Ten Best Clint Eastwood Movies

Clint Eastwood as William Munny in Unforgiven (1992), image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Clint Eastwood, born in San Francisco on May 31, 1930, has reached the pinnacle of Hollywood success as both an actor and director. Eastwood made his motion picture debut in 1955’s The Revenge of the Creature playing the bit role of Jennings, a prankster lab technician.

Here are ten outstanding movies that no Clint Eastwood fan should ever miss. Go ahead, make your day…

Unforgiven (Warner Bros., 1992)

Clint Eastwood stars as William Munny, an aging ex-gunslinger who with Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) and The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) saddle up and head to the town of Big Whiskey. Here they plan to fulfill a murder contract put out on a band of cowboys who disfigured a young prostitute. Eastwood and company soon run afoul of town sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), who rules his small slice of the universe with an iron fist. Eastwood excels as the sick, grizzled Old West assassin who reluctantly takes on one final job. Eastwood also served as both producer and director, winning Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.

• Great Eastwood line: “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.”
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• On DVD: Unforgiven (Warner, 2008).

Dirty Harry (Warner Bros., 1971)

Clint Eastwood has the title role in this fantasy crime drama, playing San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan who takes on every dirty job that comes his way. Harry’s latest assignment, courtesy of the mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Al Bressler (Harry Guardino), is delivering ransom money to a crazed serial killer (Andy Robinson) who calls himself Scorpio. Eastwood, armed with his extremely lethal .44 Magnum cannon, romps through scenic San Francisco, having a field day as he takes down bank robbers, plants a switchblade into Scorpio’s leg and eventually blows away the creep after the latter had kidnapped a busload of children.  

• Great Eastwood line: “I know what you’re thinking, punk. You’re thinking ‘did he fire six shots or only five?’ Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
• Director: Don Siegel
• On DVD: Dirty Harry Special Edition (Warner, 2008)

Kelly’s Heroes (MGM, 1970)

Clint Eastwood plays Private Kelly, a former Army officer who with Big Joe (Telly Savalas) leads a band of renegade GIs in a made dash to claim 14,000 bars of German gold sitting in a bank 25 miles behind enemy lines. Eastwood is a bit tight-lipped as Kelly, but with his Thompson submachine gun and sarcastic wit at the ready, he delivers one of his better performances of the 1970s. Superb special effects highlight this often unsung World War II heist comedy-drama.

• Great Eastwood line (directed at a German panzer sergeant): “Sergeant, this bank’s not gonna fall into the hands of the American Army. It’s gonna fall in our hands. You see, we’re just a private enterprise operation.”
• Director: Brian G. Hutton
• On DVD: Kelly’s Heroes (Warner, 2000)

Coogan’s Bluff (Universal, 1968)

Clint Eastwood stars as Deputy Sheriff Walt Coogan, an unconventional Arizona lawman dispatched to New York City to bring back James Ringerman (Don Stroud) on an extradition warrant. Eastwood as cowboy Coogan experiences both the good and bad in the Big Apple, romancing a pretty probation officer (Susan Clark), locking horns with a veteran police lieutenant (Lee J. Cobb) and going up against the escaped Ringerman and his violent confederates.

• Great Eastwood line (directed at a New York cabbie who tried to fleece him by driving a circuitous route, but still demands $2.95, including a luggage fee): “Yeah, well, there’s $3, including the tip.”
• Director: Don Siegel
• On DVD: Coogan’s Bluff (Universal, 2004)

Two Mules for Sister Sara (Universal, 1970)

Clint Eastwood plays Hogan, a grizzled, hard-drinking American mercenary who rescues Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) from a band of drunken cowboys in the desert. The interaction between Eastwood and MacLaine lights up the screen, as the two make their perilous way to a French fort in Mexico, dodging Emperor Maximilian’s troops, blowing up a railroad trestle and arguing the merits of Christianity and marriage.

