Original subtitles

Hello.

>> I think you can honestly say Clint East

Teethwood is a living legend.

>> I just blew 5 minutes of our

conversation. I think he is one of very

few actual superstars who represent the

Hollywood tradition still alive and

still at work.

>> Are you going to pull those pistols and

whistle Dixie?

>> Clint Eastwood is like no other

Hollywood star. He's bigger than almost

all of them and his longevity is

extraordinary.

Clint Eastwood has made an indelible

mark on the western genre and on the cop

thriller.

>> His ability to take control of his

career, produce, direct, and star became

a template for people after that.

>> You're looking at a living legend. Lily,

>> an amazing actor who you can watch on

the screen become who he is. And that's

a very rare thing.

>> I don't know what all that means. I just

thought I might use it someday.

Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born on May the

31st, 1930 in San Francisco, California.

His father Clinton Senior um was a steel

worker amongst other things. Um and his

mother Ruth um was a homemaker.

>> In the 1940s they settled in Pedmont and

he went to the local high school. He was

asked to leave and then he went to a

technical college. He was not a good or

enthusiastic student. He tended to uh

not do well on grades. He liked doing uh

car mechanics and shop. But in the end

there's some doubt over whether he

actually graduated at all.

>> So coming out of school the young Clint

Eastwood um really had no direction. And

you you have a short period of years

where he tried different things. He you

know he worked as in a steel furnace. He

was a a firefighter in a forest. He

worked as a grocery cler. But there was

no sort of fixed bearing um for the

young star to come. So he did what uh

many other young men at the time did um

was join the army.

>> During his service, Eastwood would

predominantly work as a lifeguard at

Fort in Northern California. When he

left the army after 2 years, he'd seen

no fighting at all.

But by that time, um he was determined

on an acting career. So he went to Los

Angeles which everybody aspiring did go

to in those days. While drifting around

Los Angeles looking for work, uh the

young Clint ran into an old friend

called Chuck Hill. Now he knew Chuck

Hill from his fort days in the army and

Chuck Hill by chance had contacts at

Universal and in the young Clint went

for his audition and the the producer

who met him could see he was striking

but he said he was terrible. you know,

he said he was stiff. He had this kind

of awful tendency to talk through his

gritted teeth. Um, his facial expression

didn't change. Um, little did he know

this producer that that actually that

would be the very ingredients in which

Clint would make a legend. Universal

gave him a a 40-we contract, which was

something,

but then he was dropped again because

they didn't think he was really likely

to be a very good actor. He made three

or four films for them. Um, very very

forgettable, very forgettable roles,

completely unsuited to him. Plays a sort

of scientist in a terrible horror film

called Tarantula until

he landed the role of Rowdy Yates in the

television series Rawhide.

>> Keep rolling.

>> I was a little girl then. I remember

this series because I remember him. He

was very, very handsome. The theme song

was fantastic and it was it was a

wonderful series.

>> He's a kind of greenhorn cowboy, the

young guy of the ranch who has to kind

of learn many lessons. Eastwood often

said that he found him a real burden to

play. He was the dooodder but he was

beloved and this series would last for

six years. You know, it really was an

institution of its day. Eastwood was

almost 30 by then and he he felt uh as

an actor that the part wasn't big enough

for him. It couldn't allow him to

develop himself. It was also grueling.

This is television. You have to turn a

show out every week. So that means

you're in studio 7 days a week. It's

off. It was just grueling.

>> By the end of his period on Rawhidede,

he was even directing trailers. He never

quite got to the the level of directing

individual episodes, but he was

directing various trailers for the show.

So clearly he kind of moved up within

the show to to become something quite

prominent.

>> It was towards the end of Rohid that

Italian director Sergio Leone was

casting around for an American actor to

star in his western, A Fistful of

Dollars. And he landed on Clint Eastwood

and the legend was born.

Now

I'm Miguel Rojo. I want to talk to you.

I'm Miguel. I hear you're hiring on men.

>> Well, I might just be available.

