All language subtitles for mmmmmmmmmmmmEastwood.Directs.The.Untold.Story.2013.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264

(male narrator)
I've always said that
I have learned

something new on every picture.

Not only about picture making,
about personalities

with crew and cast, uh,
but also about yourself.

He's a good guy.

And you see that in his films.

The camera kinda doesn't lie
about that kind of thing.

There's no doubt
that he's the link

from the cinema
that I grew up with

and loved to the modern day.

What else is he gonna do?

Cause he surprised us
so many times.

Life is exciting to him.

He always wants
to try something new.

I think Clint Eastwood
has a style of directing

and dealing with people but
he's a style in progress.

He'd be the first person to say
he doesn't know everything.

He'd be the first person to say
he makes mistakes.

He's proved something about
the difficulty of achievement.

Dedication to a principle.

The willingness
to always learn more.

Not just sit
and collect your check.

He's quietly competitive
beneath the creativity

and, uh, gentle nature
that he has.

Uh, he's very driven.

He continues to astonish
all of us who thought

we got the idea of what
a Clint Eastwood was all about.

The second we
try to pigeonhole him

he does something else
to make us eat our words.

Time and time again
you'll see him know

the kind of influence
that he has on people.

And he will in the subtlest
ways make them comfortable.

There's a lot I'm curious about
him. I'm not sure he's tellin'.

I think he's inspirational.

I've waited 75 years for this.

I think Clint has changed
the paradigm of his own image

several times in his lifetime
inside this business.

I think he understands
that stagnant equals death.

His mind is always open
to the intake of creativity.

Alright, ready?
Go ahead.

He's interested
in the stories.

Some people take jobs,
he didn't have to.

He just takes it
'cause he's interested.

And one of the things
that makes him

most wonderful to me is,
I like to see somebody

come out of the shadows, as
it were, and fool everybody..

...with how good they are.

Get off my lawn.

Thought you might be
interested in training me.

I don't train girls.

You wanna leave your husband?

No.

Well, I guess I had it coming.

We all have it coming.

When I was a young, uh,
contract player

back in early 50's,
I used to go down

to the sound stages mainly
to watch the actors.

I was trying
to learn all

about the acting profession
but I was always curious

about the directors
and curious about

how they were, uh,
putting it together.

He didn't wear jodhpurs
and a cowboy hat

and smoke and have a lorgnette.

He didn't go for the trappings
of it, he just did it.

I think he was maybe just born
with that kind of creativity.

The few things that
he told me..

...being a pool boy, his dad
running the filling station.

Money was tight
and he grew up understanding

the economy of scale.

He has a really good
understanding of people

and of how complex we are
as human beings.

There's, um, a seemingly
simplicity to the style.

Let's just, uh fire one off
and see where we are.

His personality as a filmmaker
is not forced on you.

The things that he'd,
he is directing

he cares a great deal about.

He just trusts his gut
and it probably started early

on in "Rawhide" and Hollywood
and start with nothing

and, uh, you know he earned
his way into a great situation.

In the late 50's,
when I started on "Rawhide"

you had different directors

every week coming
and doing a show.

You start finding out what
you like and what you don't

about various characteristics
that directors have.

Finally one day,
I started thinking

I oughta try this myself.

And he began to realize,
you know I could do this.

I'm not putting words
in his mouth but he..

...realized I have
the heart for it.

The first time I worked
for Clint, the history

that I knew of Clint
was "Rawhide."

Because as a little girl,
my sisters and I would watch

"Rawhide" and we would get
to be the different characters.

My sister got
to be "Rawhide", the other

got to be the girl,
I was the cook.

Um, but, we loved him.

The directors that
influenced him most

were, Sergio Leone
and Don Siegel.

They're such
different directors

but you see Clint's
movies and you can see

the impact about those
talented gentlemen had on him.

How was Sergio Leone
able to influence?

I'm not exactly sure
how he did it.

But if you look at
the mechanics of those movies

they didn't rely
on a lot of dialogue.

But he was great. He had
a very vivid imagination.

(Clint)
When we did the first one,
he didn't shoot many close-ups

being from television I said,
well you know..

I'm playing kind of a crazy
character, you got to..

So instead of doing
the close ups like this

he'd do close-ups like,
you know he'd go.

He'd do everything
in very broad strokes.

The way he approached
things was so unusual

he almost had a child-like
glee, uh, about things.

One time we were
shooting in Spain

and he wanted the tree
with a hangman's noose

hanging from it
as sort of a threat

to anybody who's riding by.

And there were no trees
in Southern Spain

and the Almeria
was just desolate.

But there was this one yard
that had an old big dead tree.

He goes to the house
and all of a sudden

goes in their yard
and has the crew there

sawing down this tree.

And the guy comes out

who owned the house
and he was incensed.

So Sergio told him he was
from the highway department

and that the tree
was a safety hazard

'cause it would fall on the road
and we had to take it out.

And here he is, an Italian
speaking with an Italian accent

to this Spaniard
and he convinces him

that he's from
the highway department.

I came back to the States and
started doing American films.

In 1970, I found this, uh,
script, "Play Misty For Me."

I actually found it in 1969
and I was just fascinated by it.

I know when he did,
"Play Misty For Me"

that he had gone
to Universal and made a deal

so he could direct
his first movie.

And he said,
"Yeah, that's fine."

And I was completely
surprised

and my agent Lenny Hirshan
was there with me

and he came to me and says,
"Yeah, there's just one

"additional thing that
they forgot to mention.

"They don't want
to pay you anything."

To me, I said, they shouldn't.

They shouldn't pay me anything,
I'll pay them.

I said if they should make,
I should have to prove myself.

What do you want, Evelyn?

One coke.

I tell you tonight,
I'm really ripped.

I think the first time
I knew Clint Eastwood

beyond his iconic status as
an international matinee idol.

