Original subtitles

Carmel Beach near Mterrey in California.

As the autumn day draws to its close and

the surfers seek one final wave, a tall

lean figure takes his regular evening

run along the shore. He remains

unnoticed. Although he is in fact the

most popular movie star in the world.

[Music]

I tell you my

dreams and while you're listening to

me I suddenly see

them come

[Music]

true. I can see us on an April

night looking out across the

[Music]

road having supper in the candle

light.

Walking on and on.

[Music]

How I pass the

day. How the

night. Then I'll try to find the words

to

say all the things you mean to me.

Oh, there various orphans that have been

brought to us throughout the year. This

one we think was deserted because he's

very small for his age. He's already

getting h getting horns coming

through. Well, they eat grain and they

eat milk out of they they were eating

out of a bottle for a while. Now they

just drink milk out of a

bowl. And of course this guy, he likes

to get in the middle of every shot. Fred

Basset. Sydney is his name. You want

some hay? Home for Clint Eastwood is a

remote and rocky peninsula overlooking

the Pacific. Inhabited by his daughter

Allison, age three, his 8-year-old son

Kyle, and the lady he married 25 years

ago, Maggie. He closely guards the

privacy of his family and he doesn't

much like his house to be filmed.

There's an everinccreasing danger of

burglary and even kidnapping. For

Eastwood is a very rich man. It's

estimated he can now earn up to $10

million from every film he chooses to

make. He's invested his money in large

slabs of California. And in the nearby

town of Carmel, he's often to be found

at the restaurant he owns. It's called

the Hogs Breath Inn. You know, it looks

kind of like a British pub to me. And it

I used to love the names they put on

pubs over there. I thought it was had

terrific atmosphere. So, I just figured

we'd get a name that was a little more

outrageous than some of the names they

use. The menu reminds his customers of

some of their hosts better known films

like Dirty Harry and Fistful of Dollars.

That was all uh by a former partner. He

uh was sort of a PR oriented type guy

and he he he thought up all these

things. a dirty hairy dinner or

something like that. I was a little bit

reticent about, but nobody seems to

object it to it.

But in addition to wealth and fame, he

has of late accumulated another

commodity, controversy.

Pauline Kale of The New Yorker is one of

America's leading film critics. Now it

is it almost seems like the hero as a

psychopathic personality because his

affectlessness as uh when he

kills begins to seem like an expression

of a new

nealism and I I find it very

displeasing. He's very unlike the John

Wayne character who stood for the right

who was a man of principle. Clint

Eastwood seems almost now a machine for

killing.

I talked to Eastwood in his back garden

and before we got on to Miss Kale's

criticisms, he told me a bit about his

early days. Uh I was raised during a

depression era in this country and it

was

uh I never saw my father with a specific

uh profession and so I never really I

never really was raised with an idea of

you you grow up thinking well you want

to be a physician or you want to be

anything a drugist whatever you uh and

and follow through with it. I just kind

of became interested in

this at a certain time when when the

chips all fell that way. I once did a a

play as part of an English project, a

one-act play when I was in junior high

school. I hated it at the time. I mean,

I enjoyed I enjoyed doing it. We were

kind of a hit, but uh I was such a

nervous wreck. I was I was ready to cut

school. I didn't uh I just didn't figure

that was my bag.

the the part of the lead in the play was

an introverted kid and I was an

introverted kid so my teacher picked me

for the job figuring that I'd just act

myself. Well, uh, we got through it, but

I I made up my mind then I'd never get

involved with anything to do with acting

again. United States government solved

his career problems. He was drafted into

the army, but unlike most conscripts

then, he didn't get sent to Korea. I was

lucky. Uh I think about 99% of the

company I was with did. But I I had been

into swimming as a kid. My father was a

very good swimmer and I was a good

swimmer and swam in school. And he uh

when I got into service, I just happened

to hear a rumor that they needed

somebody down at the pool area to teach

swimming. So I I ran down there and did

a bit of a selling job on this captain

in command and

uh they uh I told them I was much better

than I was of course and much which

later becomes the actor's limit because

the actors are always doing that that

later on you're always saying can you

ride? Yes. Can you ride motorcycles?

Yes. Can you drive off cliffs? Yeah. You

say anything because you want the part.

So but this was much like that. I went

down there and I just I like the area. I

figured I'd like to stay in that kind of

work. So I got a job teaching swimming

for 2 years. But then I mean to make the

decision to go for an audition at

Universal, you must have wanted to be an

actor. When did that occur? What was it?

The fact you knew David Jansen and

people in the army that Yeah, I knew uh

those guys.

Uh I I tell you, they all seemed to

enjoy themselves. It seemed like a it

seemed like a long shot type of thing,

and I was always kind of for that. Were

people telling you you're a good-looking

fellow, you should be an actor?

What were people telling you you're you

look like an actor, therefore you should

be one? Uh, I don't think they were

telling me that. I don't know what they

were. Uh, I don't know. I don't recall

anybody telling me that. They might have

on the way, but I'm sure they told that

to tell that to anybody. Maybe they

captain the football team or something

like that. But Universal accepted him

and the revenge of the creature provided

him with his first big break. I just had

a stupid scene. I had to come in as a

lab assistant. I played a lot of lab

assistants in those days. And I came in

and uh flipped a I couldn't find some

white mice that were missing in the lab.

