Clint Eastwood...Make My Day
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Clint Eastwood is one of my very few all-time favorite actors...as a tribute....on site, i have the following links also....
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There r a few quotes by clint at the bottom of this page...
Thought for those who do not know him and even his old time fans...it would be good to read Clint-In his own words.....
He has a very well-done site on the web...but the thing is, there is so much info....even the die-hard fan could get over-whelmed...guess that keeps them coming back...and also u would not expect Clint to have a little wimpy site...LMAO(Make My Day)...my point is....u might have missed this....
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Clint Eastwood...in his own words..
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My family was too busy moving around, looking for work,
for me to know what I wanted. Even after I got out of
high school in Oakland, I had no idea what I wanted to
do.
One of the biggest things when I was a kid—I always
liked jazz. A wide spectrum of jazz. Back in the
forties and fifties, I listened to Brubeck and Mulligan.
And I loved Ellington and Basie. I'd get books on
everybody: Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver, Buddy Bolden.
I tried to enroll in Seattle University, where they had
a good music program.
I got my draft notice before I got in there, though, and
ended up at Fort Ord (California). I served my two years.
In the service I had met some guys who were actors—
Martin Milner, David Janssen—and when we got out, a
cinematographer got me a screen test. I got an offer to
go under contract with Universal, seventy-five bucks a
week to start.
They threw me out a year and a half later. But it was a
pretty good deal for a young guy. We had acting classes
every day.
I'd done Rawhide for about five years. The
agency called and asked if I was interested in doing a
western in Italy and Spain. I said, "Not particularly."
They said, "Why don't you give the script a quick look?"
Well, I was kind of curious, so I read it, and I
recognized it right away as Yojimbo, a Kurosawa film I
had liked a lot. Over I went, taking the poncho with
me—yeah the cape was my idea.
There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody
tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite
direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation;
I have a reverence for individuality. I got where I am
by coming off the wall. I've always considered myself
too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing.
I think people jumped to conclusions about Dirty Harry
without giving the character much thought, trying to
attach right-wing connotations to the film that were
never really intended.
Both the director (Don Siegel) and I thought it was a
basic kind of drama—what do you do when you believe so
much in law and order and coming to the rescue of people
and you just have five hours to solve a case?
That kind of impossible effort was fun to portray, but
I think it was interpreted as a pro-police point of view.
A kind of rightist heroism, at a time in American
history when police officers were looked down on as "pigs,"
as very oppressive people—I'm sure there are some who are,
and a lot who aren't. I've met both kinds.
I don't like the wimp syndrome. No matter how ardent a
feminist may be, if she is a heterosexual female, she wants
the strength of a male companion as well as the sensitivity.
The most gentle people in the world are macho males, people
who are confident in their masculinity and have a feeling
of well-being in themselves. They don't have to kick in
doors, mistreat women, or make fun of gays.
You don't play down to people, you don't say. "I'd better
make this line a little simpler, a little more expository."
For instance, in The Outlaw Josey Wales, when he rides off
at the end of the picture, the editor and I had wanted
(at one time) to superimpose the girl's face over him.
He said, "We want the audience to know that he's going back
to her." Well, we all know he's going back. The audience
wills him back.
One of my favorite films was Pale Rider. I also liked
Honkytonk Man. I feel very close to the western. There are
not too many American art forms that are original. Most are
derived from European art forms.Other than the western and
jazz or blues, that's all that's really original.
High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider both have elements of the
classic westerns in them, mythological characters who drift
in and have an effect on the people.
In High Plains Drifter he is the bereaved brother who comes
back and persecutes the people for their apathy or
corruption. In Pale Rider the stranger comes to the aid of
hard-working people, who are trying to eke out a living and
are being harassed by the major corporate concern.
Behind the camera, You have to trust your instincts. There's
a moment when an actor has it, and he knows it. Behind the
camera you can feel the moment even more clearly. And once
you've got it, once you feel it, you can't second-guess
yourself.
If I would go around and ask everyone on the set how it
looked, eventually someone would say, "Well, gee, I don't
know, there was a fly 600 feet back." Somebody's always
going to find a flaw, and pretty soon that flaw gets
magnified and you're all back to another take.
Meanwhile everyone's forgotten that there's a certain
focus on things, and no one's going to see that fly because
you're using a 100mm lens. But that's what you can do .
You can talk yourself in and out of anything. You can find
a million reasons why something didn't work. But if it feels
right, and it looks right, it works.
Without sounding like a pseudointellectual dipshit, it's my
responsibility to be true to myself. If it works for me,
it's right. When I start choosing wrong, I'll step back and
let someone else do it for me.
Actors know the most difficult problem in acting is to act
in a scene with a person you don't know while you're both
playing characters who know each other very well. You have
to break down your natural reserve in the presence of a
stranger.
As a director, I can help actors do that sometimes. The plan
was, when I first started directing in the 1970's, to get
more involved in production and directing so at some point
in my life, when I decided I didn't want to act anymore,
I didn't have to suit up.
None of the pictures I take a risk in cost a lot, so it
doesn't take much for them to turn a profit. Bronco Billy,
for example, cost five million. We sold it to TV for ten.
We don't deal in big budgets. We know what we want and we
shoot it and we don't waste anything. I never understand
these films that cost twenty, thirty million dollars when
they could be made for half that. Maybe it's because no
one cares. We care.
But I do want mood, in a film. I guess Unforgiven is a good
example. When we're in the saloon, and I want it to look
like it's coal-lit. I don't want an electronic feel.
I want it the way the light would pool.
I liked this film because even the perpetrators of the
violence are touched by it, and a lot of good people are
victims.
In The Bridges of Madison County, Kincaid's a peculiar guy.
Really, he's kind of a lonely individual. He's sort of a
lost soul in Mid-America. I've been that guy.
Most people who'll remember me, if at all, will remember me
as an action guy, which is OK. There's nothing wrong with
that. But there will be a certain group which will remember
me for the other films, the ones where I took a few chances.
At least, I like to think so.
Clint Eastwood***
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These quotes say alot about him...
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I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.*****
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I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.*****
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My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.*****
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They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.*****
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