Was when I saw,
"Play Misty For Me."

For the first time and along
with the rest of Hollywood.

Clint was overnight,
we all recognized Clint.

You know to be
a fantastic filmmaker

and someone who
is really a storyteller

and not just an actor
who's job was to tell

someone else's stories.

When he started working
with Don Siegel

he started to get hinged
to the other side..

...the other
side of the camera.

He really did kind
of watch Don Siegel a lot

and learn the kind of
basic craft of making movies.

He was just a terrific guy.

He didn't waver
from his confidence.

He liked what he liked
and he moved on.

If something wasn't working,
if you could offer something

to improve the scene,
he was the first guy to grab it.

He used to joke, he said,
"Yeah, anybody, the janitor

"can give me an idea.
If it's a good, I'll steal it."

They had a great
relationship together

and they worked on, you know,
quite a few films together.

And then Siegel
was in "Play Misty For Me."

Uh, I think as a bartender.

I gave Don a part 'cause
I thought it would be fun.

I said, "you wanna play this
bartender? He says, I would.

"He said he'd like to
but he said you should have

"a really good character
to do it.

"I said, no, no, I was kidding,
half kidding but maybe

"I was half serious too,
You'll be better for it

and more understanding
of actors for playing it

and I'll have you there
in case anything goes wrong.

I copied from Don Siegel
a technique that he used.

I would write down
all my notes

on the opposite page and then
I get it all planned out.

I said I think I got this.

I turned out the light,
sitting there

and I'm almost
going to sleep

and I wake up
and say, "wait

"I've got to speak and command.
I've got to be ready to go."

So I turned on the light,
sit back up, go through it

from a whole other perspective.

Then I realize this
ain't an easy job

doing both things.

But then after a while
you get used to it.

The whole thing
will be converging

and start moving.

I really don't understand
how people direct

and act at the same time.

And then to produce,
direct and act

all at the same time

is a pretty daunting task.

(Kevin Bacon)
If you're an actor and
you start to direct

it must give you
a great appreciation

for how hard
the director's job is.

I feel if you're an actor

only an idiot wouldn't know
how hard a director's job is.

(Hilary Swank)
It was interesting having your
co-star be your director.

It's nerve-wracking
just because he is Clint.

He's an anomaly,
he's a legend.

It's hard because you're
looking at Clint Eastwood.

And then you get
into your groove

and I started seeing him
as his character

and yet then
he was also directing me.

You don't even know
you're being directed.

Boss.

That little house
we talked about.

- 'I bought it.'
- Well, smart girl.

'For my mama.'

Okay.

His ability to see and watch
while he's acting with me

is nothing short of astonishing.

I never felt him
directing me

while acting
a scene together.

Except once,
a scene in the kitchen

talking about his exploits
in Africa.

For an actor, there's
no more disconcerting

feeling than knowing that
the person you're in the scene

with has absented himself.

He was watching...the movie.

Ha ha ha.

He was watching me but
wasn't in the scene.

I said something because
I've never felt that before.

And he said you're right.

You're right.

It'll never happen again,
it never did.

When he's directing
a movie that he's in

he really understands
the pitches

that he hits really well.

And he sets himself up
to succeed.

Girlie, tough ain't enough.

When people think of him
they think of

the guy that's like,
"Go ahead make my day."

You know like comin' out
with guns

and, uh, Dirty Harry and, um...

yet Clint has one
of the biggest hearts

of anyone I know.

(Spielberg)
We were friends.

And I one day
was with Clint and I said

I've got this NBC series
called "Amazing Stories"

and you know Scorsese
is going to direct one.

I gave him a list directors,
feature directors

to make these
half an hour television

anthological stories
and I offered him something

that I had written myself
called "Vanessa In The Garden."

And he liked it.

And he, uh,
and he mounted it

and he directed it
and he cast my mother in it.

As a glorified extra.

It's among the greatest thing
he ever did for my family.

Getting my mother on television
for the first time.

Only Clint Eastwood
could do that.

I don't think Clint takes
himself so seriously.

He takes the business seriously
but not himself seriously.

(Tommy Lee Jones)
Sometimes it was hard to, uh,
get a take on the first

because everybody's laughing.

That's very important,
it infuses a film with spirit.

Even if it's a sad scene,
everybody's havin' fun..

...then, then the audience
is all the closer.

I don't like contention and
bells ringing, people yelling.

I like everything to be smooth.

It should be, if it isn't fun
we shouldn't even be there.

(Kevin Bacon)
We were doing
a scene with a guy.

I guess the guy
was a little nervous.

He was a little unsure
of himself.

Clint took aside and said,
"sometimes it helps

"if you could screw up
a little bit."

"Cause it'll make the guy feel
like, if Kevin's screwing up

"then anybody can screw up
and I can do better."

And I was like, what,
it's a really interesting idea.

So the next take, you know,
I went in and I flubbed my line.

And sure enough,
the guy got better.

He got stronger.

I went in and did another
take and flubbed my line.

Clint said, "okay
that's enough screwing up."

(Gene Hackman)
On "Unforgiven"
it occurred to me

that there was a time
when a bunch of studio heads

came up to the film
and Clint had his helicopter

up there in Canada.

He had his pilot
fly them down to the set.

It was no big deal.

They weren't pressuring
me or anything.

When they called lunch,
Clint looked and he says

"Want to go for another ride?"

And I said, "Yeah, sure."

So we go out and Clint
was qualified in the helicopter.

We both get on then..

...in the helicopter.

And through the front
Plexiglas window

you could see that the
four to five studio types

standing there on a hill.

You know, what in the world
are these two guys

goin' up in this, uh,
helicopter.

Ha ha ha, I loved it.

Okay, get ready and go.

The only time I ever saw him
rouse himself was when I heard

there was
a slight noise outside

the kitchen where
we were shooting.

Someone moving a truck,
you know, just trying

to anticipate his every need.