So all of a sudden uh the guy says,

"Well, did you look everywhere?" And I

reached a pocket and oops, there it is.

There's the white m. It was pretty dumb

stuff, but I guess they were short on

time and just wanted to pad the script.

Would you come here a minute? Didn't you

say that among the lower animals there

were no natural enemies? As long as

they're wellfed. Yeah, something like

that. Well, maybe so, doc, but there

were four rats in there when I changed

my lights. Now there's only three. It's

my considered opinion that rat number

four is sitting inside that cat. Are you

sure you fed them all this morning?

Sure. I always feed them. I

[Music]

[Applause]

How'd you get in here? Well, the other

another biggie that I was in was the

second film I did was a film called

Tarantula.

And that I played the part of the jet

pilot who came in and bombed this giant

tarantula at the end. And I uh was

enthusiastic when I I read the part

because I was enthusiastic about doing

anything uh that

would increase my

experience. But I had goggles on and a

mask on here and a helmet on. So it

could have uh it could have been just

somebody sitting there and somebody just

dubbed in the words. Dropping nom

following order.

Here it

[Music]

goes. And you always hope for a small

part in those things. I I guess in the

time I was there two years that I did

about 14 or 13 bits of anything from

walking on to saying one line to to uh

to saying three or four lines. I'll

never forget I was a lab assistant once

with Rock Hudson and I had a fourline

part where he comes in and ask me some

question and I'm working in a in an

X-ray lab and he's the physician and

they told me they wanted me to wear

glasses. Well, I'd never worn glasses

before, and I was disappointed because I

didn't I didn't think that uh that I

look particularly good in them. But the

director wanted me to wear them because

I was a youthful kid, and he figured it

would give me a little more of an

intellectual look or physician's

assistant look, if there is such a

thing. So, I scouted around. I found I

tried on about 10 pairs of glasses.

Finally found a pair that really looked

pretty good. I sat there looking at

myself in the mirror. Finally, I got

used to it. I thought, "Hey, this isn't

bad at all. this may be a whole

different different whole whole

different approach. So I went on the set

with these glasses. Everything was fine.

I got on the scene. Rock Hudson walks

in. He starts to say his line. He looks

at me and he turned to the director and

he says, "Where are my

glasses?" And the director said, "Well,

you're the leading man. You don't need

glasses. You don't wear them. So what?"

Oh, well, I think I got to wear. So he

went through all the 10 pairs of glasses

that I had tried on, didn't find. And

they took mine off. Fit him perfect.

Okay. Boom. He wore them. I didn't. Now

these look pretty good, Harry.

What is it? Will telephone. Dr. Parker.

All right. Should study these when

they're dry. Harry, I'll call you

tomorrow from Chicago to see if they

answer our question. Good luck with your

speech, sir. Oh, thank you, Will. I'll

need it. As a public speaker, I should

stick to orthopedic research.

In those days, they used to have a guy

who looked like all their current guys,

and I didn't look like anybody who was

was a current contract star, to use that

word. Uh,

so they they finally dumped me, figuring

uh I wasn't headed anywhere. Get him

up. Move them out. But in January 1959,

he was headed somewhere to Sadelia with

20,000 head of cattle as rowdy Yates in

the CBS series Rawhide. Here, you can

have this wish mush. What was the matter

with it? Nothing. I didn't taste it.

Well, next time you don't want food,

don't draw any. I ain't cooking for

waste. Get off me, wishbone. I don't I

don't want to argue with you this

morning. No. Well, what's the matter?

Don't you feel good?

Matter of fact, my head feels like

someone's chopping wood on top of it.

Somebody con the head? Well, the pain is

more or less milling around inside. I

didn't sleep at all last night, you

know. Well, why didn't you say so in the

first place? Wait a second now. Nothing

in the bottle is going to fix me. Come

on, swallow it.

[Music]

A lot of people as soon as they get to

be in a series that's a success, they

can't wait to get out of it and they

think they're going to go on to bigger

and better things. And maybe that might

be the case. But, uh, for me, I wanted

to just learn as much as I could about

film. And after seven and a half or

eight years, you do a couple hundred

hours of show, you can pick up a lot on

it. It's nothing, Mr. B. I'm a little

busy. Yeah, sure. I must have got too

much done. Easy, boy. I'll get I'll get

back to my turn. No, you won't. Get on

back to the supply wagon. Mr. Fish, you

heard me. I was doing raw hide and I was

coming to a hiatus. Took a took three

months off usually around February,

March, and April every year. and they uh

my agent in Los Angeles called me up in

the William Morris office and asked me

if I would like to go to Europe and

uh make an Italian German Spanish

co-production of a remake of a Japanese

film in the plains of Spain and I I said

not particularly and Sergio Leone the

director of A Fistful of Dollars hadn't

particularly wanted Clint Eastwood not

to begin with at any rate he wanted

another

actor Kuru I really wanted James Cobin,

but he was too

expensive. The Italian cinema is very

poor. We got Clint for

$15,000. Cobin wanted

25,000. I didn't see any character in

raw hides, only a physical

figure. What struck me most about Clint

was his indolent way of moving.

It seemed to me closely resembled a cat.

The heart,

Ramon. Don't forget the heart.

Aim for the heart or you'll never stop

me.