>> Sergio Leone wanted a hard, silent

western. He wanted the hero to be the

character who Clint Eastwood would would

go on to play many, many times. The man

with the name, the hard guy, the saying

very little, straight mouth, firm jaw.

unable to speak English. You know, the

direction on set was very minimal. And

Eastwood really had to just sort of

stand there and grimace into the

sunlight, usually with a chirut cigar

stuck between his teeth. Cigars that he

hated. So that a lot of that kind of

strange look of distaste he has on his

face through those films is merely the

kind of the horrible little cigars he

had to smoke.

>> Get three coffins ready.

>> Huh?

The plot of A Fistful of the dollars was

clearly based on Curasawa's Yimbo about

a lone samurai which caused a bit of a

problem because Curasawa tried to stop

the film being made.

>> They settled it but uh the man with no

name is kind of thought of as a takeoff

from what Kurasawa was doing.

>> Everybody talks about Ramon

>> and many speak of you too, my dear

brother included.

Well, I hope they say nice things.

>> Leone is an incredible director for him.

First of all, he he hires the great Ino

Moricone to write the the score and

tells Moricone, "Do not score this in

post-prouction," which is what most uh

composers do. I want you to do it the

night before. Okay? Because what I want

is I want you to play the music while

I'm directing. So, I want to be able to

do this to this music.

Leone has this in this this incredible

soundtrack which he's is all dubbed. The

voice is all dubbed but also the sounds

are all dubbed. So it's almost as if

every part of the soundtrack is music.

Every sound of wind, every clash, every

gunfire, it's all very carefully

composed and prepared. This created this

slightly strange aura, a slightly sort

of um out of place way that the

characters talk, which somehow is very

effective. They were completely

different to your average American

movie. Less script, more

close-ups of people. And and of course,

the great thing about them was that they

had they were enormously

visual.

Intriguingly, the critics hated it. They

called it sadistic, violent, brutal,

amoral. Um, they just sort of showered

sort of a probium on it. That didn't

stop the film being an enormous success.

I mean, people just loved it. They loved

it from the word go and they just loved

Eastwood. They loved that character.

Eastern was not yet a star, though he

certainly noticed in the fist full of

dollars. No question of that.

But in his next outing for Leone, he

certainly became a star.

Such was the success of A Fistful of

Dollars that the following year, Leon

approached Eastwood to star in the

film's sequel for a few dollars more.

>> What are you doing here? You're not

running away, are you?

>> No, I'm not running away. I'm going

after them. I'm going alone. Our

partnership is dissolved.

>> Now, boy, let's wait and talk it over.

>> Yeah, well, all we've done is talk. I've

been reasonable with no results.

>> Now, take it easy. We only knew the

Santa Cruz part of his plan.

>> Well, you were the one who had their

strategy all worked out. Now, I'm going

to meet India.

>> I see. I better go along.

>> A few dollars more had the added bonus

of Lee Van Clee. Uh, and it's two rival

bounty hunters going after this escaped

convict. All told with the kind of

wonderful sense of timing and flashback

and again the lovely textures of Almira

have gone up a notch. Absolutely

wonderful film. Um, developed a little

bit of the character. I mean these are

very sort of cold hard um brutalist

westerns but there was a little bit of

humanity creeping in sometimes certainly

in the relationship between um Eastwood

and Levan Clee which was um beautifully

organized of the three um in a funny

sort of way it's my

Lord of

therefore according to the powers vested

in us we send the accused here before

TCO Benedict Pacificico Juan Maria

Ramirez

>> known as the rat

>> and any other aliases he might

>> hang by the neck until dead. May God

have mercy on his

>> by 1966 and thanks largely to his work

with director Sergio Leone. Clint

Eastwood was a big name in European

cinema. However, due to the films not

yet being released in America, he was

still yet to become a household

Hollywood name. This would all change

when Leone approached him to star in the

third film of the trilogy.