Uh, down the lane
and he heard, "Rrrr"..

...and he just yelled.

I'd be terrified
to see his temper.

Technical difficulty.

Honing up things.

Something they
couldn't get right.

And it was holding
them up.

And his anger's suddenness
like an explosion.

"Fix it."

That's the only time
I've ever seen him..

...get anywhere beyond placid.

I've seen his
disappointment in people

and he, and when that happens..

...I've seen this sort
of, the icy side of him.

And, uh, I've seen him
do that to somebody

and I just never wanted
to be in that vision myself.

When he yells,
it so shocked everyone.

We all had to go lie down.
It was really..

He doesn't question
the choices he makes.

(Gene)
He just had that
sly confidence

that this is gonna happen.

I think it comes from the roles
that he did over the years

before he decided to direct.

You're thinking, did he
fire six shots or only five.

To tell you the truth I forgot
myself in all this excitement.

Clint came along
with the right product

and the right story
and character.

I think the audience
just really..

...like a magnet
attached itself to it.

It's a fantastic character
he created and it's iconic

and it's part
of American lore.

Cinematic lore.

He was crossing over a line,
they caught a wave

at the time that kind of idea
of lawman as judge and jury.

You have this
extraordinary persona

that is also,
um...in these films

going from, uh, the Leone
pictures to "Dirty Harry."

Also has a range,
he's got a range.

You'd wanna see
a Clint Eastwood picture.

Didn't matter who directed.

You'd go see that persona
you want to be in that presence.

(Reni)
I remember Don Siegel
was sick and it was this day

they were shooting the scene
where there's a jumper.

Clint ended up
directing that sequence.

(male #1)
The guy goes up on a,
one of those telescopic cranes

to get the guy off
and he talks him down

in rather an unorthodox way.

'I'd like your name
and address. That's all.'

Why?

Like I said, it's such
a mess down there afterwards.

Makes identification impossible.

Even if they find
your license

all that blood
and everything.

I think..

I think I'm gonna...puke.

Oh, now don't
do that, son.

I mean all those people
down there lookin' up.

Fire chief lookin' up,
his face. Ha ha.

You rotten bastard.

(John)
He's still the guy that
when you're with him

having lunch or whatever

people will...in equal measures
say there's Clint Eastwood..

...as, there's Dirty Harry.

Clint was so popular
after that movie

he probably could've
been elected president.

To break through the molds
of Rowdy Yates from "Rawhide."

And then all
the Sergio Leone pictures.

And then his own,
you know, triumph

as a western actor
and director

with "Outlaw Josey Wales"
which is one of the most

brilliant westerns
ever made in my opinion.

(John)
With Josey Wales,
Clint had completely escaped

the shadow of Leone
in some ways.

It's a story about a man
who lost his family.

(male #2)
To me it was sort of ultimate
man wronged kinda thing.

Help, Josey!

The effects of war
on this particular

on everyone but this particular
individual and betrayal

to the point where he wants
to become a total recluse.

(John)
In Josey Wales he tends
to attract a group of

ne'er-do-wells and misfits.

That's a recurring theme
in some of Clint's movies.

I was just wondering, I suppose
that mangy redbone hound's

got no place else
to go either.

Well, you might as well
ride along with us.

Hell, everybody else is.

(Morgan)
You listen to, uh,
a lot of Clint's movies

there are things
that he's saying in there

that are very pithy deep.

It's quintessential Clint

in terms of the character,
in terms of the story.

Are going to pull
those pistols or whistle Dixie?

I liked, uh, the saga
with the movement

of it, the traveling of it.

It was one of my favorite films
that I've done.

It kind of breaks the trend "and
he rode off into the sunset."

And I'm not sure,
you know, if there was some

inherent message that the loner
ultimately has to join

for the world to succeed.

It's for other people
to judge the work.

And it's other people
to judge where I come from.

It's more fun that way.

(Tim)
Despite the things that
everybody knows about him

I think he's a pretty,
um, complicated guy.

I like the way he operates
and I want to..

...I want to be
like Clint.

Imagine that dude
at a poker table

and you know it's the, uh, it's
the guy you know is gonna..

...that guy's gonna wind up
with all the money in my pocket

I know it somehow
and he's not sayin' a word.

I think Clint
is incapable of boredom.

I don't think he's bored
about anything.

Look what he's got. He's got
Dina, he's got his kids.

He's got his lifestyle,
he's got his art.

And he's got his music.

And he loves musicians.

(Bill)
And he loves singers.

And he and I for years

we've always sat around
talked about Billie Holiday

and Ella Fitzgerald
and Sarah Vaughan

I mean,
that's his thing.

He was a piano player
for singers.

He loves that.

His love for jazz and
the way he expressed it

in burden and the way jazz

has become a kind of leitmotif
of a lot of his work.

That is the greatest relaxer
I can imagine anybody having

in their lives and music
is such a wonderful way of

just I guess..

...chilling.

He'll collaborate
with an orchestrator

and other composer
but the main themes

Clint Eastwood writes himself.

(Joel)
He wrote the theme
for "Unforgiven."

In "Mystic River"
he wrote the whole score.

He wrote the whole score
for, uh, "Million Dollar Baby."

He wrote the whole score
for, uh, "Flags of Our Fathers."

Writing music for the movie
is another way for him to say

well, look,
this is a personal movie.

Not only did I,
I didn't write the story

but I interpreted
the story as a director

and now I'm gonna interpret
the story musically.

As you read his script,
as you start to see it realized

the better directors
find the music in it.

They don't know
the specific piece

that they're gonna use
but I think they get

a pretty good idea of the, um,
the mood or the, uh, the tone.

(Kevin)
If you are a musician,
certainly

and even if you have
a great appreciation for music

it's sort of there
as you walk, as you talk

as you think in your
moments of silence.