[Music]

The script was in English. Um, very

strange English because it had been

written by an Italian uh group of people

who didn't

speak English that well or especially

English with what you'd call the western

kind of slang. It was like an Italian

concept of what a western slang would

be. So it a lot of the dialogue was a

little bit on the shaky side. So I I

liked it though and I felt that maybe a

European approach would give the western

a new flavor something because I thought

it had been in a very stagnant period at

that point. The part wasn't as spare as

that in the script. But uh to me the

more the character would get into

expository scenes and start explaining

things the more it would dissipate the

mystery of the character or the strength

of the character. So, we cut it down

very lean. Uh, and and Sergio Leone

agreed that we'd try to make this guy a

little bit unique. You're not quite sure

who he is. You're not even quite sure

he's the hero until 3/4 or halfway

through the film.

The greatest script writer of Westerns

was Homer. The archetypes of yesterday's

cowboys were Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon,

and Hector.

My idea was to bring back the Italian

comedia deli.

But more than the comedia delatte or

indeed Homer, Sergio Leone owed a

greater debt to the Japanese director

Akira Kurasawa. Leone bought the rights

to his film Yojimbo and based a fistful

of dollars on it. He deliberately wanted

James Cobin to play the Tashiro Mafuni

part. Cobin had already been in The

Magnificent 7, which was a western

remake of Curasawa's Seven Samurai.

Leon's first spaghetti western was

extremely faithful to Yojimbo. The

technique of following the protagonist's

back with the camera, the atmospheric

long shots, the music, the deliberately

slow pace interrupted with fast bursts

of action.

[Music]

Even the central character came from the

Japanese film for in Yojimbo Tiro Mafuni

originated the stranger with no name. My

sonro, my wife Arin, my four strongest

men, Motara, Yahachi, Matsukichi, and

Suko.

Oh, by the way, what's your name?

And quite apart from the characters and

techniques, the similarities between

Yojimbo and A fistful of dollars were

remarkably close.

[Music]

Get three coffins ready. Huh?

[Music]

Listen, stranger. Didn't you get the

idea? We don't like to see bad boys like

you in town. Go get your

mule. You let him get away from you.

See, my mule don't like people

laughing. It's the crazy idea you're

laughing at him.

[Music]

[Music]

Cooper, two coffins. No, maybe three.

My mistake, work often.

[Music]

They were definitely they definitely had

the satiric

undertone because uh I mean that was

just in the script. That's the way it

was. That's the way Yujimbo was the way

the original Japanese film was. So when

you say satiric, what is the satire on?

Well, it's it's probably a little bit of

the satire of the west of the hero

itself. the fact that he is only out for

his own

gain. Hence the title for a fist full of

he doesn't seem to be interested in

anything else except his own monetary

gain. Rubio, get the man.

You are well informed.

Man's life in these parts often depends

on a mere scrap of information. Your

brother's own words. Tell me, why are

you doing these for us?

$500.

The typical western done for many years

was a hero rides into town, sees school

marm on the porch of uh of

of the school, sees man beating horse.

Um the he interferes, hits man who's

beating horse and school marm looks and

you know darn well what's going to

happen at the end. you know, two people

are going to get together and it isn't

the guy and and the horse, you know. So,

that's kind of your your typical western

story. This one man rides in on on a 35

year old horse, very shabby looking. He

sees man kicking kid

uh sees woman obviously in a distraught

position at the house, obviously a

prisoner of sorts, and he turns and

rides off. I mean, it isn't this. Later

on, he helps that woman kid out, but

right away you say, "Now, wait a minute.

This has got to be something strange.

This can't be the hero. He doesn't have

a white hat and he's not doing the

normal things." To me, this is what made

it interesting is you you couldn't

predict the end of the film. And but in

some of the some of the positions we

were getting into for years, you could

pretty well predict the story. The

spaghetti westerns were made not in

Italy but here in Almaria in the south

of Spain with German money and American

star, a mixed crew including Spanish

technicians and at the helm an Italian

director. Communication was a little

rough. Uh I knew Riva Dercee and

Bonjouro and he knew goodbye and hello

and that was it. We had an interpreter

the first time then he learned a little

English and I learned a little Italian

and between little Spanish and we just

kind of fudged our way along.

My films are basically silent

films. The dialogue just adds some wit.

Again, working with Leone, I read an

interview once with Eli Wallik who'd

come and work with you in one of the

subsequent films, and he was saying that

you had to do some hazardous stunts. Oh,

yeah. I remember they were going to blow

up a 200 meter bridge, and they had

something like 1,800 lb of dynamite or

sigh. They had just tons of dynamite in

the thing. And

uh I said to Sergio, I said, "Where are

we going to be?" They had five cameras

on. And he says, "Well, you'll be down

here next to this first camera. You'll

crawl up here. And then just as you come

over the top where the camera is, the

the bridge will blow up behind you." And

I looked at the bridge and I looked at

the distance between and I said,

"Uh, I knew it was close. I thought it

was very close, too close." But I said,

rather than say, 'N no, I don't want to

do that. I said, Sergio, where are you

going to be? And he said, uh, oh. He

says, 'Well, I'll be right here, right

behind this camera waiting for you,

right? Were you? I said, fine. If you'll

be there, I said, then I'll do it. He

kind of did a long look at me. And all

of a sudden, I took a walk back and I

saw two guys coming up in in Wallock's

wardrobe and my wardrobe. And I said,

"Oh, you're going to use doubles. Why?

