News: Now showing in theaters: CRY MACHO, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood!


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1
Clint Eastwood Westerns / Clint's first riding lessons
« on: February 25, 2021, 02:56:06 PM »
bhorner, a new member on the Web Board, recently asked me via PM whether anyone knew how Clint learned to ride. With his permission, I'd like to share some excerpts from our PMs:

bhorner asked:
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Does anyone know who taught Mr. Eastwood how to ride? I have a friend that worked the studios and refers to him and others on riding lessons.

I answered:
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According to Richard Schickel in his biography Clint Eastwood (p. 75), Clint learned to ride while he was a participant in Universal's talent program back in the early 1950s. Riding was among the accomplishments the young actors were expected to learn, and they had classes every week. Clint learned fast. Schickel says:
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His favorite place was the [Universal Studios] back lot, one of the most extensive in the industry, with some of its sets dating back to silent-picture days. "You could go out anytime you wanted to and check out the horseback riding. I didn't know how to ride, so I'd go riding with the old wranglers--hung out with them." His report cards show Clint moving into the advanced group of riders quite quickly, and before long he was checking out horses and heading alone into the hills southeast of the studio ... In the fifties, before the studio tour, and before the hotels and the Universal amphitheater were built on this land, it remained a wilderness: "Deer back in there?I'd run up there on horseback, and coyotes would be running across the road. It was really remote. It was really terrific!"

To this, bhorner replied:
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Ernest Velarde was a wrangler during that time frame. Ernest son Richard Velarde and I are family and Richard often tells stories how his dad gave riding lesson to actors such as Mr. Eastwood ... Always enjoy listening to stories from him referring to the movies they worked on.

A nice story, thanks, bhorner!

2
Off-Topic Discussion / Happy Belated Birthday, AKA23!
« on: October 30, 2020, 10:25:43 PM »
Last week, I noticed you had a birthday coming up. I meant to start a thread ... but I forgot!   :o :D

I hope you had a wonderful day.  8)


4
Trivia Games / Clint Eastwood quotes for "the situation"
« on: March 25, 2020, 09:37:48 PM »
This isn't really a trivia game, but I thought maybe to pass the time we could try to think of some appropriate quotes from Clint's movies for the situation we find ourselves in.

Just think of a topic and a quote. I'll start:

Social distancing: "Get off my lawn!"—Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino

Anyone else have one?

5
Richard Jewell opens in the US today, so it's time to get our traditional "members' comments" threads started.

We welcome all thoughts and comments and even full-fledged reviews of the film, but please... NO SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD. If you feel that what you want to say about the film may spoil it for those who haven't yet seen it, then please post in our SPOILERS thread for Richard Jewell:

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/index.php?topic=10915.0

6
Richard Jewell opens in the US today, so it's time to get our traditional "members' comments" threads started.

In this thread, spoilers are allowed. Anyone who has seen Richard Jewell and has more to say than can be safely posted in the "No Spoilers" thread, please give us your thoughts, comments or full-fledged review.

7
Richard Jewell premiered at the AFI Fest last Wednesday, so it's time to start this thread!

This will be the "official" thread for media reviews of Richard Jewell and current features about its cast and crew. Please try to keep it to major print, broadcast and online media, not random blog posts or tweets.

Remember, please:
  • All quoted material should be formatted as such (surround it with tags)
  • Only quote enough to give us the gist, NOT entire articles.
  • Always, always give a link to the source (or publication information if it's not online)
  • If possible, identify the author of the article, if it is not in the quoted material.
  • Don't post links alone, include a few words saying what is being linked to.

The Moderators reserve the right to edit posts that don't follow these guidelines.


Please read through recent posts before posting new material to make sure someone hasn't already posted the same story or review. And remember that these are frequently reprinted, so try to find the original source if possible.

8
It's part of a series "Make My Day: American Movies in the Age of Reagan." There's a tie-in with film critic J. Hoberman's new book, Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan. He'll be speaking about the book and the film series on August 28.

Here's FilmLinc's blurb for the film:

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“San Francisco police detective Harry Callahan was Clint Eastwood’s most enduring character—the personification of political reaction, the antidote to the permissive Sixties and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society,” writes Hoberman. “Harry—like Reagan—was a walking contradiction, the authoritarian who hates authority.” Returning from a hiatus during the Carter administration, Eastwood’s Dirty Harry was back for Reagan’s first term to track a serial killer—who is avenging her own rape—only to unwittingly become romantically involved with her. Sudden Impact notably marked the first onscreen instance of Dirty Harry’s (and Eastwood’s) signature catchphrase, which Reagan would himself later quote: “Go ahead, make my day.”



https://www.filmlinc.org/films/sudden-impact/

The screenings are at 4 PM on both August 25 and 27. Unfortunately I won't be able to make either. Lately, they seem to deliberately schedule Clint films in New York at times when I can't go.