There's some kind of interlude
or some kind of score

for your life that's kinda like,
you know, um, floating there

in your subconscious
and I think that

that is certainly
the case with him.

So it should go
real fast.

Shew-shew-shew!

(Tim)
We read this often that

he's gotten better
as a director

uh, as he's gotten older.

(Martin)
As his filmmaking
has evolved and matured

his characters have matured
and become more complicated.

"Mystic River"
comes to mind immediately.

"Unforgiven" comes to mind

in the same sort of mental
breath as-as "Mystic River."

(male #3)
'Ready, 548 take one.'

(Clint)
It was a interesting project

I was looking for somebody
to rewrite a script.

A girl I knew on the lot
here was a reader

for Warner Brothers.

She said if you want
a really good writer..

...you ought to read this
story by, uh, David Peoples.

The option was running out.

I guess it was
the day it ran out

that we got this call
from Clint Eastwood.

I said, well, uh,
I'll take that.

But this was 1985..

...and, uh, he bought
the film outright.

But I didn't wanna do a western
at that time I had done a few.

And I felt that I'd like to, uh,
maybe sit on it for a while.

Maybe it'd be better to play
this character when I was older.

All of a sudden I see
he's making this western

called "Pale Rider"
and I was very disappointed

that he was making
something different.

I put it in a drawer
and went through the whole 80's

without even thinking about it.

I think I had talked to him
once or somethin' about

a rewrite on the telephone

and he said
he was gonna get to it.

1991, I took it
out of the drawer

and said and I reread it
and fell in love with it

all over again. And said
"This is the time to do this."

He did want a couple
of scenes rewritten.

And, uh, I wasn't crazy
about the ideas

but I was a little intimidated
about the idea of..

I could get pretty feisty but I
wasn't gonna be feisty with him.

I started rewriting things
and I found out

the more I screwed with it..

...the worse it was getting.

I said, I'm doing
what Siegel used to call

killing it with improvements.

And, uh, this is just
really good, I don't know why

I'm fiddling around with this.

When he showed me
this cut of the movie

I said, uh, "Rewrites
aren't there."

And he said, "Nah, it was
better the first time."

And that...I tremendously
appreciated

because one of the things
in this business is..

...things just get worse and
worse as you keep rewriting 'em

and nobody can ever stop, right?

And he has that
wonderful restraint.

I think "Unforgiven"
is one of my favorites.

"Unforgiven" that's the
first Clint Eastwood movie

I'd ever seen.

"Unforgiven" is a really
classic movie.

And I think that,
um, it's interesting

but I think great westerns
depend on their literacy.

Not on their gunfight.

A compassionate heart and
a sensibility that was not

what you would imagine
as knee-jerk masculinity.

An eye for an eye.

Make my day.

(Joel)
He saw a different way
of doing films

and wanted to do more
serious films.

Because he'd done
all the other films.

As you get older,
he says, there comes a time

in a man's life when he can't
just beat up every person.

Age-wise where
it's believable..

...to, uh, the public.

(Clint)
As you mature in life
and other areas

you mature in your work.

You should be learning
and getting better.

If you start getting worse
then you should maybe join AARP.

(Joel)
"Unforgiven" was a changing
film for Clint's career

for a lot of our careers that
worked for him

because the film got
seven nominations.

Got four Academy Awards
and really the critics

and the world looked at him
doing films differently.

No, that's not "Dirty Harry"
wait, okay, it's alright.

Good, people grow.

(Tim)
They continue to evolve.

(Joel)
But the other films
were more genre films

and we just went out in the
days, in 42 days and shot them.

He took more time
with us because I think he..

...he felt this
might be the, the western

that might be his career.

(Morgan)
I got the job
because he asked me to do it.

He owns me
from that moment on.

I got to Alberta
and we met and we shook hands.

It was like
I was meeting an old friend.

And when we started
working together well it's..

...was like putting on
an old pair of shoes.

I didn't like the idea of having
to play a, a tough cop again

you know, and, um, kind of
a badass kind of a guy.

You've been talking about
the queen again.

On independance day.

Clint talked to him about it
and said his idea was

what he was gonna do
with that script was be more

character driven
and Gene Hackman, uh..

...agreed to do it.

(Gene)
I believed in him enough
finally that I thought maybe

he would find, and help me
find something to make it

make the role interesting.

And, uh, for Gene Hackman
it was a great move

because he ended up getting
an academy award for it.

You'd be weaning money
out of Missouri..

...killed women and children.

That's right.

I've killed women
and children.

Killed just about everything
that walks and crawls

at one time or another.

And I'm here to kill you,
Little Bill.

For what you did to Ned.

(Martin)
He's not afraid there to

take on a really
hard character.

And, say, "Yes, that's me.
That's who I am."

You killed those women
and children. "That's right."

"Now I'm gonna have
to take you down."

To take the, you know, the
western in a different direction

making the hero
a bad person.

But he knows he's gotta..

He doesn't want to do it
because his wife

used to really get upset..

...about that, and he really
feels bad about it

but he's gotta do it.

Misfire. Kill the
son of a bitch.

(Martin)
Coming out of the tradition
of the American western

which reflected America in
the first half of the century.

He seems to be tackling

what is ultimately
the truth about it..

...in "Unforgiven."

There's a ruthlessness..

...you know?

There's
a ruthlessness involved.

The individuality
in order to, um, survive.

(Gene)
I came on the set one day
and he said I got a problem.

Yeah, if you hit
this thing..

For whatever reason
the scene that was scheduled

uh, we couldn't do it.

The actor didn't show up or
something. I can't remember

quite what it was.

So he says, can you go
to scene 35, you know blah blah.

And I said, I don't know
I haven't looked at it.

So it was a couple
of pages of dialogue.

And I said, well,
I'll try it, you know..

...and he was
so good about that

because he had to do
that scene that day.