Why is that?" Well, Sergio has decided

he wants to be up on the hill so we can

get a better look. So, anyway, that's

kind of the way it was. And sure enough,

when the bridge did blow up, it sent uh

which it it blew up prematurely, too,

which is another another story. It's the

old anytime you're ready CB joke. But,

uh anyway, when they finally blew the

bridge up, rocks, stones were coming out

of the bridge, came up right almost

almost killed the assistant cameraman

right uh on the on the lower camera

where we would have been standing.

[Music]

My bridges tend to blow up.

Quite apart from the hazards occasioned

to the star of the spaghetti westerns,

many critics were worried about the

violence he visited on his victims.

Hello.

[Music]

Dillis Powell writes about films for the

Sunday Times.

I didn't care for them because I have a

strong prejudice in favor of the

American Western and I didn't care for

this translation of a Native American

thing to a European country and I found

their violence was a kind of

exploitation of violence. But somehow

through them all he he he really made

their success in a way this quiet not

very talkative figure a man with no name

riding quietly through suffering

terrible things but I think he was quite

already a remarkable and perhaps wasn't

sufficiently recognized. Well I think he

does express a new mood in movies and

certainly he expresses a new mood in in

American

life. Let let me see if I can put it

this way. The Bogart hero felt pain.

When he killed someone, he suffered from

it. And he was a man of experience. You

saw the lines of pain on his face. The

Eastwood

character does express

uh well, how can I put it? A new

emotionlessness about killing that

people feel is the truth. Now, it used

to be that that the man who stood for

high principles

uh was the man who was also the best

shot. Now, we no longer believe that in

order to be a great shot, you need

principles at all. And Clint Eastwood is

a totally unprincipled killer. Are you

ever appalled by violence and films that

you see? You you question if it doesn't

suit the situation. I'm appalled by

violence in films, but if it suits the

situation, you have to tell the drama.

the basis of drama is conflict and

uh and sometimes some films a certain

amount of violence is justified and some

films none is justified depends on the

story completely. I think after we did

the fist full of dollars and a few

dollars more and the good Italian

spaghetti westerns as you were calling

them they there was a hundred films that

came out that were twice as violent but

they didn't do as well. So you can't say

that that violence is what sells the

picture. Sure, it isn't. 10 years after

being dropped by Universal Studios, East

would return to Hollywood as a star,

greatly in demand to play either in

character as a fast shooting soldier in

Where Eagles Dare or out of character as

a love struck gold prospector in Paint

Your Wagon.

[Music]

But being a star wasn't enough. He felt

impotent and powerless as the cost of

the picture spiraled out of control.

It wasn't uh it wasn't the most smooth

running picture I've ever been on. And

for that reason, I think I started my

own company and figured I'd try to try

some other approaches at production

because you wanted total control of what

you were doing. Well, I wanted uh

control. I saw that film in four

different versions. was the director's

version, the the the producers version,

and then the coalition of all the studio

execs and their version. And all the

versions, the director's version, the

first one was actually the best one.

That wasn't the one that was

released. So, with a friend who'd been

an accountant at Universal, Robert Daly,

he formed his own company, Malpo

Productions, with their headquarters in

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios. And for

the past seven years, Eastwood has owned

every film he's made. The thing about

Clint that takes him above other stars

who are in the same rank as he is is

that he's never stopped learning this

business. Now, I know when he was going

on Raw Height for seven and a half

years, the tendency after you've been on

a show for a long time is to sit in your

dressing room to take it easy to do the

what is easiest to get a little bit lazy

because you get bored. But he was always

on the set, always observing. They had

different directors in every show

watching everything that went on

constantly asking questions for seven

and a half years. And so he's extremely

knowledgeable about the business. And

one of the things I noticed, he'll when

he and I formed this company together on

the business aspects, he would ask me a

question and he'd never ask the question

again because once he'd heard the

answer, he never forgot it. He learns

very quickly. And I would say he's one

of the top two, three, four directors in

the business right now. Don't you like

me?

You're a very nice girl. But who needs

nice girls? Eastwood made his debut as a

director with the story of a disc jockey

and a psychopathic girl. Play Misty for

me. And you don't want to complicate

your life. That's exactly right. Neither

do I. But that's no reason we shouldn't

sleep together tonight if we feel like

it.

It came as something of a surprise that

the man who had made his reputation as a

cold, emotionless killer should choose

for his first film as director a mystic

and romantic story. It certainly came as

a surprise to the studio executives.

I hate to tell you the problems I had

even getting the show made or started

because I had executives at Universal

ask me why uh why does Clint Eastwood

would uh who wants to see Clint East

would play a disc jockey and I said I

who wants to see him play anything

[Music]

but while Misty enjoyed a success in the

artous vast Commercial audiences that

followed Eastwood wanted to see him more

in character, treating women maybe a

little bit tougher. And in his second

film as director, High Plains Drifter,

he reverted to his less passionate self.

Why don't you watch where you're going?

Oh, look at this. It's ruined. There's

no need for all that. All what? If you

want to get acquainted, why don't you

just say so?

acquainted. Well, you'd be amusing if

you weren't so

pathetic. Just a minute. I'm not

finished with you

yet. You know, at a distance, you'd

almost pass for a man. That sure

certainly a disappointment up close,

aren't you?