>> The fee is now $250,000,

which was quite a lot more than the

yacht paid for fistful of dollars, which

is around 15,000. Anyway, Eastwood

decided to go back and do the third in

the series, The Good, the Bad, and the

Ugly. And very good job that he did

because it was the epic conclusion to

the trilogy. This is the first example

we see of Eastwood actually

understanding his screen persona, what

it's doing to the audience and how he

can sort of manipulate it. The first

site we have of Blondie, as he's known

in the film, is sitting on a horse

wearing a white hat. Clint Eastwood in a

white hat. This is a man with no name.

It's ridiculous. You know, he's usually

sort of got a battered Stson poncho. He

looks positively angelic and they

actually play that up in it.

>> The way I figure, there's really not too

much future with us front like you.

>> What do you mean?

>> Cuz I don't think you'll ever be worth

more than $3,000.

>> What do you mean?

>> I mean, our partnership is untied.

>> Oh, no.

>> Wait, not you. You remain tied. I'll

keep the money and you can have the

rope.

>> Yeah. not only Lee Van Clee, but you

have the wonderful Eli Wallock and you

create this kind of dynamic between

certainly between Eastwood and Wallock

that's kind of almost Laurel and Hardy

like you. It borders on comedy.

>> It's again about bleakness. It's again

about moral ambiguity. It's again uh

about a person you can't really root for

any of these people, but it it it makes

you look at the West in the kind of

ambiguous way it must have been. It was

a a revolution.

>> You talked?

>> No, I didn't talk. If I did, I probably

wouldn't be here now.

>> You me?

>> So, only you know you have the secret.

>> Mhm.

>> Blondie,

I'm very happy you're working with me.

Across the course of all three of those

Sergio Leone films, we now think of

Clint Eastwood as being the man with no

name. In fact, he had three different

names. He technically he plays a

different character in every film that

the he's he's mano in um a Few dollars

more and he's Blondie in The Good, The

Bad, and The Ugly. Mainly for copyright

reasons. You can't you if you have the

same character go on into the next film,

then the previous writer should be paid

uh for the for the intellectual

property. So he he is although at no

point is his name ever given and that

was the marketing in the end the

marketing in America was the man with no

name.

>> So these three uh films that together

make a kind of trilogy

um were finally launched in America in

1967

um and became

over the years you know an enormous

cultural moment. um if it wasn't certain

at the time looking back you know they

changed the texture of the western they

change

a feeling about what European film

making could do um they changed the

attitudes of the studios um and they

created Clint Eastwood the superstar

>> it'll be a lot easier with

Coming out of the spaghetti westerns

again, Eastwood has learned things. You

know, he's learned a lot from Leone. He

would always praise him as a great

influence on his career. But he returned

to America now determined to be the

master of his domain. Clint Eastwood

wanted to be dictating to some level the

films he did and how he did them. So,

Hangam High film he returned to America

to make was ostensibly an Eastwood

production. This is the point where Mal

Paso Films, which is his own production

company named after a creek on his own

land, um the production company he still

has today, um was kind of launched. I

just came from the Johansson place. His

was gone. I found Johansson and his wife

on the kitchen floor, gunned down,

>> dead.

>> Oh,

hang him. You're making a mistake. No.

>> The story is about a man who's like

Lynch, but he survives and he comes back

for his revenge.

>> This is a theme that will

carry on through many, many, many of

Clint Eastwood's films, most of them

westerns, but not exclusively. So the

idea that someone who has been unjustly

damaged in some way um returning

apparently from the dead to seek revenge

on his tormentors.

>> All right, Marshall. What do you say I

done?

>> You don't remember me, do you?

>> No.

>> When you hang a man, you better look at

him.

It was an unusual western quite unlike

American westerns generally

and Hangam High was really Eastwood's

attempt to do something rather like Leon

but really in his own image and you get

a sense with this film which became an

instant hit uh for United Artist that in

some respects Eastwood had taken up the

mantle of the American West in cinema

from John Wayne and from James Stewart.