And he was so thoughtful
and so understanding

of what an actor goes through
when you're searching for lines

and you do something
unexpected like that.

I really, uh, I really
loved him for that.

(Joel Cox)
I know that when we finished
"Unforgiven" we walked back

to our office and he sat
on the couch across me

and he says "I hope we have
an audience for this film."

Because I was so emotionally
involved in it and everything

I thought it was fantastic.

But somehow I didn't think
anybody else was gonna get it.

And I was stunned
at what he'd done.

It was exactly what I'd written
and I was overwhelmed.

But again I thought..

...poor Clint Eastwood,
he made this movie.

Only the writer's
gonna be the one who likes it.

I-I think "Unforgiven"
will stand for a long time.

As...the last great western.

It was a long time
before he made the movie.

But it was worth the wait.

It was just kind of
one of those things

where it's destiny
was to be in the 90's.

As a filmmaker..

...he's like
"High Plains Drifter."

He's just drifting.

He just goes
from experience to experience.

(Steven Spielberg)
He's not intellectual
about "I gotta make a story

in this genre, in this style."

He waits for something
to wash over him.

He waits for a book,
a script, an idea.

(Tim Robbins)
I guess that's the special
thing, that's the good thing.

That's the thing that should
be lauded, you know.

In a town that wants
conformity, you know

a town that wants
the same product we packaged

that Clint has chosen the path
he's chosen.

- That's good.
- Let me see that close-up.

(Kevin Bacon)
I think that his films to me..

purely as a viewer,
not as an actor

that's worked with him,
but just as a movie consumer

have a unexpected level

of depth and complexity

that somehow he's able to tap
into again and again and again.

Basically, you have to trust
your own feelings

your own instincts
and your own taste

in judging material.

Because, uh, that's all
you have to go by.

If you try to start
pre-thinking

what other people
are thinking, you're not..

You're gonna get yourself
in a real confused state.

He's been a Mayor
for Pete's sakes.

He was an actor,
he did the spaghetti westerns.

He did the "Rawhide."
He does TV.

His family just
did a reality show.

He directs all kinds
of different film.

He doesn't seem
to say, "No."

He seems to say "Why not?"

Take.

(Steven Spielberg)
I'd bought the book

which was a very popular
book at the time.

It was on the best-seller list
for years I think.

We were looking for a director
to tell the story.

And my first choice was Clint.

So, uh, yeah,
just, just go ahead.

(Steven Spielberg)
There was no real precedent

to make it an easy choice
for me to say

"Oh, Clint made
a movie like this

or perhaps he'd like
to make this one."

Since there are so many
connections or similarities.

I don't think
this was similar to anything

he'd ever done before.
That's the reason I went to him.

And I was also hoping
he'd agree to play Kincaid

the main character.

Well, it was Clint's idea
to cast Meryl.

When we sat around
in our first couple of meetings

to decide who we were gonna get.

Clint only had one choice.

He said, "I'd like to see
what Meryl thinks of this."

(Meryl Streep)
I didn't know anything about it
except the books.

You know, "Romeo and Juliet" was
taken from an earlier source.

That play nobody remembers.

But it's what Shakespeare did
with the same plot, same story

but it's just
how you tell the story.

I was just picking
you some flowers.

Oh.

Men still do that, don't they?

Am not out of date, am I?

Picking flowers for a women,
a sign of appreciation?

No, not at all.

Except, those are poisonous.

I think he saw an opportunity
for himself to reveal something

that was another dimension
to his fans that already bought

a certain character from him.

I think he has
very highly evolved

both sides of his character.

He has a..

I don't know if anybody else
would agree with me.

But he has a..

...female sensibility
in many ways.

I don't want to need you.

What?

Because I can't have you.

I really didn't realize...

...how vulnerable he had let
himself be in that role.

And that's not something you
just unpack from your kit bag.

That has to reside
somewhere in you.

And yet he has this image
of this sort of uber man.

- Gotcha!
- Oh!

I think he's a harsh
judge of himself.

He-he sure was.

And a little bit of it
was...bullshit, you know.

Little bit of it was just trying
to make everybody feel at ease.

After each take..

...of his own, he'd say,
"Well, that was adequate."

You know, ha ha ha.

There was a scene in the
kitchen, a big fight scene.

He was at the counter
and he turned away from me.

And I could see
he was really upset.

The scene never made it
into the film.

And I said..

"Why would you..

"Why would you turn away
the envelope?

"We know they would
come your way

if you put this obvious
beautifully played scene."

And, uh, he assessed it
as "Not right."

The director assessed it
as "Not right" for the film.

Where the actor might've
wanted all the...accolades.

And roll it!

(male #4)
'Call it in.'

For a man, especially a man
who walks in our business

with the persona that he owns

to rip open his chest that way.

But he felt, for the film..

...it was best
that it not be there.

That's, that's a really seer
kind of intelligence

and a willingness to be..

...cold about your own work.

Well, ego..

Well, it kills all of us.

Certainly in terms of
creativity.

Because you have
to let things go.

Sometimes
in letting something go

you find something really
lovely, brilliant and creative.

And it may not be
something really big

but...something will replace it.

And he doesn't wanna miss
that fresh moment

of anguish, humor, mistake
that turns out to be fantastic.

The stumble you might do

that says everything
about your character.

He loves that stuff!

Once in a while you get a surge.

You get a little surge
of two or three scripts in a row

and you think you'd like to do
all of them.

In the early 2000's, I...as fast
as I'd finish one picture

I'd, uh, somebody'd give me
another script that I like.

So, sometimes I'd be preparing
one I liked

and I was editing
one I also liked.

I kinda went through that when
I was doing "Mystic River"

we were working
in the editorial room

at the same time I'm reading
"Million Dollar Baby"

and I liked that, so..

Yeah, I'll do that,
I'll do that next, so..

I'm preparing one
as I'm starting another

and I went through
a little period like that.