Your feet, ma'am. They're almost as big

as your mouth.

You know what you are?

Just

trash. A bottle of whiskey for courage

and the manners of a goat.

You're the one who could use a lesson in

manners. Well, not from you, Whiskey

Breath. Let go of

me. Let

go. Let go of me.

It was similar to the technique of

Leone, but to many critics, the

apprentice had outstripped the sorcerer.

His overall style wasn't based on that

of any other director. I liked Wellman

for Roxbow, and I liked Ford for Quiet

Man, and I liked uh just depend on on on

the picture. I've never I've never

really been an affection out of one

particular guy. I've I've worked with a

lot of directors over the years in

television and so forth that were uh

that

were very knowledgeable and I learned a

lot from them and I also worked with

some that I didn't think were

knowledgeable and I learned a lot from

them. Eastwood got one of the best film

editors in Hollywood to cut High Plains

Drifter Ferris Webster. Well, I was

under contract to John Sturgis for 12

years and at his peak John has made some

beautiful pictures. Bad Day at Black

Rock and and Magnificent Seven Great

Escape. But then there was a period of

real real what what do you call them?

Dogs. They were awful

pictures. And uh Frankenheimer, I worked

with John. I did two very good pictures

with him. Uh Manurian candidate in Seven

Days in May. And then he went on a tear

and made for years he made no good

pictures. And they all seem to do that.

Clint is the only consistent one. As I

say, I I really cannot tell you a bad

picture he's

made. I thought the first picture he

directed, which I did not do. Play Misty

for me was a marvelous picture.

So, you put Clint in a category along

with Core and Frankenheimer and Stures

as a director. Yeah, I put him above him

really because I think he's a lot more

down to earth.

Well, he knows his craft.

Uh, I think that his greatest weakness

uh lies in the stories that he does. I

think if he had uh better stories, I

think he'd be a better director. I have

no fault of playing with the way he

moves his camera, etc.

I saw high plains drifting. I didn't

like it much.

You dirty

bastard. I'll kill you.

Damn it.

Wonder what it took us to get mad

because maybe you didn't go back for

more. Sure. You know where to look. In

his most recent western, the outlaw

Josie Wales, Eastwood establishes a

style very much his own. He starred in

it and directed it. To some people, a

lonely position. Zoom in. Little ray of

hope, man. You just can't believe it.

Really tired, John. Really shot. Sh. You

can relax. Okay. It's lonely in in in

that sense that you have to make the

final decisions, but I'm fairly good at

that. I'm I'm fairly decisive at that

for better or for worse. So, whether you

agree with the end result or not, I I'm

not afraid to put down what I have in my

mind. But you surround yourself with

very good people. So, it isn't lonely in

in that aspect. I mean, I try to not

only cast the actors that I use, but

also to cast everybody that that works

with you to make sure you have people

who have good input. And I like to

solicit input from everybody. Seagull

does the same thing. To me, the an actor

is involved with one component of the

film, every important component of the

film, but uh director's involved with

every component of the film. And that's

that's the difference. One is more or

less total film making as opposed to

just one segment. Yeah. Okay. Ready?

Yeah. You in the mood? Yeah.

Now, Chief, lean this way a little bit

more. We'll look out there, Chief. Down

there. Yes. Just to the right of the

rain. Yeah. Okay. And in Jersey Wales,

he portrays the West with an affection

and a realism far removed from the

spaghetti westerns. He continues the

mystic and romantic undertones of his

earlier films. And for the first time,

he reveals his most personal quality as

a man, his humor.

Howdy. Howdy. I'm getting better at

sneaking up on you like

this. Only an Indian can do something

like this.

That's what I figured. You

figured only an Indian could do

something like that.

If you were offered a choice of Oscars,

Oscar for best director or Oscar for

best actor, which would you

choose? It's really

a I don't know. I never have thought in

terms of

um Oscars because I've never been

involved in I mean I live away from town

and I've never been in a political

element so to speak.

Uh, I suppose a director, I think

directing is much more gratifying. He's

an extremely mediocre director. He

really doesn't know how to dramatize

material. The sequences don't build. The

films he directs feels very long because

there's a static dead feeling in them

and a passionless

uh quality to them. I think he has

complete control of the medium. Jersey

seems to me to be beautifully

conceived, splendidly controlled. The

the narrative moves in absolutely the

right rhythm and the right direction. It

doesn't wander off. I think uh the

outlaw Josie Wales is perhaps an

improvement. Although as a director

Eastwood now commands worldwide respect,

as an actor, he's still relatively

unaclaimed. Perhaps the legacy of

Rawhidede and the spaghetti westerns has

blinded critics to any progress he may

have made. He's relatively philosophical

about it.

I suppose everybody' like to see

uh people in print say something

flattering about him. But you you've got

to realize a lot of people didn't

understand those films at that time. And

a lot of people the only people who seem

to understand them was the public. The

public seemed to catch on to them right

away. They seem to enjoy them obviously.

That was a reason they did well. Just a

waste of goody. Don't move any of

your left tenant.

No, I I'd advise you not to, Colonel.

After playing the loner for so long, it

wasn't easy for Eastwood to co-star here

safe and sound enjoying a drink. I'm

sorry to interrupt you. Lieutenant, drop

that gun. What? Drop that gun and sit

down.

