TAG, you're it!

[Matt]

TAGGING....

JOEY:  If you were in charge of picking five of Clint's movies for us to watch on the big screen at an Eastwood Web Board Convention, which five would you choose?  

[the stranger]

Just to let you know Chris, I love paint your Wagon
Always have, always will.
-Stranger-

[philo]

From Matt :

PHILO:  Instead of the more complex questions you've been getting... list in order, if you can, your top three favorite Clint Eastwood films and your bottom three  (least favorite) Clint Eastwood films.

I prefer the complex ones  

Dirty Harry
The outlaw Josey Wales
Every which way but loose

Unforgiven
City heat
The Rookie


Thanks for the great game everybody .


Philo .

[zoso]

   zoso:  Which co-star that Clint has worked with has been your least favorite, and why?

    i think my least favorite co-star has to be tyne daly so far. i realize cagney and lacey came after the enforcer but  seeing the movie for the first time long after the show's run, i couldn't get past her role as one of the two cops, cagney or lacey, whoever she played.

[zoso]

3) zoso: Eastwood has had car trouble and has knocked on your door at 5:00 o'clock one night.  You help him make arrangements to have the car fixed but it won't be ready until noon tomorrow.  He tells you that he doesn't know where he's going to stay for the night so you invite him to stay at your house.  What will you do to entertain him that night and part of the next day?
   

    that's an interesting question mgk   well, i guess a man's gotta eat so provided it wasn't in the middle of winter, i'd fire up the bar-b-q and cook my specialty, steaks marinated in beer all afternoon. then i suppose i'd let him pick through my c.d. collection all night and d.j. the evening if he wanted. though i'm afraid i don't have any jazz selections for him, i do have some ray charles, louis armstrong amongst a few others in my meager blues collection.
     as for the next morning, i'd book an early enough tee-time and promptly begin my butt-kicking on the links. i guess that may sound a little boring but i'm not much of a club person or a crowd guy for that matter.

[zoso]

matt, mgk and christopher     seeing as time is a little of the essence here, i'll pose the same car trouble question to you three. thanks for the tags btw.

[Matt]

Eastwood has had car trouble and has knocked on your door at 5:00 o'clock one night.  You help him make arrangements to have the car fixed but it won't be ready until noon tomorrow.  He tells you that he doesn't know where he's going to stay for the night so you invite him to stay at your house.  What will you do to entertain him that night and part of the next day?

That's easy!  I'd set him up on the computer and have him join the web board and do a Q&A session.

Just realized I have to fill the morning too... well, I'd take him to the Everglades for an airboat ride.  He'd probably like that.  

[KC]

KC: I did like your smilie, but I'll ask the same question again. But this time it will be an easy, broad path, like in the picture. ...AND: Clint promises to hold you by your hand if you are scared   will you agree now?

 

[Christopher]

Eastwood has had car trouble and has knocked on your door at 5:00 o'clock one night.  You help him make arrangements to have the car fixed but it won't be ready until noon tomorrow.  He tells you that he doesn't know where he's going to stay for the night so you invite him to stay at your house.  What will you do to entertain him that night and part of the next day?

I don't suppose he'd want to pick a movie from my Eastwood collection and sit and do a running commentary of the film as we watched it, would he?

Or perhaps I'd have another movie he'd want to watch. If I could, I'd love to watch a movie with him. Obviously, I'd want to feed him (though, I'm no cook). Maybe it'd be nice just to sit around and talk for a little while.

I've got a few tags to catch up on...

[mgk]

Good idea, Matt (re zoso's tag).  I don't think I can come up with anything better than getting him to sit down at the computer and join our discussions.  I would, however, try to find some healthy dinner to serve him that fits into all those categories to help him stay "young."

As for the next morning, I would be stuck here trying to find something to talk about for about four hours since there is absolutely nothing in this town that he would like to see.  

[Christopher]

tagging

MGK: To steal a question from Matt...list in order, if you can, your top three favorite Clint Eastwood films and your bottom three  (least favorite) Clint Eastwood films.

AKA: What's your least favorite Eastwood movie? (I don't know if you've said, or if you have, I can't remember)

BCM: Who is your least favorite character that Eastwood has played?

[eustressor]

I've seen Paint Your Wagon two or three times now, and instead of getting better with each viewing, it's gotten harder and harder for me to get through it.  I don't like the characters, the story, the songs, anything.  For me, there's no saving grace in this film, not even Clint's performance.  There's no hope for me to like this movie, no matter what.

Guess the pin finally fell out of that doll  

[mgk]

tagging
MGK: To steal a question from Matt...list in order, if you can, your top three favorite Clint Eastwood films and your bottom three  (least favorite) Clint Eastwood films.

The "if you can" part hints that I will have trouble doing this and you are right.  But, as of today here are my two lists:

Top three favorite Eastwood films:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Unforgiven
A Perfect World

Bottom three (least favorite) Eastwood films:

City Heat
The Rookie
Paint Your Wagon ***sorry***

[Matt]

TAGGING....

