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Clint Eastwood must be one of Hollywood’s more successful octogenarian directors. In the last ten years he has won a second Academy Award double of Best Director and Best Picture for Million Dollar Baby (in addition to the one he achieved with the brilliant Unforgiven in 1992), and been nominated in both categories on two further occasions. In Hilary Swank and Sean Penn, Eastwood has also presided over performances worthy of both Best Actress and Best Actor Oscars. He also made the well-received Space Cowboys.
It is incredible to think that after such a long and illustrious career, Eastwood is still very much at the top of his game. Whilst it was within the relative safety of the Western genre (with Unforgiven) that he found success as a director, with his more recent films Eastwood has not been afraid to experiment with a range of subjects and eras in such films as Changeling and Invictus.
In spite of the diverse themes that his films have showcased, they often share the kind of understated and deliberate style that he uses in his acting. Some of his best scenes are his most simple, as he focuses upon the actors and their delivery, using mainly close-ups or two-shots.
Such techniques are used most effectively in the brooding and thoughtful Mystic River, where Eastwood’s stripped-back style ensures that the film isn’t simply a run-of-the-mill crime drama, but rather a careful look at the relationships between the film’s three childhood friends and their wives under the strain of a murder investigation. Whilst Sean Penn’s despair at finding out his daughter has been murdered is certainly moving, it is the subtler deterioration of trust in the film’s relationships that proves more compelling as the film heads towards its calamitous climax.
Eastwood developed upon his understated style in his follow up to Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby. The film exudes simplicity, as much of the action takes place in a rundown gym, home to the similarly rundown Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, who are roused out of their semi-retirement by the unassuming Hilary Swank. Eastwood’s and Swank’s subtle performances make what could have easily been an overwrought and sentimental film into a touching yet measured affair.
Eastwood’s attempts to not ‘overdo’ a scene have even led to him providing the score for several of his films, including Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino. Eastwood’s shunning of an orchestra underlines his meticulous nature and further shows his desire not to allow his work to develop into melodrama. The piano at the end of Gran Torino enters almost apologetically and insists that the events of the final scene are not overblown to heroism but are instead the actions of a tired, old man.
Even in his bigger budgeted films, such as Changeling and Invictus, which painstakingly recreate life in 1920s Los Angeles and the 1995 Rugby World Cup in post-Apartheid South Africa respectively, still have careful character studies at their heart. It is little surprise that Eastwood’s insistence on having character-driven drama has thus produced so many Oscar nominations for his actors.
Whilst Clint may have left his own acting days behind him, he shows no sign of giving up his career as a director. His latest film, Hereafter, is set for release in the UK at the end of January- although it has received mixed removes in America. However, his next project, a biopic on J. Edgar (titled simply J. Edgar), will star the ever-dependable Leonardo Di Caprio, which hopefully spells a return to form for the Hollywood legend.
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