What the hell are you talking about? Sit

down. In Where Eagles Dare, for

instance, he and Richard Burton lacked

the rapport of, say, Redford and Newman.

It was more of a clash of styles.

Major, if I live to be a 100. Nothing,

Lieutenant.

In your own idom, you're a punk and a

pretty second rate punk at that.

I was fascinated to watch his particular

kind of behavior and his movements.

There's a certain line of American

actors who are immensely different from

British actors and he is in the great

line of shall we say Spencer Tracy or

James Stewart or Bob Mitchum. They have

a kind of uh dynamic lethargy. They

appear to do nothing and they do

everything. And certainly Clint in this

particular picture the only time I've

worked with him and I hope that of

course I will work with him again now

that he's so fantastically important

then maybe he'll give me a job. Um

uh it was uh very instructive actually

to watch Clint move around these

so-called classical actors because um he

reduced everything to an absolute

minimum.

uh if he had I remember for instance he

had perhaps a four-line

speech and he reduced it to four words

and it was enormously effective much

more effective than if he spoken the

four lines and I'm afraid he used me a

bit in those days he u he allowed me to

do all the talking the script was very

strange script with lots of exposition

in fact even the character I played had

tremendous amounts of exposition we'd

stop and we'd talk for hours about

what's going going to happen and the

director and I felt that that was very

impractical and so we'd let Richard's

character handle the exposition and he

has beautiful speaking voice and and

he's very good at that sort of thing and

I would handle the shooting of which

they felt I was very good

[Music]

at but prudently since Where Eagles

Dare, he's rejected multi-star pictures

and done what he's best at, playing the

loner like Inspector Harry Callahan.

Dirty Harry, hero of Magnum Force in the

Enforcer. Don Seagull directed the first

one. I found that uh he was very

knowledgeable and vastly underrated as

an actor. Uh the hardest thing in the

world is to do nothing and he does it

very well.

He gives the impression uh that all the

other actors are overacting.

Acting isn't just rolling on the floor

and screaming and yelling. Uh though

that's more sensational much as when a

tap dancer is crossing his hands like

this and jumping up and down. It looks

more sensational when Fred a stair is

doing a very subtle uh step.

subtlety

is often isn't as appreciated maybe as

somebody breaking into tears and ranting

and raving. It just

a a lot of times people think you're not

acting but you cannot carry an audience

for a couple hours with the film unless

you're concentrated on what you're

doing. Well, I think he's barely an

actor at all. That is he has minimal

resources. But that doesn't necessarily

matter for a screen actor. Too many

players, actors and actresses react too

much. And I think this the cinema hero

on the whole should not react

enormously. One can't you know the the

great players Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper

have not um really shown enormous

emotional reactions. And I think that it

is one of his strong qualities that he

presents this almost impassive figure

who yet reacts in action. Well, uh, from

one standpoint, uh, looking at his bank

account, I'd say he was, uh, brilliant.

But it isn't just Eastwood's acting that

is a cause for criticism. Even the roles

he chooses to play come under scrutiny,

especially the maverick cop, Dirty

Harry. This is the 44 Magnum, the most

powerful handgun in the world, and it

could blow your head clean

off. Do you feel

lucky? You must realize that that

political attitudes are carried and and

very intentionally carried in some of

these films. I mean, the the John Wayne

films and the Clint Eastwood films made

during the the Nixon era and

particularly the heyday of the Nixon era

were carrying the line for for a

political position in this country and

those pictures were very definitely

shaped in those directions. It is not

merely that these people express certain

attitudes offscreen. Their scripts are

shaped in terms of what those stars

believe.

Uh-uh. I know what you're thinking,

Punk. You're thinking, did he fire six

shots or only

five? Now, to tell you the truth, I

forgot myself in all this

excitement. But being this is a 44

Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the

world and will blow your head clean

off, you've got to ask yourself a

question. Do I feel lucky?

Well, do you punk?

I thought that his relish when he killed

the man who stood for all liberal

principles rolled into one plus all evil

rolled into one. you know, the man who

was an absolutely maniac of a killer but

wore a peace button. So that dirty Harry

stood for all the all the rightwing

forces in American life. Uh that that

relish that that that Eastwood showed

about killing uh I found offensive

because we're all appalled by violence

and all critics say how perfectly awful

it is. But when violence is turned

against violence, we all become

extremely immoral about it and say, "Oh,

no, we can't we can't have the people

taking the law into their own hands."

That they're not a man who stands for

violence. They're men who can't

understand the society tolerating

violence and violence perpetrated

against it. And when the first Dirty

Harry came out, it was at a time when an

awful lot of films had been done

concerning the um concerning the rights

of the accused. And all of a sudden

there came a film along where somebody

was concerned with the victim and the

rights of the victim and the comfort of

the victim. And then so somebody called

that fascist. Well, I don't think it's

fascist. And he was just a man who

didn't understand. He didn't understand.

He says in the picture, he says he has a

scene with the with the district

attorney where he says, "Well, if that's

the law, if a man can be set out on the

streets on a technicality like that,

then the law is wrong." You're lucky I'm

not indicting you for assault with

intent to commit murder.

What? Where the hell does it say you've

got a right to kick down doors, torture

suspects, deny medical attention and

legal counsel? Where have you been?