9
Eastwood News / Rip Torn ... R.I.P.
« on: July 09, 2019, 09:57:45 PM »
He was in one film with Clint, City Heat (as gangster Primo Pitt) ...



... but the IMDb lists no fewer than 190 other acting credits for "the hell-raising Texas-born actor who in real life was almost as colorful as the outsize characters he played in a 60-year TV and movie career" (NBC News). He also has two credits apiece as director and as producer. Now he is dead at the age of 88.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/rip-torn-actor-known-men-black-larry-sanders-dies-88-n1028076

https://www.apnews.com/bf7636e4843d4f129607db5a3afdf6b1

Now, the headline waiting for him all his life: Rip Torn, R.I.P.

10
Eastwood News / THE GAUNTLET at New York's Quad Cinema
« on: June 14, 2019, 07:54:59 AM »
This Sunday, June 16, at 5:25. It's part of a Pauline Kael series ... films she loved and a few she hated (as in this case, naturally).


A film by Clint Eastwood

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Rarely if ever a fan of the actor/director, Kael didn’t reverse course for this shoot-‘em-up action thriller, but it had been a Christmastime (!) hit by the time her negative review ran. Alcoholic cop Eastwood is assigned to spirit upscale call girl Sondra Locke from Las Vegas to Phoenix so that she can testify against a gangster, but he’s being set up by corrupt superiors in league with the mob. With many an Eastwood fave including Bill McKinney, Mara Corday, and Dan Vadis.

https://quadcinema.com/film/the-gauntlet/

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it.  For anyone in the area who can: the Quad is at 34 W. 13th Street, near Sixth Avenue, in Manhattan.

12
General Discussion / Title frame screenshots of Clint Eastwood movies
« on: February 02, 2019, 10:41:08 PM »
I stumbled across a site called "The Movie Title Stills Collection" where a guy called Christian Annyas is posting screenshots of the moment where a film's title appears onscreen. It includes a whole page of films directed by Clint:

http://annyas.com/screenshots/directors/clint-eastwood/

... and another for films starring Clint:

http://annyas.com/screenshots/actors/clint-eastwood/

Neither page is complete (in the case of films directed by Clint, he specifies "all feature films directed by Clint Eastwood released on Blu-ray") but it's quite interesting to see so many all together like that. There are notes mentioning the titles designer and the font used (when known), and some other interesting trivia.

Annyas is a web designer. He says about this project:
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I've seen a lot of movies over the years. To prove I've sat through at least the first ten minutes of them I started making screenshots of the titles. Then my computer crashed and I almost lost them all. To save them for future generations I created this little website.



13
Eastwood News / Carol Channing, R.I.P.
« on: January 26, 2019, 01:50:18 PM »
Speaking of surprising associations with Clint, I am surprised that no one here noted the passing of the great Carol Channing, who died on January 15 at the age of 97. She was in The First Traveling Saleslady (Arthur Lubin, 1956) with Clint, who had a large enough part to receive an "And introducing ..." billing.



Here is a link to her New York Times obit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/obituaries/carol-channing-dead.html

R.I.P., Carol Channing.

14
Off-Topic Discussion / Happy Birthday, Christopher ...
« on: December 10, 2018, 11:27:17 PM »
... 36!  :D

Happy Birthday, "old" friend!  :)



Have a wonderful day!  8)

15
Eastwood News / THE MULE: Reviews and Features in the Media
« on: December 09, 2018, 07:40:36 PM »
This will be the "official" thread for media reviews of The Mule and current features about its cast and crew. Please try to keep it to major print, broadcast and online media, not random blog posts or tweets.

Remember that all quoted material should be formatted as such (surround it with [ quote] [ /quote] tags, without the spaces); only quote enough to give us the gist, not entire articles; and always, always give a link to the source (or publication information if it's not online). Also, please identify the author of the article, if it is not in the quoted material. The Moderators reserve the right to edit posts that don't follow these guidelines.

Please read through recent posts before posting new material to make sure someone hasn't already posted the same story or review. And remember that these are frequently reprinted, so try to find the original source if possible.

16
Off-Topic Discussion / Happy Birthday, exit00!
« on: December 01, 2018, 11:13:14 PM »
These days, we don't do as many birthday threads as we used to, but I just happened to notice at the foot of the page that today is exit00's birthday ... and he is one of our real old-timers in terms of how long he's been posting here.

