “I went to see it, it was playing a second feature in North Hollywood. I went to see it and I saw that film and I said I’m through. I’ve got to go back to school. I’ve got to do something else, I’ve got to get a job of other sorts.” What’s most surprising about this story is that when the film was critically panned, it wasn’t Eastwood’s performance that most were criticizing. Instead, it was the poor production and messy storytelling that unraveled the film.

Advertisement

Is Ambush At Cimarron Pass Really That Bad?
Could It Truly Be The Worst Film Ever Made?

Admittedly, Ambush at Cimarron Pass is far from Clint Eastwood’s best movie. There’s much to be desired when it comes to the depth of the story, with most scenes merely serving as makeshift action set pieces. There’s no character development, no complex relationships, and none of the interesting backstory and contemporary context that makes so many Westerns fun to watch. The film really struggles to maintain a decent pace throughout all three acts, which is likely a result of the rushed filming process and the lack of care put into the script.

However, to call Ambush at Cimarron Pass the worst movie ever made is definitely a stretch. There’s at least some competency on display in this film, with Eastwood and Scott Brady delivering two strong performances that ultimately helped solidify them as major Western actors. The cinematography and editing might be slightly behind the times, but when looking back on the film today, it’s easy to spot the director’s sense of style and dynamic camerawork that many films simply don’t bother with. There are much worse films than this.

How Clint Eastwood’s Career Turned Around After Ambush At Cimarron Pass
The Actor Managed To Find Huge Success Anyway

Obviously, Ambush at Cimarron Pass didn’t ruin Eastwood’s career in the way that he’d expected at the time. The actor has gone on to become one of the most famous and beloved film stars of his generation, owning the Western genre for multiple decades and eventually branching out into several other areas of the industry. Directly after the release of Ambush at Cimarron Pass, Eastwood reveals that he “accidentally ran into somebody out at CBS on Beverly Boulevard and they were doing a Western called Rawhide. And they cast me as one of the leads.”

In many ways, Rawhide was considered Eastwood’s big break. The actor was famously unhappy with his character and didn’t have much to say about the show itself, but it certainly opened up the door for him to start appearing in bigger and bigger projects. Eastwood’s Man with No Name movies eventually followed and helped him gather an even larger fanbase, creating one of the most successful Western trilogies of all time. He continued with the Westerns long after the genre had died out, with movies such as Unforgiven even winning the Oscar for Best Picture and Eastwood winning Best Actor.

Today, Eastwood continues to make films well into his 90s. He landed another Best Picture winner with Million Dollar Baby alongside Morgan Freeman, and while he’s not quite achieved the same success since then, his projects are still seen by huge audiences across the world. Gran Torino and American Sniper were enormous hits that proved he still knows how to make a thrilling piece of entertainment, even if Ambush at Cimarron Pass still bugs him to this day.

Advertisement
Advertisement