Marc Eliot's 2009 biography "American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood" lays out the production of Don Siegel's 1971 cop drama "Dirty Harry" as a complicated affair. The first version of the film's script was violent and raw, telling the story of a cop who has to break the law in order to stop a dangerous serial killer. As the script was passed around, though, many became wary of its violence, and many actors expressed interest and dropped out. The rights to the film were once in the hands of ABC who aimed to adapt it for TV, but sold it to Warner Bros. when they realized just how violent the film had to be. Irvin Kershner was once hired to direct, with Frank Sinatra starring. Sydney Pollock, George C. Scott, Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen, and many other famous people brushed up against "Dirty Harry" during pre-production. Even Terrence Malick purportedly wrote a draft.
- 2/17/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Clint Eastwood's impulse for directing goes back to his early days working on the 1959 TV series "Rawhide." As he described in an interview with Patrick McGilligam printed in the 1999 book "Clint Eastwood: Interviews," edited by Robert E. Kapsis and Kathie Coblentz, he stated that working among cattle while on horseback -- "Rawhide" is about cattle ranchers who fend off bad guys in the Old West -- gave him ideas as to how shots could look better. The story goes that he wanted to take a camera onto a horse with him and film Pov shots in the middle of the bovine action. He was denied on "Rawhide," and was not permitted to direct any episodes. It seems that, in the late '50s and early '60s, actors directing their own TV shows had yet to prove lucrative for CBS.
Eastwood wouldn't direct a feature film until 1973, making his...
Eastwood wouldn't direct a feature film until 1973, making his...
- 1/3/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Clint Eastwood began his acting career in 1955, a year he would appear (uncredited) in the Universal monster movie "Revenge of the Creature" as well as the TV movie "Allen in Wonderland," wherein he played a hospital orderly. After four years of supporting roles and guest spots in movies and on TV, Eastwood landed his first notable starring role, playing the character of Rowdy Yates on the massively popular Western TV series "Rawhide." The hour-long drama debuted in January of 1959 and ran a then-unprecedented 217 episodes, finally going off the air in 1965.
"Rawhide" followed the many adventures of actual cowboys -- that is, the ones that handle cattle -- as they faced off against rustlers and other criminals. Rowdy Yates was the young hothead of the group and had to learn how to mature over the course of the series. Eastwood was 28 at the time but was already honing the type of...
"Rawhide" followed the many adventures of actual cowboys -- that is, the ones that handle cattle -- as they faced off against rustlers and other criminals. Rowdy Yates was the young hothead of the group and had to learn how to mature over the course of the series. Eastwood was 28 at the time but was already honing the type of...
- 1/3/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Despite a long and prolific acting career that spans over 60 films, Clint Eastwood rarely worked with directors more than once. Only Sergio Leone, Don Siegel, and Ted Post worked with the actor on multiple occasions, with Post earning extra credit for directing "Magnum Force," a sequel to Siegel's "Dirty Harry." The directors in question might also be credited for creating some of Eastwood's most recognizable characters. Siegel and his screenwriters invented Harry Callahan, a tough-as-nails cop who cannot arrest a vicious Zodiac-like serial killer because of the police force's new implementation of Miranda laws. And Leone helped invent the stoic gunfighter often called The Man With No Name in a celebrated trilogy of Westerns in the 1960s.
Both characters are strong, silent types, their faces both etched with a permanent scowl of annoyance. Both are handy with a gun and tend to rely on vigilante justice. Both appear to...
Both characters are strong, silent types, their faces both etched with a permanent scowl of annoyance. Both are handy with a gun and tend to rely on vigilante justice. Both appear to...
- 12/20/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
In Stuart Galbraith IV's invaluable and exhaustive 2001 book "The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune," the famed Japanese director talks briefly about Sergio Leone's classic 1964 Western "A Fistful of Dollars." Kurosawa admired the film saying that it was "a fine movie," and hastened to add, "but it was my movie."
"A Fistful of Dollars" was, of course, a remake of Kurosawa's own 1961 film "Yojimbo." Both films are about stalwart and detached loners who find themselves wandering through a remote frontier villages that have been overtaken by two warring gangs. In both films, the stranger -- Mifune in the original, Clint Eastwood in the remake -- use their wits to pit the two gangs against one another. Notably, Leone's film didn't bother to credit Kurosawa or his "Yojimbo" co-screenwriter Ryuzo Kikushima, nor did he approach Toho about the possibility of licensing the rights.
"A Fistful of Dollars" was, of course, a remake of Kurosawa's own 1961 film "Yojimbo." Both films are about stalwart and detached loners who find themselves wandering through a remote frontier villages that have been overtaken by two warring gangs. In both films, the stranger -- Mifune in the original, Clint Eastwood in the remake -- use their wits to pit the two gangs against one another. Notably, Leone's film didn't bother to credit Kurosawa or his "Yojimbo" co-screenwriter Ryuzo Kikushima, nor did he approach Toho about the possibility of licensing the rights.
- 12/8/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Director Don Siegel started his filmmaking career back in the 1940s, directing montages for high-profile studio pictures like "Now, Voyager" and "Casablanca." He eventually made a name for himself in the 1950s with hard-boiled crime dramas like "The Verdict" and "Riot in Cell Block 11" as well as the indelible sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Siegel would also become notable for the five feature films he made with Clint Eastwood — "Coogan's Bluff," "Two Mules for Sister Sara," "The Beguiled," "Escape from Alcatraz," and, most popular, the 1971 classic "Dirty Harry."
Film director Sergio Leone also began his career in the 1940s, working as an assistant director or a writer on dozens of features in his native Italy. He would begin directing in 1959 with "The Last Days of Pompeii," but his reputation as an auteur would be cemented with his famed five-film cycle of Spaghetti Westerns, so-called for their country of origin.
Film director Sergio Leone also began his career in the 1940s, working as an assistant director or a writer on dozens of features in his native Italy. He would begin directing in 1959 with "The Last Days of Pompeii," but his reputation as an auteur would be cemented with his famed five-film cycle of Spaghetti Westerns, so-called for their country of origin.
- 12/5/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
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