He might not be Hollywood’s flashiest or most stylish director, but Clint Eastwood can always be relied on to make every penny count. If anyone wants a guarantee that production will come in on time and on budget, then he’s about as close as it gets.
Unlike many of his peers from any generation, Eastwood has never been drawn in by the lure of making massively expensive films. The costliest undertaking of his entire career behind the camera did set the studio back a hefty $120million, but there’s a caveat.
It’s the only time Eastwood has helmed a nine-figure shoot, but Warner Bros got two movies out of the deal when he shot Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima back-to-back. His working method of minimal takes and as little fuss as possible has become a key part of his persona as an auteur, but as a cinematic superstar, he’d be the first to admit he’s appeared in some projects that cost more than they should.
Of course, it’s easier for Eastwood to judge what constitutes a waste of money when he’s not the one steering the ship, but it speaks volumes to his efficiency as a producer and director that he didn’t have any issues singling out specific examples from his own back catalogue that weren’t worth the investment.
“I’ve been in productions like Paint Your Wagon and Where Eagles Dare where they wasted an enormous amount of money,” he told The New York Times. “If a film has a budget of $1 million, it should look like $2 million on the screen. If the budget is $5 million, it should look like $10 million.”
What he didn’t mention was that one of the reasons why Paint Your Wagon cost so much is that it faced numerous delays, and he was one of them. After the script had been rewritten and polished so many times that it barely resembled the one he’d signed on to shoot, Eastwood was ready to walk away until the producers convinced him that it was in his best interests to make a disastrous musical.
Ironically, his arm was twisted after the key creatives’ flying visit to then-Yugoslavia, where Eastwood just happened to be filming Where Eagles Dare. He didn’t come cheap as a proven box office draw and A-lister, and neither did his opposite number, Richard Burton, which helped drive up the price of making the wartime adventure.
Clearly, Eastwood wasn’t best thrilled with the period between January and October 1968 when he shot Where Eagles Dare and Paint Your Wagon consecutively if he felt compelled to highlight those two pictures as the prime examples of Hollywood letting its budgets run wild. Needless to say, it wasn’t a habit he picked up when he shifted into directing several years later with Play Misty for Me.