What I'm saying is that man had rights.

Well, I'm all broken up about that man's

rights. You should be. I've got news for

you, Callahan. As soon as he's well

enough to leave the hospital, he walks.

What are you talking about? He's free.

You're letting him go? We have to. We

can't try him. And why is that? Because

I'm not wasting a half a million dollars

of the taxpayers's money on a trial we

can't possibly win.

The problem is we don't have any

evidence. Evidence? What the hell do you

call that? I call it nothing. Zero.

Are you trying to tell me the ballistic

can't match the bullet up to this rifle?

It does not matter what ballistics can

do. This rifle might make a nice

souvenir, but it's inadmissible as

evidence. And who says that? It's the

law. Well, then the law is crazy. I

think that is

a a kind of reflection of a feeling in

society that sometimes the law doesn't

act firmly enough. I'm against it. I

mean morally one one disapproves of any

single person or single section of

society acting as its own lawgiver. We

ourselves, Great Britain and the United

States have imposed our feelings on

other people. After World War II, we

went to Nerburgg and we tried uh members

of uh of the party in Germany at that

time, we we tried them and convicted

them for not adhering to a higher

morality. Well, that's the way Dirty

Harry is. He's listens to a higher

morality above the law. And he feels if

the law is wrong, that he he should

fight that or try to try to solve it.

We're simply ridding society of killers

that would be caught and sentenced

anyway if our courts worked properly.

But even Harry was eclipsed in the

sequel Magnum Force, where he was

confronted by a group of young policemen

totally committed to upholding the law

by violent, even ruthless means. It's

not just a question of whether or not to

use violence.

There simply is no other way.

Inspector, you of all

people should understand

that. Either you're for us or you're

against us.

[Music]

I'm afraid you've misjudged me. Anyone

who threatens the security of the people

will be executed. Evil for evil, Harry.

Retribution. That's just fine. How does

murder fit in? You know what? Police

start becoming their own executioners.

Where's it going to end? Huh, Briggs?

Pretty soon you start executing people

for jaywalking and executing people for

traffic violation. Then you end up

executing your neighbor cuz his dog

pisses on your lawn.

There isn't one man we've killed who

didn't deserve what was coming to him.

Yes, there is. Charlie McCoy. Now what

would you have done? I'd have upheld the

law. What the hell do you know about the

law? You're a great cop, Harry. You had

a chance to join the team, but you'd

rather stick to the system. Rigs, I hate

the goddamn system, but until someone

comes along with some changes that make

sense, I'll stick with it. You're about

to become extinct.

You have a worldwide image as this super

cool, ruthless, occasionally violent,

very often humilous man that you play in

many of your films. How much is that

like you?

Um, I guess there's certain elements of

me and every character you play. They're

not obviously I'm not those people and I

don't necessarily even believe like

those people do or but I believe they

how they do for the moment. Uh, there

there also a lot of humor involved in

films that I've been involved in and I I

I like humor. I like to laugh. I like to

watch people laugh.

Hi.

Oh,

hi. What's your name? Sunny.

You know, I've been living here almost 6

months now. It's funny. I've never met

you before. Oh, well, I work a lot. I

know. You're the cop who lives upstairs.

That's right. Mind if I ask you a

question?

Go ahead. What does a girl have to do to

go to bed with you?

Try knocking on the door. In the summer

of 1976, Eastwood returned to the

streets of San Francisco. He's

completing the trio of dirty Harry

films, the final ones called The

Enforcer. On the set, he's able to

switch from the Lethal and Laconic

Detective to his usual sunny self with

ease. His Bonomy is legendary among the

production team.

Working in a parking lot gives you a lot

of experience with that sort of thing.

[Music]

your normal San Francisco driver on

Saturday night. I uh driving his

limousine back to the Villa Roma.

Although he chooses not to direct the

picture, he owns it. He's appointed Jim

Fargo, his assistant on Josie Wales as

director, but he still brings his power

and his instinct to bear, especially

when the script is too wordy.

See, the whole thing just goes on and on

and on for stuff that doesn't Main No, I

agree. You can dump all this. What does

he What does he want? He wants a car.

We'll give him one. Yeah. This is kind

of like a mini uh Uganda Uganda raid.

See, most film stars know when they've

delivered a line, right? With his

experience behind the camera, Eastwood

knows how to time an action right.

Let me do one more. I anticipated that

shot too much. And for that reason, he

very often does his own stunts. For the

Aigger sanction, he went out and trained

and learned to mountain climb in order

to give the film

[Music]

authenticity. He came down to earth with

a splash in Hangam High. And in Dirty

Harry, he leapt from a bridge onto a

moving bus. Not a great feat of heroism,

but enough to give the insurance company

a few worries.

As an actor, you have genuinely done

your own stunts. She did this amazing

jump from the bridge in Dirty Harry. Wh

Why do you do that when there are stunt

men who are presumably paid to do so?

Excuse me, I got

to Excuse me. Just a little

sneeze. Stunts always make me sneeze.

Um because we were we had the camera on

the bus. The only way to do it was to to

and see you leap right into the camera,

they're going to know who it is. Uh it

just seems like if it's a logical stunt

and it isn't ridiculous, something that

uh is putting the whole company in

jeopardy, why not? In the enforcer, the

stunt man may be paid to fall through

the skylight, but the star isn't. He

approaches the prospect cautiously.

