Clint Eastwood: His best films to date

Later this week, Clint Eastwood will unleash a new film into the world in Sully, which debuted a few days ago at the Telluride Film Festival. Early word is very solid, suggesting a potential awards player this year. I’ll be writing about that movie shortly, but for now, I want to look at Eastwood’s career to date, both as an actor as well as a filmmaker. Eastwood is a unique one, that’s for sure. In just a day or two I’ll be back with a straight Sully piece, but right now, it’s more or less just going to be a look at Eastwood and what he’s done so far. Enjoy! In case you don’t know, Sully is a biopic about Captain Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks), the pilot who became a national hero. We all learned about Captain Sullenberger, or Sully, after he glided his crippled plane to a landing in the Hudson River, saving all 155 souls on board. What we never knew though was the investigation that went on concurrently to his victory tour of sorts. Sully and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) had to go before the NTSB to defend their actions. Sully feels he did right, but what if he put everyone at risk? We all know what will happen, but this is a behind the scenes look at it all. Eastwood directs a script from Todd Komarnicki, with the supporting cast including Laura Linney as Sully’s life, along with the likes of Ann Cusack, Jerry Ferrara, Anna Gunn, Sam Huntington, Holt McCallany, Mike O’Malley, and more. Tom Stern again handles Eastwood’s cinematography. Here’s a bit from my Spotlight piece on Eastwood a few years ago: “Eastwood has basically done it all in the business. He’s starred in franchises (the Dirty Harry series as well as The Man With No Name movies), acted in Best Picture winners, and directed them as well. Though one could legitimately make the claim that his best days in Hollywood are behind him, there was a time when he was basically the king of the industry. Two of his directorial efforts (both of which he starred in and received Best Actor nominations for) won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and he had a long run of his work being repeatedly embraced by Oscar voters. He has four competitive statues at home (for producing and directing Million Dollar Baby as well as producing and [...]