MERIDICO:  We haven't seen you around in a while, so thought I'd try to get you back here with a tag!

Suppose you wanted to show an Eastwood film to a friend who doesn't think much of him as an actor, which film would you choose?  

[Christopher]

Christopher
If you could change an ending to any Clint film, which one and why?

Finally thought of one. The Gauntlet. I don't care much for Ben and Gus walking off after Gus has just shot someone. I realize all the other police would certainly be stunned as to what just happened, but I'd buy it a little better if one of the cops had done the shootin' rather than Gus, and then when Ben and Gus walk off and all the cops are dumbfounded, you wouldn't think, "What the heck are they doin...?"

[Christopher]

Brendan: How many Eastwood films haven't you seen yet and what are they?

[eustressor]

It's always tough for me to try to assess the influence of the director in a film. Who's to say how much of that influence is in the finished product of the film. I think as a lay person, and somebody who doesn't necessarily have a great conception of the duties of a director, the importance of a director to the overall feel of the film and the project in general, sometimes it seems as if I don't necessarily know what was the directorial touch that Eastwood added, the thing that was different, how much of the general aura of the film would be different had he not been a part of it ...it's difficult to assess what kind of an impact was made day to day and in the overall realization of the vision of a particular film. Does this make sense to you?

Perfectly. Minus external information (i.e., interviews, documentaries, industry word-of-mouth) it is difficult sometimes to pin down the less tangible elements a director like Eastwood brings to a film. Film is of course a visual medium, and perhaps with a director like Kubrick or Spielberg it's more obvious, but Clint is a master of subtlety. It's a safe bet my own grasp on just what it means to direct a motion picture is pretty far from the reality...

What do you agree with? What do you disagree with, and how would you answer the same question?

Regarding the original question: summed up as, "What movie do you think would have suffered the most minus Clint as a director, and are there any you feel would have been better without him sitting in the Big Chair?"

I agree that the two films which would suffer the most would be Unforgiven and A Perfect World. I wouldn't presume to think that I could phrase my reasons, which are mostly the same as yours, half so well as you did:

...I think either Unforgiven or A Perfect World would probably have suffered the most without Clint as a director. In the case of Unforgiven , this was the film that led people to respect Eastwood more as a director, so you've got to acknowledge that the film was very well directed, and not only that, but that had Eastwood not been involved in the directing of this picture, it may have been very very different. It's possible that somebody else directing the film might not have had the same passion for the story, the same resolve to do it right, or the same vision with respect to the film. Another director might have tried to make the William Munny character more sympathetic, feeling that he was too amoral to connect with audiences who were looking for a more traditionalist western where the good guy triumphs over evil. Another director might have left the ending less ambiguous, might have included the homecoming scene, might have included a few scenes about Munny's past, might have given us more backgroud, more of a sense of who this person was before Claudia. Another director might not have had the sense to recognize the brilliance in David Webb People's script, might have changed it around, might have added too much, taken away too much. Another director might not have had the sense or the inclination to put on film what already worked as a script. In trying to improve on it, another director could have changed some of the things that made it work, making it worse, and not better. For all these reasons, and more, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven in large part because it is just that, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven . If it had been somebody else's Unforgiven, if they had the opportunity to put forth their own vision, it could have been a very different film, having suffered greatly.

...A Perfect World works in large part again because of Eastwood's part as director. A lot of it is highly stylized, some would say more than most of Clint's self-directed films, and for that reason alone, for that presence of an abundance of directorial touches here and there that combine together to contribute to this fully realized whole, the film would have suffered greatly without Clint as director. Not only this, but due to the co-starring role of Clint in this one, his role as director was far more important than his role as an actor. His impact on the production as director/producer far outshadowed, in my mind anyway, his role as an actor. It could be argued that a fair number of people COULD have possibly played the Red Garnett character, perhaps differently, perhaps not as well as Eastwood, but it can be argued that perhaps only Eastwood could have it realized in the way that he did as director. It can also be argued quite well that one of the strongest points of the film, the acting, was related to Eastwood's ability to get the most effective and the best performance out of both Kevin Costner and the little boy who played Philip. I don't think just anybody could have gotten those performances out of the actors. Just looking at Kevin Costner's range of performances, with a different director, we could have had a very different performance. Eastwood was able to get the best out of Costner. With another director, without that passion and that ability, who knows what we might have seen on the screen from principal actors in the film.

That was a great post, AKA, and I hope we'll see even more of your thoughtful insight in upcoming film discussions.

As to which Eastwood film might actually benefit from Clint not being the director, I'm going to go WAAAYYY out on a limb here, step on some toes, and guarantee a lukewarm reception at the CEDB convention by saying The Outlaw Josie Wales. Granted, I haven't seen the film as an adult, but as an early teenager I probably watched it five or six times, and each time, I couldn't help thinking that the movie was just a little, little bit too corny. A violent tale about betrayal, revenge, and wrongful persecution, set against the aftermath of the American Civil War, and Sandra Locke shoots two fellows out of their horses with one shot? Maybe I remember incorrectly, but that memory has stayed with me as a kind of marker of the playful undercurrent, throughout the film, that to me did the potential impact of the movie a disservice, however minor. The playful undertone, in my opinion, should have begun and ended with Chief Dan George, who was brilliantly cast. Perhaps another director would have refrained from the almost "Gee this is kinda fun" air that crept in during the aforementioned log cabin shootout, where Ms. Locke displayed such fortuitous marksmanship.