So many happy returns, exit00!  8)



Have a wonderful day.  :)

17
Eastwood News / William Goldman, R.I.P.
« on: November 18, 2018, 10:50:46 PM »
William Goldman, the legendary screenwriter, has died at the age of 87.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/obituaries/william-goldman-dead.html

He and Clint only worked together once, on 1997's Absolute Power. I'm sure they both would say it's not their best work. But the published edition of the screenplay (New York : Applause Books, 1997) is worth getting for Goldman's introduction.

It begins, "Absolute Power is the hardest screenplay I have ever written."

Goldman talks about wrestling with the book for nearly a year before Clint was involved, without finding a good solution to the various problems he saw in transferring the story to the screen. In particular, he couldn't settle on a character to be the star. Luther wasn't an option, because in the book, he dies halfway through. I'll quote a couple of pages:

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SETH, by elimination, became my star.

There was still the problem of his not solving all that much. But I figured I could help that by giving him stuff to do that had belonged to other characters in the novel and the first draft.

One of the ways I did this was by giving him a family. … The family was a way to keep SETH around, and also to get rid of exposition that other characters carried earlier. And it made SETH vulnerable so, near the end, when he is closing in on RICHMOND, the President has BURTON and COLLIN send him a message by instructing them to hurt his family. Which they do, driving them off the road, putting ELAINE and the TWINS into the hospital. So SETH has a huge emotional score to settle when in the last scene, he visits the White House and brings RICHMOND down.

Not Shakespearean, no. But maybe an improvement over the first draft. And SETH was now at the center of pretty much everything possible. I had certainly written a star part which was primarily what I meant to do.

I sent it out. Fingers very much crossed.

Because this draft was going to Clint Eastwood. His agent had called while I was writing this draft and indicated he wouldn't mind taking a look at this draft when it was done.

I was desperate to work with Eastwood, had been for decades. He is quietly having one of the very greatest careers. Along with John Wayne, the two most durable stars in history. Plus plus plus the directing.

Eastwood as SETH - set the blood racing.

I had given them something. So at last we had something to change.

Little did he know...

THIRD DRAFT

December, 1995.

The second draft got out to Castle Rock around the 20th of October. Their reaction was good — not terrific but certainly good — and they were very appreciative about the amount of work that had gone into changing it.

Now, nothing to do but wait for Eastwood.

On the first of November Martin Shafer called to report that Eastwood definitely was reading it.

Then he called later that day and this is what he said. Eastwood had already read it. He thought it was absolutely OK.

But—

—big but—

—he had already played guys like SETH and didn't want to play that character again—

—now Shafer dropped the shoe —

EASTWOOD was interested in playing LUTHER. He thought LUTHER was a terrific character but—

—amazingly huge but

Eastwood wanted LUTHER to live and to bring down the President.

I was rocked.

During these days of waiting my fantasies of writing a movie for Clint Eastwood grew out of all control. I was even more desperate to work with him —

—I simply didn't know if I could write it.

But write it he does. Goldman goes on to describe how all the various unsolvable problems got solved, to both his and Eastwood's satisfaction, and he ends:

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I have seen the finished film as I write this and you will decide what you think of it. But I can tell you this: I'm sure glad I'm involved.

There, now you know everything.


Norman Mailer, center, presented the writing Oscars to Mr. Goldman, left, for “All the President’s Men” (best adapted screenplay) and Paddy Chayefsky for “Network” (best original screenplay) at the 1977 Academy Awards. Credit: Pendergrass/Associated Press

From Sasha Stone's obituary on the Awards Daily site:

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Where to even start with William Goldman. I’ll start here. When I first began my site the tagline was “Nobody knows anything.” I think it remained so for about a decade. I can’t think of anyone I admired more in the movie business when I first started than William Goldman. So bright, so funny, so willing to jab a dagger into the heart of bull$#!t that Hollywood ran itself by. I’m such a fan of Goldman’s that I’ve watched Absolute Power, directed by Clint Eastwood, multiple times and All the President’s Men remains in my top five of all time. Goldman was a once in a generation mind and talent.

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2018/11/16/saying-goodbye-to-william-goldman-who-might-as-well-take-all-of-hollywood-with-him/

R.I.P.


18
General Discussion / MOVED: Burt Reynolds RIP
« on: September 06, 2018, 11:19:33 PM »

20
This topic has been moved to Off-Topic Discussion , as Clint is no longer connected with the project.

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/index.php?topic=789.0

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