Clint Eastwood The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work

Clint Eastwood is Hollywood’s elder statesman and its conscience. He is the standard by which other films and filmmakers are judged. He represents both classical Hollywood and an entirely modern, uncompromising and unfussy directorial presence.

There are those who adore him as a cowboy, a superstar, the rugged, unyielding yet introspective face of American machismo. There are those who read him as a great American auteur fashioning uncompromising, fascinating, intellectual films about his country, about life, about whatever the hell takes his fancy.
 
No single figure in all of Hollywood, operates so freely outside of the strictures of commercial pressure. And yet, or perhaps that is because, he makes hit after hit.
 
Separation of actor and director is almost impossible. They are intimately related, cross pollinating, but he has become in the latter half of his career to be view as one of the great American artists. While drawing connections from his wider work as an actor, and those who have influenced him, it is his identity as a director that this book will celebrate.
 
This is not a career — it is a landscape.

INTRODUCTION
 
1. THE UNLIKELY SUPERSTAR (1930-1971)
 
The early years and how they informed the director to come.
 
Including: acting school, Rawhide (directing elements), the influences of Sergio and Don
 
2. THE DIRECTOR EMERGES  (1971-1975)
 
Play Misty For Me (1971), Dirty Harry (scenes) (1971), High Plains Drifter (1973), Breezy (1973), The Eiger Sanction (1975)
 
3. FOCUS: A NEW KIND OF WESTERN (1976)
 
The story of The Outlaw Josey Wales
 
4. AMERICAN STORYTELLER (1977-1983)
 
The Gauntlet (1977), Bronco Billy (1980), Firefox (1982), Honkytonk Man (1982), Sudden Impact (1983)
 
5. THE MAYOR (1984-1990)
 
Tightrope (uncredited) (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), Bird (1988), White Hunter Black Heart (1990), The Rookie (1990)
 
6. FOCUS: THE LAST RIDE (1992)
 
The greatness of Unforgiven
 
7. THE ICON (1993-2003)
 
A Perfect World (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Absolute Power (1997), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), True Crime (1998), Space Cowboys (1999), Blood Work (2002), Mystic River (2003)
 
8. FOCUS: AMERICAN SOUL (2006)
 
The emotional triumph of Million Dollar Baby (2004)
 
9. THE ELDER STATESMAN (2006-2011)
 
Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Changeling (2008), Gran Torino (2008), Invictus (2009), Hereafter (2010)
 
10. THE UNQUENCHABLE FLAME (2011-2021)
 
J. Edgar (2011), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014), Sully (2016), The 17.17 to Paris (2018), The Mule (2018), Richard Jewell (2019), Cry Macho (2021)