Uh, and he'd kind of moved it on. He was

the next generation star of that genre.

>> What kept you?

>> Well, I was uh was very lucky. I ran

into this fabulous blonde. She was lying

on a snow drift.

>> Do you have a friend?

>> No, I'm pretty sure you're out of luck.

Thanks for waiting up for me anyway.

No problem.

>> 1968 is where Eagles Dare uh after the

book by Alistister McClean. Eastwood's

agent said, you know, why don't you why

don't you get into a picture with the

big actor? I mean, a real senior actor.

Try yourself up against the big guy. So,

the big guy was Richard Burton. The film

is about Burton and Eastwood as two

commandos leading a mission to rescue a

British officer who's been captured by

the Germans and held in this castle on

unfeasibly impenetrable clifftops with

the most outrageous defenses. And so

they have to worm their way around. It's

a very tense thriller. One of the chief

delights in Were Eagle's Dare is

watching Richard Burton eloquently tell

us this kind of endless confusions and

what's going on. And then we're cut to

Clint Eastwood's befuddled face. You

completely confused just as the audience

are of what on earth is going on.

>> Lieutenant, in the next 15 minutes, we

have to create enough confusion to get

out of here alive.

>> Major, right now you got me about as

confused as I ever hope to be.

>> It is unusually violent actually, even

for a war film. And it has been said

that of all the films that Clint has

made, and he has a lot of death dealing

in most of his films, either as a

gunslinger or whatever it is, he kills

more people in this film than any other

movie. Everybody recognized that

Eastwood was more than just the star of

Westerns, that he could be a genuine

actor. Laughter was an April song that

echoes

on and on.

>> Paint your wagon is a very unusual film.

It has Lee Marvin. It has Clint

Eastwood. Lee Marvin is a prospector.

Clint Eastwood is his buddy. They are

trying to get gold, get women. In many

ways, a classic western. What's unusual

about it is it's a musical. Neither

Clint Eastwood nor Lee Marvin have what

I would describe as a great singing

voice, but the personality of the film

is almost that gruffness is what makes

it work. That gives it its charm. His

rendition of I talk to the trees uh is

one of the funniest things I've ever

heard actually. Um I'm not surprised

that the trees didn't talk back to him

or sing back to him. Then I'll try to

find the words to say

all the things you mean to me.

In 1970, Clint Eastwood would star in an

ensemble cast for the classic war movie

Kelly's Heroes.

>> How many more bars of gold like this do

you have in that convoy?

Fat.

>> No. No. Come on. Speak English. Come on.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> How many bars like this in your trucks?

>> 14.

>> 14. What?

>> Thousand.

>> 14,000.

>> Kelly's Heroes. It's a great film. It's

a Second World War movie that's really

about Vietnam. And Clint Eastwood is a a

grizzled frontline officer who is

fighting. The command don't seem to know

what's going on. He's he's exasperated.

And one of his men discover that behind

enemy lines there's a bank which is

filled with gold guarded by the Nazis.

>> What is lovely about this film is that

it combines all the elements of

something like Bilco and MASH. um all

those humorous elements and the kind of

slightly subversive uh military

operations um and even Cash22 and yet

still makes it an action movie and the

action is authentic.

>> I have or this bank isn't to fall into

the hands of the American army.

>> Sergeant, this bank's not going to fall

in the hands of the American army. It's

going to fall in our hands. You see,

we're just a private enterprise

operation.

>> You the American army?

>> No, baby. weird.

You know what's inside that bank, man?

There's $16 million worth of gold in

that bank. Sweetheart, you have Donald

Sutherland is the kind of hippie tank

driver. You have Don Rickles, Ty Seales.

None of these characters fit a kind of

um tradition of Second World War heroes.

And Eastwood very easily kind of moves

himself into something more modern that

the film depicts.

I know what you're thinking.

Did he fire six shots or only five?

Well, to tell you the truth, and all

this excitement, I've kind of lost track

myself. But Ian, this is a 44 Magnum,

the most powerful handgun in the world,

and would blow your head clean off.