(Marcia Gay Harden)
The first reason to want
to do "Mystic River" for me

was Clint. I love the idea
of directors who have

a kind of continuity
with their actors.

(Kevin Bacon)
You know, one thing that was
really, really different

was that he expected
all of the performers

to have done our homework

and to come to work
ready to go.

You're not gonna have rehearsal

and you're not gonna
maybe go through

the same sort of process
that you've now come to expect.

You know, "I'm gonna have
endless conversations

"with the director
or the writer

about my character
and you know, with Clint..

...you know,
I had one conversation.

He once came up
to me and Lawrence

and said "That's good,
you guys. Little faster."

And, I was like "Wow,
I think that's the first piece

of direction I got."
And that could've been the last.

Little faster.

If you look at "Mystic River"
it's even more impressive

because almost everything
you see in that is first take.

Well, let's call it creativity

because that's,
I think, that's what it is.

That's his form of creativity

that he understands
that many times

on a first take
you'll get something fresh

that you wouldn't get
on Take 8 or 9 or whatever.

There's real respect for
imagination and the hard work.

But there's no
"Let's just go again.

Twelve more times,
just to see what happens."

For a certain kinds of actors

that's the best kind
of vote of confidence.

And so all of us..

...me and Sean and Kevin

and Lawrence and Marcia Gay
and Laura, we were scared.

We didn't wanna be out there

with that one take
that sucked, you know.

So...we all practiced.

When he wants one more take

it's gonna cause
tremendous panic in the room.

There's five actors in the room
and he wants one more take.

They're all probably looking
at each other..

"What did I do?
Why does he want one more take?

He always walks away after two."

If Clint wants one more take

that third take
everybody's gonna be their best

they've ever been in their
careers...to please him.

I'm not going anywhere!

(Jimmy Markum)
'Is that my daughter in there?'

(Martin Scorsese)
"Mystic River"
is a very sad film.

A dark world in which
vengeance has to be taken.

It's like the tragedy
of the everyday.

People's lives, the ones
that are on the periphery..

...the ones
we don't hear about.

Get in.

'Get inside.'

(Tim Robbins)
I grew up in a tough
neighborhood in New York City

and that kinda situation
they went through..

...was omnipresent pretty much.

I had friends that
had been molested as kids.

And you see the decay
that happens from the start.

That ultimately
is a most horrific crime

because it's a crime that
visits itself upon the victim

over a course
of his entire life.

In the case of "Mystic River"..

...that does,
that's a transgression..

that's...incomprehensible.

(Marcia Gay Harden)
He lets you find
what you wanna do.

You think you're doing it
on your own..

...but it's within a very clear
structure that he already has.

(Kevin Bacon)
One of the basic things
that's great about him

is there's a lot of stuff we've
gotten used to kind of doing.

Over the years, that are
the ways that we think movies

have to be made

and he has sort of cut away
a bunch of the crap.

(Meryl Streep)
One on the secrets of his being
a really good director..

...is married to this..

...seeming..

...no pressure..

...casual, easy-going..

...is a deep prep.

He has imagined the scene.

He has scored it. He has lit it
in his mind and..

..all he doesn't know
is what's gonna happen in it.

(Tim Robbins)
Efficiency is really something
we should all aim for.

Unfortunately
we all have in our minds

that unless you suffer
some kind of consequence

it's not ours, you know.

I think Clint
has proven that wrong.

One thing I'll never forget is..

We were shooting a scene

and Tom Stern is just
a great camera man.

He worked with
Clint for a long time

and there was very little
lighting in the scene.

It was a practical lamp
sitting on a table.

And I think there
was maybe one other light.

And we walked in.

Clint took a look at the scene
we were about to play..

...and he just went over
and said..

Just turned off
one of Tom's lamps.

Just one of his,
not practical lamp

like the big lamps
and said "Okay, roll."

And I saw Tom,
he's like, you know.

And it just, it killed me

because I thought,
you know, for his eye..

he knows what he needs in terms
of light in this scene.

I mostly thought to myself..

...to be a cameraman
and work with him

you've got to say
"Okay, that's what he wants."

At the end of the movie
you got this kind of moment

where, Sean Penn's character
looks at me

and he's kind of across
the street

and there's a parade.
I said, "What is this?

What's goin' on here?
What this about?"

He wouldn't tell me, you know.
He wouldn't tell me.

So...which is fine.

Because then I go, "Okay,
if you're not gonna tell me

then I'll just have
to make somethin' up."

When I asked him,
he said that's gonna be..

...up to the audience to decide.

When people have asked me, I've
sort of respected that wish.

And said, "I guess
I'll keep that to myself."

It's not too, not too often
that you are able to take

something like that,
and you just kind of hold it.

You know, so I'm taking
that to my grave.

When we got to the end
of "Mystic River"

it was supposed to be
a 9-week shoot

and it only took seven weeks,
and I was really disappointed

that the movie was done.

I was like, I was really..

"Why can't we do
those extra two weeks?"

Because it was so great,
and such a great experience

and such a, you know,
kinda reinvention..

for me about the way
you could make a film.

(Brian Grazer)
The movie with Angelina Jolie.

That was the first time
I worked with him.

First I was scared to call him.

Ron Howard and I were gonna
call. We called him together.

And we're both
on separate lines.

I've never called
Clint Eastwood in my life.

And I thought, "I've got
to know him a little bit."

"There's some kind of tiny bond
that we have."

So we called him, got him on the
phone and pitched him the movie.

And he said,
"Let me take a look at it."

And then few weeks went by
and he called me.

And I was actually
at Steven Spielberg's house.

And he called through my office
and I got him on the cell.

And he said
"I think I'm interested."

And I just thought,
got off the phone

and I said, "Oh my god!
Ron, Steven, this is amazing!"

"Clint Eastwood's
gonna direct it."

I think he's gonna direct
a movie of mine.