• Great Eastwood line: “It’s a great life. Women when I want ‘em and none with the name of Hogan.”
• Director: Don Siegel
• On DVD: Two Mules for Sister Sara (Universal, 2003)

Clint Eastwood in Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), lobby card image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (United Artists, 1966)

Clint Eastwood plays Blondie a.k.a. the Man with No Name, an Old West bounty hunter on the trail of a fortune in buried Confederate gold. It’s an extremely violent romp through the dusty Civil War West, with big Clint squinting, grunting, crawling and shooting as he, Tuco (Eli Wallach) and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) follow the murderous trail to the hidden treasure in a cemetery. Adding to this spaghetti western’s mythic qualities is Ennio Morricone’s haunting music score.

• Great Eastwood line: “Every gun makes its own tune.”
• Director: Sergio Leone
• On DVD: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (MGM, 1998)

Hang ‘Em High (United Artists, 1969)

Clint Eastwood stars as Jed Cooper, the victim of a near fatal lynching who takes up the badge of a deputy U.S. marshal for Judge Adam Fenton’s (Pat Hingle) 70,000-square mile Oklahoma/Indian Territory in 1889. Eastwood, donning a scarf which hides the ugly rope scar stitched across his neck, pursues the nine men who had strung him up from a tree limb. Eastwood’s trek through the desert is almost biblical, as he contends with three prisoners, including the dangerous Miller (Bruce Dern).

• Great Eastwood line (directed at the one-eyed Reno, a member of the lynch mob who is now drinking at a saloon): “When you hang a man, you better look at him.”
• Director: Ted Post
• On DVD: Hang ‘Em High (MGM, 1997)

Escape from Alcatraz (Paramount, 1979)

Clint Eastwood portrays real-life Alcatraz inmate Frank Morris, who with the Anglin brothers, Clarence and John (Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward), bust out of Alcatraz in 1962, never to be heard from again. Eastwood is riveting as the scheming Morris, who masterminds an escape from the island prison using dummy heads and crude life rafts fashioned from raincoats. Patrick McGoohan as the stern warden provides the perfect foil to Eastwood’s Morris, telling the budding accordion player, “That’s one of the benefits of Alcatraz – lots of time to practice.”

• Great Eastwood line: “I may have found a way out of here.”
• Director: Don Siegel
• On DVD: Escape from Alcatraz (Paramount, 1999)

Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz (1979), lobby card image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

High Plains Drifter (Universal, 1973)

Clint Eastwood appears as the mysterious Stranger, blown down from the high plains where he later takes a job in Lago, Arizona Territory, defending the mining town from marauding gunfighters. Eastwood wastes no time in establishing his signature Old West credentials, blowing away three troublemakers in a barber shop. Eastwood’s interaction with a dwarf named Mordecai (Billy Curtis), whom he names both mayor and sheriff, provides some comic relief in what is an extremely brutal, violent oater.

• Great Eastwood line (directed at the preacher, who called him “brother”): “I’m not your brother.”
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• On DVD: High Plains Drifter (Universal, 1998)

White Hunter, Black Heart (Warner Bros., 1990)

Clint Eastwood stars as John Wilson, a John Huston-type filmmaker who journeys to Africa in 1951 to make his latest movie (read: The African Queen). While on location, Eastwood’s Wilson becomes obsessed with hunting big game, particularly an elephant with big ivory tusks. A sleeper in the Clint Eastwood filmography, White Hunter affords big Clint the opportunity to spread his wings a bit, including one scene where he deliberately picks a losing fight with a white hotel owner (Clive Mantle) who had abused a black waiter.

• Great Eastwood line: “It’s like I always tell ya, kid, you gotta fight when you think it’s the right thing to do. Otherwise, you feel like your gut’s full of pus.”
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• On DVD: White Hunter, Black Heart (Warner, 2003)

Clint Eastwood in White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)

Ten Other Clint Eastwood Movie Gems

• A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
• For a Few Dollars More (1965)
• Where Eagles Dare (1968)
• Play Misty for Me (1971)
• Joe Kidd (1972)
• Honkytonk Man (1982)
• Pale Rider (1985)
• Absolute Power (1997)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Gran Torino (2008)