You've got to ask yourself one question.

Do I feel lucky?

Well, do you, Bunk?

One of Clint Eastwood's early mentors

was the director Don Seagull and

together they made Dirty Harry. Dirty

Harry did for the cop thriller what a

fistful of dollars did to the western.

>> In many ways, uh, Dirty Harry is a

western, but set in a city with people

in cop clothes.

>> I've got a wife and three kids. I don't

want him on the streets anymore than you

do.

>> Well, he won't be out there long.

>> What is that supposed to mean?

I mean, sooner or later he's going to

stub his toe and then I'll be right

there.

>> This office won't stand for any

harassment.

>> You know you're crazy if you think

you've heard the last of this guy. He's

going to kill again.

>> How do you know?

>> Cuz he likes it.

>> He plays this tough police inspector

who's no nonsense. He doesn't go by the

book. He doesn't follow Miranda law

where he's supposed to read people their

rights. You know, all that kind of

stuff. He just doesn't do this. And

Dirty Harry was a huge huge hit. It

became an institution. This fantastic

kind of look at San Francisco and look

at the kind of the idea of um how a cop

operated on the streets that was just

seinal.

>> Now you know why they call me dirty

hairy. Every dirty job that comes along.

A lot of people reacted very negatively

to the way that violence was depicted

and the way that Eastwood rejected

certain liberal values in in his work as

a cop. He was the cop who got things

done and killed when he had to, not

someone who was who was going to, you

know, give people space. And that that

that was a very very divisive um idea.

>> This is Dave Garver with a little verse,

a little talk, and five hours of music

to be very very nice to each other by.

In 1971, Clint Eastwood would take his

first steps into directing with the film

Play Misty for Me.

>> Caramel, Dave Garver speaking.

>> Hello.

>> Hi. What will it be?

>> Play Misty for me.

>> Misty, huh? We have that right on the

play. Thanks for calling.

>> I see you got your little Misty chick

calling you again.

>> All righty. Swing.

>> You take it easy now, huh? It's such an

unusual film for him to to start his

directing career with. You would have

expected a western or some kind of

thriller, but this is a different kind

of movie. It's the story of a DJ who is,

you know, a bit of a womanizer and

gets involved with a fan um and she

turns into a stalker. It's strange to

watch him and feel that he's in terrible

danger when normally he's the one

dealing the danger out. So, it's a great

it's a great contrast to his career.

>> Are you trying to say you don't love me

anymore?

>> I never told you that I loved you.

>> Well, not in words, maybe, but

there are lots of ways of saying things

that have nothing to do with words.

>> It's funny you read it that way. People

were surprised that Eastwood should play

such a part, but they were they

certainly approved of it. The critics

liked the film. They recognized that

Eastwood was pretty good director. This

film is a blockbuster. Nobody thought

this would come out of him. Um, and it's

it is

not the most feminist thing you'll ever

see, but in terms of

what he breaks through in convention, it

is a very very important piece of work

and absolutely unexpected.

>> Howdy.

Howdy.

Name's Josie Wales.

I've heard of that name.

Some said you'd be headed this way.

And they said a man could get rich and

reward money if he could kill you.

>> Seems like he was looking to gain some

money here.

>> The Outlaw Josie Wales is about a

Missouri farmer who joins a Confederate

guerilla unit and uh during the Civil

War, American Civil War, and is on the

run. It was originally directed by

Philip Calfman, very fine director in

fact, but Eastwood and he fell out and

he got him fired from the picture and

then took over the direction.

>> The Director's Guild of America didn't

approve of this and they introduced

something called the Eastwood rule,

which meant that no star could sack the

director and then take over directing

themselves.

>> All right, you can let him up now, boy.

Let him up.

>> Get up, godamn it.

Whooped him again, didn't we, Josie?

Whooped him again, boy.