And I was just really thrilled.

We out on the street
and high-fived each other.

Every day you learn
something from Clint.

You know, just the way
a set is run.

The way a director
can talk to people.

The way he can
get performances out of people.

The way you cannot get

bogged down in details
that are not gonna make

the movie any better.

You watch him work
and it seems

sort of simplistic.

It's a sort of
a seductive diffidence.

He sits back..

...and doesn't seem
that invested in

judging its freedom
that you really wanna feel.

That's something
that the actors feel.

And the crew does not feel that.

I'm just going to tell you

the crew is
in a different kind of vice.

Because he's so

invested in making
the thing have momentum

and move quickly
and organically.

When he feels that
he has the scene..

...credibly, authentically..

...made by the actors.

He'll move on and..

...it strikes terror
into his crew.

And so they come.

And they're on their very..

...tiptoes to be ready
for anything that might happen.

Clint has for years
kept his crew

together and-and
it's a familiarity.

It's also he knows
what to expect.

He even says, "I hire the people
I feel are right for the jobs."

He lets them do their job.

He gets out of the way
is what he says.

He comes to the set

and usually they start
around 9 o'clock.

Everyone's prepared.

You got a good night's rest.
You do your work.

How are we going home
by 2 o'clock in the afternoon?

How is that possible?

(Marcia Gay Harden)
Clint cares about the people

with whom he's working.
It's, it's a, it is a family.

He really respects and admires
and loves his crews.

(Marcia Gay Harden)
He gets that a crew spends

12 to 13 to 14 to 15,
come on 16 to whatever hours.

And at the expense
of their own families.

So on "Space Cowboys"

Friday, Clint would have
steak and lobster for the crew

from the catering
and after lunch you went home.

We had to finish by four
so we could

get on the golf course
because..

...had to get that one shot
you can never get.

I was sitting
in the trailer one day

and, uh, it was lunch
and one of the PA's

came up and said lunch,
I thought they were gonna say

"What would you guys like?" And
instead Clint said, "Let's go."

And there's
a long lunch line and

usually an actor
or a director

will go to their trailer and
their food is brought to them

or already waiting for them.

We walked over to where
the catering trucks were

and he picked up a tray..

And Clint was

you know behind,
I don't know, 20 people.

And he wouldn't even think
of cutting in front of anybody.

I just thought,
"Oh. That's why

he gets people to work with him
time and time again."

He's like, "They gotta eat too.
We're all eatin'."

There's no bodyguards.
There's no coterie.

There's no pomp
and circumstance.

It said so much in that
one moment about who he is.

You're wasting your time.
Told you I don't train girls.

Thought you might
change your mind.

There's dozens of trainers
who train girls.

You won't have
any trouble finding one.

Don't hardly need
a dozen, boss. You'll do fine.

I remember reading it and

from page one to the end

I thought it was perfect.

Later into the process
I heard that Clint was

not only wanting to star in it,
but wanting to direct it.

And I was asked
to take a meeting.

We sat and we talked
for about an hour.

We talked about the movie,
we talked about my background.

He asked if I was an athlete.

We chatted a bit
about "Mystic River"

which had just gotten nominated.

I remember actually
something he said at that time

which has always
stayed with me.

I congratulated him
and he said

"You always aim for the bull's
eye but don't always hit it.

So it's a nice thing
when it works out."

And at the end of the meeting

he said, "Well, you better
start trainin'."

- ...boxing with me right?
- Yeah. She'll come and she'll..

- Yeah, and move around..
- And move around..

If anyone had directed
"Million Dollar Baby"

I don't think it would've
gotten much notice at all.

Everybody has their
own ideas about what

a, a movie should be.

And I suppose executives
here or elsewhere

have ideas about what their
studio should be making.

There were several pictures
in a row there that

studio here had doubts about.

And one of them
was "Million Dollar Baby"

(Paul Haggis)
It's a boxing movie.

It's a girl boxing movie.

It's a girl boxing movie about a
woman who wants to kill herself

in the end. I mean,
who would see that film? But..

...make it
a Clint Eastwood movie

and people
are really curious.

(Clint)
It could've easily
been a terrible flop.

All movies can easily
be a terrible flop.

And good movies
don't always do well

and bad movies
sometimes do great.

So there's no rule,
there's no rule you can follow.

Everybody thinks there's a rule
and everybody thinks

they've got the answer,
but..

...nobody has the answer.

Got any family, boss?

Well, I've got
a daughter, Katie.

That's family.

We're not exactly close.

I approached it like it was
a father-daughter love story.

It was the daughter
he never had.

And the father she never had.

Actually it makes me
emotional talking about it

because it's exactly how
our relationship evolved as

director-actor,
actor

um, and then how it built
into a friendship.

(Clint)
She was successful.

But also it caused
the tragedy

the picture
eventually takes on.

We didn't shoot in

right in order, but we did do
the hospital stuff at the end

which was good because that was
when my body was deteriorating

and I stopped training.

I'm gonna disconnect
your air machine.

And you're gonna go to sleep.

And I'll give you a shot
and you'll..

...stay asleep.

And just at that point we had
gotten to this closeness

in our relationship that
I think helped with all of that

and Clint has a very
special place in my heart.

Mo chuisle.

Means "my darling."

My blood.

You know, in this world we need
people who believe in us.

And Clint believed in me

just like Frankie
believed in Maggie.

And he gave me that gift.

And it was
an extraordinary feeling

to have that support
and that confidence behind you.

If I had to be done tomorrow
and I could never do it again

having the experience with him

would make it okay.

He'll read a script
and he'll say, um

"Yeah, this could be
an interesting little picture."

If you give him something,
he'll read it right away.

Which is really not something
you can easily say about most

gigantic filmmakers.

They don't really know
if they want to do it.

You could wait months and years
to find if they want to do it.

Clint Eastwood tells you early
on, you're in, you're out.

