The 94-year-old’s favorite film of all-time might comes as a surprise to some. He remains a big fan of the golden age of cinema.
It’s probably safe to say that when it comes to making movies, Clint Eastwood knows a thing or two. As an actor he became a household name, starring across various genres – in revisionist and spaghetti westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as unorthodox county sheriff Walt Coogan, tough-talking, no-nonsense cop Harry Callahan or for his portrayal as Frank Morris, the brazen, daring wantaway inmate in Escape from Alcatraz.
Then there are the masterpieces which he directed from the other side of the camera – Play Misty for Me, Pale Rider, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Gran Torino… During his 65-year career in the business, Eastwood has amassed an array of awards – four Oscars and 11 Academy nominations, three Golden Globe Awards as well as countless accolades and recognition internationally.
Clint Eastwood’s early career
Eastwood’s acting career started in the mid-1950s with small uncredited film roles and television appearances in shows such as Rawhide and Highway Patrol. His first credited film role was as salty dog Jonesy in the Arthur Lubin comedy Francis in the Navy. His big break would come almost a decade later when he was cast as Joe, the ‘Man with No Name’, in Sergio Leone’s epic, A Fistful of Dollars. While critics were initially hesitant about the film’s merits, the public loved it. It was a box office hit in Europe, then later in the US and completely revolutionize the genre.
#OnThisDay 1930: Iconic actor and film star Clint Eastwood was born.
In this clip, Clint explains his scepticism about signing up for A Fistful of Dollars with Sergio Leone, and Leone confesses to actually wanting James Coburn for the role. pic.twitter.com/FaAClLnDiQ
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Most people, if not everyone, will have at least one favorite Clint Eastwood film – either one he’s starred in, produced or directed. But what about the great man himself? Which directors does he admire and if he had to pick one, what would be his favorite film of all-time?
In 2009, during one of his many appearances on the red carpet at the American Film Institute, he cited three from what he considers the golden age of cinema: John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley (1941), William A. Wellman’s The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), and John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
Clint Eastwood’s favorite movies
And just a few years later in 2016, in a joint interview with his son, Scott for Esquire Magazine, Eastwood was once again quizzed about the films made by other people that mean the most to him, or in some way moved him.
“Sunset Boulevard. Erich von Stroheim. My favorite film. Have you ever seen it, Scott?” Clint replied turning to his son. “Two different styles: the style of the silent-movie actress, and then with William Holden’s character, someone more contemporary. The two styles working so well together. And I always liked Billy Wilder”.
Billy Wilder’s film noir Sunset Boulevard follows Joe Gillis (William Holden), a struggling screenwriter who becomes professionally, the romantically involved with a reclusive washed-up silent movie actress Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson) who wants to revive her career – with Gillis’ help. The film deals with the dark underside of Hollywood’s film industry, the pursuit of fame, quest for glamor and the cut-throat nature of a business which is only interested in profit, even at human cost.