>> It is expansive. It is humane. It has

humor. It has a very big canvas. And

again, essentially, it is about a man

who is seeking revenge for the death of

his family at the hands of um Union

soldiers. It's about people who don't

fit in, you know, don't fit in this

great idea of America. So, it's his

first great exploration, I think, from

Eastwood about

um America's working class almost, you

know, a subject he would come back to

repeatedly and was very interested in,

you know, what does this country offer

people? You know, what does it do for

people? What does it mean?

>> I'm looking for Josie Wales.

>> That'll be me.

You're wanted whales. I

>> reckon I'm right popular.

>> You a bounty hunter?

>> Yeah, he's got to do something for a

living these days.

>> Diane ain't much of a living boy.

>> That was a huge feather in his cap with

the critics who many of them thought

that it was one of the best westerns of

all time and they certainly do today.

Man, I'll tell you something.

Fly, this is going to stop. People are

going to talk, you know.

>> By the late 70s, Clint Eastwood was not

just an acting star in Hollywood, but

also a renowned director, which made his

decision to appear in the offbeat comedy

Every Which Way But Loose, all the more

surprising. Every Which way But Loose is

Clint Eastwood being silly, really. He

does it occasionally in his career. He's

sort of silly in Kelly's Heroes, but

most of the time he's, you know, hard.

What they do here, they they set his

hardman persona alongside an orangutang.

>> He basically plays a sort of itinerant

bare knuckle fighter who wins this

orangutang in a fight and then it's

called Saddled with him. Now on paper

this sounds absurd and it kind of is

absurd but what's really good about this

picture and why it became a massive

massive hit is two reasons. One is the

soundtrack which is all country western

which became really iconic for bikers

for truck drivers. used to play the

soundtrack on the radio and the

character. I mean, here's Clint Eastwood

with this with this lovely animal next

to him and they go into all these

adventures. That that's really what it

is.

>> What are you going to do with a baboon?

>> Orangutang, huh? Clyde's an orangutang.

>> What's a difference?

>> 12 ribs just like you and me.

>> What are you going to do with them?

>> He's coming with me. Come on, Clyde.

>> When When are you coming back?

WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK?

>> WHENEVER it's time. Huh? This was

madness, you know. Um, all Eastwood's

advisers were like, "Whatever you do,

don't do the monkey picture." Um, and of

course that was red rag to to Eastwood.

Uh, and he said, you know, the reason I

did every which way but loose is cuz

they all told me not to.

>> It's got all of the ingredients of the

Eastwood film, but it's just it's also

got slapstick essentially. It's got

very, very broad humor. It became a huge

hit because I think it really it spoke

to people, you know, it really

communicated with people that Hollywood

weren't providing films for.

We wish way,

>> how long has it been since you fired a

gun at a man? Will 9 10 years?

>> 11.

Easy, huh?

Well, I don't know that it was all that

easy even back then. And we was young

and full of beans.

Means if you was mad at them, well, I

mean, if they done you some wrong, I

could see shooting them.

>> We done stuff for money before that.

>> Yeah,

we thought we did. All right. So, what

these fellas do? Cheated cards, steal

some strays, spit on a rich fella. What?

Now they cut up a woman.

>> What?

>> In 1992, Clint Eastwood made the

critically acclaimed western Unforgiven.

>> Unforgiven came as a complete surprise.

It was a period when Western had fallen

out of fashion and Clint Eastwood

single-handedly revived it. Unforgiven

um is the film I think that takes Clint

Eastwood from wherever, you know, just

being a star of the 80s and being an

older star and elevates him to, you

know, a kind of legendary status.

>> You think he's going to die?

>> You think we killed him?

>> They're shopping for us.

Yeah,

we killed him. I guess

>> as a performance it's just astonishing.

I think, you know, everyone talks about

Unforgiven very much as like Eastwood,

the director at work, but I think if you

watch it again and just look at

Eastwood, the actor, the subtleties he

puts into it, you know, the idea of a

man reacquainting himself with the dark

center of his person, you know, he's

been a farmer, he's raised his kids,

he's lost his wife. It's a man, you

know, who knows he's betraying, you

know, the spirit of his wife, who

clearly has saved him from himself. It

shows how the reality of the West was

pretty dirty. It was pretty unpleasant.