Maybe I'm a little
more decisive.

I think that happens
as you get, as you get

more miles on the trail.

There isn't a gray area where
you'll talk him into anything.

And the older you get, I think
there's something about

you know, get to a certain age
and what can they do to you?

Not much.

I wish I had that
low-stress approach

to finding material.

In the case of "Gran Torino"
from the point he said

I like it to the point it was
on movie screens was

less than a year which could be
a record for a studio picture.

- Get off my lawn.
- Listen, old man.

I said get off my lawn now.

I'm not gonna say it again,
go in the freakin' house.

I go in that house after
I've blown a hole in your head.

And I sleep like a baby.

He doesn't want anything
to do with anybody

and specially people
that are different than he is.

He's a guy who is
very very disturbed

about the way
culture has gone.

He's had a loss
in the family, and, uh

he's estranged
from his grown children.

And he's, uh,
he doesn't like the way

the neighborhoods have changed.

This character seemed like
the same age as I am.

I'm not the same curmudgeonly,
I'm not quite as, uh

I'm not quite as, uh..

...as negative as,
as the character.

It's always interesting to me

as people get older
the work they do.

There's a different rhythm.

The writer, the actors

and him.

(Clint)
I think some movies

exceed your expectations

and others disappoint
your expectations.

If you fail on your own terms

then at least you fail
with your heads held high.

But if you fail on
somebody else's terms

you're gonna hate
yourself forever.

"Invictus", I thought
more people would know

about Nelson Mandela

and be interested
in Nelson Mandela

and how he governed when
he took over the country

which is an interesting lesson
in today's world.

Generations pass and..

...and they forget
all about him.

At least Americans do,
but Americans move on fast

to other things.

Now, push it towards him.
Push it. There you go.

If the stories are becoming
more complicated

the style doesn't.
That's the difference.

If he's searching
for more in a story

I mean he still has
the ability to hold back

and not be intrusive
to the image.

Other directors are intrusive
to the image and it's wonderful.

This guy just doesn't
wanna do that.

The style's in the same way.

Ultimately that leads to

the film that he made
last year which is "J. Edgar."

Blow it down.

(Brian Grazer)
On "J. Edgar" what I did is

I, I'd already had
a relationship with him

because I had produced
"The Changeling."

And I felt that we had a bond.

And that he trusted me,
you know, just man to man.

I felt Clint might be
interested 'cause it was an era

that he knows,
it's about power dynamics.

It's about a complicated man.

Mr. Chairman, I urge passage
of the Lindbergh law

making kidnapping
a federal offense.

To immediately deliver all
fingerprints in this country

to my office, so that we may
create a central file.

To help arm our agents

so that they have
a fighting chance

against the submachine guns
of some of the most

dangerous characters
in the history

of American criminality.

It's also sort of an
American tragedy as well

because J. Edgar

created, formed the FBI

and he died
a very lonely death.

You know for me
it's like, uh

Pablo Casals playing

cello in a room by himself
towards the end of his life.

That's how
it sort of enveloped me.

It went into his very

essence, his being,
in a way, and it was very

subversive
because it sucked you in.

Before you realize,
you didn't wanna leave the room

but you don't like the guy,
but you're not leaving.

I've been with the bureau
for seven years, Edgar.

- Almost as long as you.
- No.

You were with the old bureau
seven years

and that bureau is now gone,
sir. And so are you.

Um, I was a little surprised
that more people didn't see it.

So many pictures
that people haven't gotten

and 10 years later
they get them.

Biographical films, we've seen
a lot of them over the years.

Some of 'em work
and some don't.

There's no doubt, I think
this one has a depth to it

and a staying power,
that most people calm down

a little bit and try to see
what the hell it was.

They'll come around to it.

Lot of times you find material
that's interesting

and the public doesn't
find it interesting at all.

But that's horseracing,
you're still doing it

from what interests you.

And if you're
out of sync with the public

that happens
to everybody at some point.

But, uh,
you just

you know, the old song,
you know, pick yourself up

and right go back in the race.

Any criticism to Clint

you know, came under
in the early part of his career.

You know, you mentioned
Pauline Kael and others.

You know, he's had
the last laugh.

So we're talking and he says
"To tell you the truth

I still don't think
I've done my best work."

I think the strength
and the power come from

his gigantic desire

to, um, to be
and stay relevant.

That is to me what
differentiates him

from guys who really
only want to sit around

talk how great that movie they
did or this movie ba-ba-ba.

You know, Clint's
still in the hunt.

You don't wanna be
an old gummer

who's sittin' around
talkin' about

how things were so much
great in the old days.

They were great
in the old days

but they're good
on other days too.

It's what you
make out of it.

I think maybe Clint is
the last of the, uh

um, the last vestiges
of the golden age of, uh

the Hollywood studio film.

He's one of the most successful
filmmakers in history.

And he's a brilliant actor.

And he just continues
to do his thing.

And, uh, you know,
he's, he's laughing

all the way to the movies.

There's a body of work
that will survive.

Some may be considered stronger
or last longer than others.

But I think
they'll always speak to

future generations because of
the humanity of the films.

The ethics of the films.

Clint is a legend
but he's not

carrying it around
in a placard.

Maybe real legends don't

carry it around in a placard
on their chest

saying "I'm a legend by God."

Wannabe legends do,
but real ones don't.

Some days you can't remember
somebody's name

or you can't remember something.

Is it because
you're actually losing

memory and you're becoming
somewhat senile?

Or is it because
you just have

had so much information
crammed into your brain

after 80 years

that you can't hold any more?

You'd like to think
it's the latter.

But..

He loves making movies,
likes to make as many as he can.

As many movies.

The possibility of retirement

once in a while it crosses
my mind and then

I quickly get over it.

Of all the people
I've ever met in the business

he is the closest
to being both

a creative director

and a human being.

That's it.

Cut.