He just graz

How much further you want to go? Is he

all right? Yeah, he's all right. Square

it up. where they're putting the camera.

This side here I know is going to follow

him in. Kick it out before you go. I

don't think I don't think that'll go. I

think that'll stay there. Yeah. And it

could hit him on the nog and and it's

heavy. It really is heavy. If I were

going to jump through there, I'd kick

that stuff out. What I would do is

forget this camera and and shoot this

shot later when you're down more. And

you can have me drop in with the pieces

there. I I'd rather not drop in on the

pieces. Those pieces there. Yeah. Well,

let's not do it then. But you can set

another camera in here where you're down

towards everything and we can just jump

in next to it. Maybe a little lesser of

a jump. Okay.

Got it. Good.

You never really know how you're going

to do those things.

God, don't let him kill me. He wants the

goddamn car right now. In the enforcer,

Eastwood confronts a gang who've robbed

a liquor store and taken the staff

hostage. They want a getaway car. For

God's sakes, Mr. Do like you said.

This is my best sport. I said get your

ass on the floor, you dirty son of a

[ __ ] Spread eagle. Move it.

After putting up with the gang's threats

and humiliations, Eastwood, or rather

Inspector Harry Callahan, decides to

carry out their wishes to the letter.

Run, give ass bastard. What do they

want? I want a car.

What are you going to do?

Give him one.

[Applause]

Son of a [ __ ]

[Music]

[Music]

Everything is a figment of the

imagination. It's It's the It's the

character you're telling at the moment.

It's all It's all fakery. Do you shoot a

gun, for instance? Go hunting or

anything like that? I don't hunt, but I

target shoot a gun. Yeah, I have uh I

have a gun range up in the valley that I

on a piece of property that I own and uh

I go out there and shoot now and then.

What about relaxing? What do you do to

relax?

Well, what I do to relax normally just

come here. I normally don't. Sometimes I

have guests, sometimes not. And I'll uh

this is where I think best. This is

where I work best. I may go up in the

mountain somewhere, hike off. I'll play

a little tennis or golf, something like

that with some friends. It's kind of

relaxing. Were you always very relaxed?

Um, didn't you at one stage use

transcendental meditation to relax? Did

you find that? just a personal tool that

a lot of people use to relax that I've

always been relaxed on the surface. I'm

not necessarily relaxed

within. I mean my I'm physically relaxed

but sometimes my mental motor will be

going at twice the speed as it appears

on the surface. And that's that uh

sometimes in order to get them both down

to the same level you can sit and

meditate whatever form of meditation is.

It might just be sitting out on that

rock there watching the sea otterters or

whatever. you shy away from the more

traditional Hollywood star life. Why is

that?

I don't know. I just I just I couldn't

really tell you. I just um I I don't

enjoy the the I'm not a social type

person as a rule. I enjoy it

occasionally, but uh not on a on a

regular thing. I live up here where the

air is cleaner and

uh up I see movies at the local cinema

in town and they uh I watch them with

people who are not involved with uh the

cinema business and so I see how they

react and I I feel I get a better look

at what uh what reality is around me and

and and maybe in most the average town

across the across the world and most

certainly it's this knowledge this

instinct for what the average cinema

goer wants to see that has brought

brought eastward to his present position

as one of the most potent filmmakers

around. The spaghetti westerns are

behind him now and he won't make another

dirty Harry. So what the future holds

could be interesting. He doesn't really

need much of anything. He could if he

everything failed him today and he had

to go back to digging swimming pools as

he was doing 25 years ago. He could do

it with very little problems. He would

have not have to make any major

adjustments in his life's his own

personal philosophy. He could do it. one

reviews him in terms of what he does on

the screen. I know very very little

about him beyond that and what comes

across on the screen is a man with a

very narrow range of emotions. Now the

Clint Eastwood off the screen may be a

very affable man. In fact, the laugh

lines on his face uh which make him

resemble Shirley Mlane at times suggest

that he's probably a very genial person.

He's he's got that indefinable something

that is uh the best in America. I think

uh we sort of look up to him. He's

cleancut. Uh he's strong. He's resolute.

He's honest. I don't mean to be uh you

know sackcharin about it, fatuous about

it, but he's a kind of chap that that

certainly at my age uh I'd like my son

to turn out like Clint. I have lost

never met him. would greatly like to

meet him and see where he he diverges

and this solitary figure riding a quiet

horse which one sees on the

screen. One does of course one does

equate the actor with the people he

plays more in the cinema I suppose than

in any other art because in the cinema

the range is limited by popular

demand. If uh Clint Eastwood wanted to

play Hamlet, I think that the cinema

public would be extremely indignant. You

see, they like seeing him. I do too.

They like seeing him as this solitary

creature, this avenging figure or this

becoming a romantic figure. Clint's face

has developed a kind of torment and a

torture that he didn't have, shall we

say, 10 years ago when he was uh simply

a a golden

boy. There's a there's a a strain in his

face now that is absolutely fascinating.

You you have to just keep grinding until

the talent, the the hard work, the

effort to learn, and the good luck all

come together at one time. And when they

do, then you then you're all right.

I tell you my

dream. And while you're listening to

me, I suddenly see

him come true.

What did you say your name was again?

I didn't