It was not in the slightest bit heroic.

And it also shows very clearly, and this

is something that Eastwood had, of

course, not done in the past, the real

human impact of violence.

>> You'd be William Money out of Missouri,

killed women and children.

That's right.

I've killed women and children,

killed just about everything that walks

or crawled at one time or another.

And I'm here to kill you, little Bill,

for what you did to Ned.

It's a fabulous exploration

of not only the mythology of the West

and debunking it. So you have Eastwood's

kind of um old gunfighter, you know, gun

for hire dragged out of retirement

because he needs the money. I think it's

been called one of the best westerns

ever made. It won the Oscar for best

film. He won best director and Gene

Hackman won best supporting actor.

So it was a huge success for him.

>> Man, what a day. What a day. My wife had

to work early, so I took my kid to his

new school. He won't stop crying. Says

he wants to move back to Chicago.

>> Broke my heart. Frank,

>> any more excuses?

>> No.

>> Good. When you work with me, you be

punctual. You got it.

>> 1993, In the Line of Fire, uh, stars

Clint as a CIA agent looking for a

maniac. Basically,

>> in the line of fire, it tells you that

Eastwood was just on the hottest of hot

streaks. You know, you're into the '9s.

He's a much older man, yet he has

reinforced himself now as a superstar

again. He is the aging presidential

bodyguard. Um, who is burdened by the

sins of the past, burdened by the fact,

you know, he couldn't stop JFK being

killed. Eastwood allows himself in this

one, not only to sort of carry the

weight of guilt, but also to do it in

such a minimal way that you don't feel

that he's overplaying it.

>> You're looking at a living legend, Lily.

The only act of agent who ever lost a

president.

>> The further in his career he goes, the

more vulnerability he allows to show.

And in this case, it's a man whose life

was broken who's trying to put his life

together.

>> I was just picking you some flowers.

Oh,

>> men still do that, don't they? I'm not

out of date, am I? I mean, picking

flowers for a woman, a sign of

appreciation.

>> No, not at all. Except those are

poisonous.

>> Bridges of Manston County was originally

a bestselling book. And when Clint

Eastwood took on directing and producing

it, people weren't sure that he was the

right man for the job. So, it's about

this Italian wife who's had a happy

marriage, but her husband has gone off

for the summer. And into her life wafts

this very handsome photographer, a dream

of a man, you know, totally at ease with

his soul and being an artist who loves

to take photos of these covered bridges

over the rivers, you know, it's a

cornball idea.

>> First of all, the book was a huge

success. It was just one of these things

everybody was dying to see. Meil Stre

plays the Italian uh uh housewife. She

gets an Oscar for it, but she's

supported by Clint Eastwood. Clint

Eastwood gives her the space. And you

can see his generosity as this

photographer.

>> I'm not going to apologize for who I am.

>> And I'm not going to be made to feel

like I've done something wrong.

>> No, you're not going to be made to feel

anything. Period. Because you have

carved out this little part for yourself

in the world where you get to be a moor

and a hermit and a and a lover whenever

you feel like it. And the rest of us are

supposed to feel incredibly grateful for

this brief moment that you touched her.

Go to hell. It isn't human not to be

lonely and it isn't human not to be

afraid. You're a hypocrite and you're a

phony.

>> It's a very, very adult film, very

mature. And it sounds so sloppy, but

there is absolutely nothing sloppy about

it at all. The two of them work

terrifically well together. And I think

that a lot of people who had grown up

with Clint Eastwood and those who didn't

particularly like his films were very,

very pleasantly surprised by it.

I'm going to need that speed bag back.

>> This bag?

>> Yes, that bag. That's my bag. And if

you're hitting it, people will think I'm

training you.

>> Is that such a bad thing, boss?