Keep in mind that I really do have fond memories of Josie Wales, but if I had to nail down one film that I've seen which might have actually benefited under another director, that would be the one.

I've got a few more questions to answer - I'll try to get my tags out shortly!

[Brendan]

Brendan: How many Eastwood films haven't you seen yet and what are they?

Theres ten Eastwood films I havent seen yet:

The Witches
Paint Your Wagon
Two Mules for Sister Sara
The Beguiled
Joe Kidd
Breezy
Bronco Billy
Honkytonk Man
City Heat
Bird

And I've alot of other ones just once. So I cant really remember them all that good.

Brendan:  You're at a Nascar event, and you see Jeff Gordon and Clint Eastwood both leaving the event in opposite directions at the same time.  If you hurry, you have the opportunity to meet and talk with one of them.  Which do you choose?

This is THE hardest question I have gotten so far. Now since I know you haven't been to a NASCAR event, I know how to answer this. Jeff would be in the garage/driver area, where fans arent aloud. Also, if he was leaving the track he would be in his SUV been driven by someone else, so I wouldnt actually get to see him in the SUV. But Clint, I would assume, would just leave in some big Cadillac, and I would get to see him. So I would probably go for Clint, becuase I know he would be the easiest to try and stop and talk for a bit.

Now, if I happend to get into the garage area and saw Jeff going for his trailer or team hauler and I saw Clint heading towards his car, thats tough. Really tough.

Now theres two options here.

1. Goto Jeff and act as normal as I possibly can and try and convince him that I want to race and see if he can hook me up with some job at Hendrick Motorsports where I will eventually get to race.

2. Goto Clint and tell him I'm in a film program and that its all becuase of him I'm in that program and that I really want to work in the film industry and I respect him and his work. Hopefully then, he would talk with me a bit and offer me a small job (doing whatever) on his next film.

Both oppurtunities are hard to pass up. Now, putting alot of thought into this, going with Clint and the film industry thing would get me closer to my love, Natalie Portman. And it also has the most realistic out come between the two.

So, in a massive final decision, I would go for Clint.

Ah man that was really hard.

Christopher - What Eastwood films havent you seen yet?

[Christopher]

Both oppurtunities are hard to pass up. Now, putting alot of thought into this, going with Clint and the film industry thing would get me closer to my love, Natalie Portman. And it also has the most realistic out come between the two.

Emphasis added on the part I wasn't expecting when I read that.

From Brendan:

Christopher - What Eastwood films havent you seen yet?

I haven't seen any of the Pre-Fistful of Dollars movies, or The Witches, or Breezy.

[eustressor]

There were two scenes in Peoples's Unforgiven script that were filmed, but not used ... a brief flashback showing a younger Munny beating a horse (this would have come just after the "fever delirium" scene after Munny is beaten by Little Bill, following the line "Don't tell nobody ... don't tell my kids ... none of the things I done"), and a "homecoming" scene, showing Munny embracing his children and assuring his son that he "didn't kill nobody." Do you think Eastwood's decision to omit these scenes was correct?

Great question, KC. I suspect it's no surprise to anyone here that I think every decision Eastwood made regarding this film was correct. This would be no exception for me.

I think the reasons these two scenes would have lessened such a perfect film are both tied into that beautiful opening and ending "crawl" ("She was a comely young woman, and not without prospects...")

To my memory, there are no flashbacks in the film, so to include a flashback, even if it were a fevered dream sequence, would have greatly reduced the immediacy of the movie. Why not flashback to Little Bill's past, say the Corky Corchoran bit? Why not give us a look at Claudia, so we could better understand her ability to tame this "known thief and murderer"?. No, any and all relevant history that is not given in the course of the film, through the dialogue or other subtle implications, is perfectly framed in that opening crawl. From that point on the film moves in real time, making the climax seem more imminent, more ominous. Any flashback would have detracted from that dark cloud, and the momentum with which Munny is being cast into a reckoning with his past.

As for the homecoming sequence, again, no. It was a good call to end the movie exactly as it began, with the haunting crawl over Claudia's grave. To resolve Munny's violent regression with his new life as a father would lessen the impact of that final shootout. No need to water it down or make it safer for Hollywood. Munny rides off into the rain-soaked night and, beyond the brief mention of "dry goods" in the ending words, it is up to the viewer to decide how he reconciled his actions with his duties as a father.

Would you like to see them included on a special-edition DVD?

I love the anniversary edition of Unforgiven. Sure, these scenes would be great, someday I'd like to be privileged to see them. But the only thing I really missed on this DVD is that elusive documentary I referenced way back when on my first thread as a member here - you know, THAT documentary