>> Yes. Yes, it is. Every time you touch

it, you're losing me business out here.

>> I got to agree. I am embarrassing

myself.

>> Well, I can't just lend it to anybody,

you know.

>> I understand.

>> Million-Dollar Baby, the next big Oscar

winner for Eastwood. I think it's one of

his great performances.

>> Million-Dollar Baby is one of those

really extraordinary films that I can't

think of anybody else who could have

made in quite the same way. It's about a

female boxer and her aging trainer.

Clintis who plays a trainer. Hillary

Swank plays a boxer. Having trained her,

promoted her and got her into her first

big championship fight. She is so badly

damaged she becomes a paraplegic.

It's actually about guilt and what do

you do and how do you accommodate it?

And if anyone argues that Clint Eastwood

couldn't act, I would direct them toward

the scenes of Million-Dollar Baby where

he goes into the church and you see the

anger yet his own guilt and the kind of

tears come to the service.

>> But now she wants to die and I just want

to keep her with me.

And I swear to God, Father, it's

it's committing a sin by doing it. By

keeping her alive, I'm killing her.

You know what I mean? How do I get

around that?

>> You don't. You step aside, Frankie. You

leave her with God.

>> She's not asking for God's help. She's

asking for mine. In terms of awards,

Million-Dollar Baby was one of

Eastwood's most successful films.

>> This is my mom, Boo. I'm Sue. And that's

my brother, Tom. We live next door.

>> So,

>> how wants to say something?

>> I'm sorry. Sorry for what? For trying to

steal your car.

>> Let me tell you something, boy. You step

on this property again, you're done. to

hear

>> as a late entry in his Twilight years to

come up with a film like Gran Torino is

little short of remarkable. I think Gran

Torino shows once and for all that how

well Eastwood understood his own screen

persona. He's a grizzled old man um you

know who looks after his lawn and looks

after his car, his Grand Torino. It's

another one of Clint's great car films

as sort of an embodiment of the American

dream. um who is forced to kind of come

between these young immigrant kids and

the gangs.

>> He begins to break down his prejudices

and it's really about the coming

together of of people in a community. He

he understands that his neighbors aren't

just, you know, the rude names he

thought of them. And that it's very

nicely done. It it's it's about, you

know, never being too old to learn. I

think.

>> What happened to your knuckles anyways?

>> Uh, I slipped in the shower. No big

problem. Uh, look now, Yum Yum. If he

doesn't ask you out, I'm going to ask

you out.

>> Well, don't listen to him. You are. He's

the white devil.

>> Yeah, I am. I'm the white devil.

Something about Clint, the elderly

Clint, that's much more charming in a

way than maybe his middle career. His

frown has become, you know, one of the

great special effects on on the cinema

screen. There's just something

indomitable about it.

>> Gran Torino was a huge hit. It's not

always talked about in terms of his um

cannon, but I think it's one of his most

touching films.

>> You've come a long way. I'm proud to say

that you're my friend, but you got your

whole life ahead of you. But me, I

finish things. That's what I do. And I'm

going it alone.

>> No. WAIT.

Clint Eastwood is still making motion

pictures. He's still a one-off.

>> Go ahead.

>> He had an extraordinary ability to be

himself in whatever part he played. An

extraordinary man. He was the man who

brought the western to the streets of

American cities.

>> What the hell are you doing? Have you

lost your mind?

>> I think what's staggering about

Eastwood's career as an actor is that

how he has remained the same,

indomitable, fixed, an icon, and our

pleasure of going to see his films

knowing that we'll get Clint Eastwood on

the screen.

>> You get those holes are leaking, I'm

going to whump you with a knotted plow

line.

He was someone who was as big a star as

anybody had ever been in Hollywood. He

is the only actor I can think of who

understands the value of his screen

persona to the extent that he can

manipulate it through a variety of

nuances. I've never known an actor to

explore the the idea of his own

mythology quite as much as as as

Eastwood has. And I think that makes him

priceless. Adios.

Yeah.

Heat.