The Best Forgotten Clint Eastwood Movies From Each Decade Of His Career (1950s

With a career that has spanned 70 years, it only makes sense that some great Clint Eastwood movies have been forgotten along the way. Thanks to Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, Clint became the last true movie star of the Western era. However, it was thanks to the Dirty Harry franchise that he evolved into a true A-lister, and in the decades that followed, an icon.

Eastwood is also one of the most prolific actor/directors in the business. Once his career took off, there was rarely a year that didn’t have at least one new Clint Eastwood movie, either as an actor or director. This work ethic has produced many classics (The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven) and a few duds (Blood Work), but his hit-to-miss ratio is remarkably high. It also means that some solid movies have flown under the radar or been forgotten entirely.

1950s: Tarantula

Like every major star, Eastwood had to scrap by with bit parts and uncredited appearances during his early career. That includes this entertaining and surprisingly creepy monster flick from 1955. Tarantula was helmed by Creature from the Black Lagoon director Jack Arnold, and as the title suggests, features the titular giant spider terrorizing a desert town.

It was part of a wave of 1950s creature features, but since Arnold was something of an auteur of the genre, it holds up quite well. Clint fans hoping he plays the square-jawed hero are in for a disappointment though, since his role is uncredited and his face is hidden behind a mask.

That said, Eastwood plays the jet pilot responsible for bombing the rampaging tarantula in the finale, so his role is still key. While not a classic, Tarantula is a treat for genre fans, with its special effects still being impressive 70 years on.

1960s: Hang ‘Em High

Hang ‘Em High was Clint Eastwood’s first American-produced Western, and the first test of his star power outside the Dollars trilogy. The result is a gritty, complex Western where his character survives an attempted hanging by a posse and proceeds to hunt his would-be executioners.

Instead of a cathartic shoot ’em up where Eastwood blows away bad guys, this 1968 “Oater” takes a long, harsh look at Frontier justice and the death penalty. It offers no easy answers, and suggests that Eastwood’s lawman is getting no real catharsis as he drags in members of the posse for execution.

Hang ‘Em High was a comfortable hit for Eastwood, but it has been overshadowed by his other Westerns. The biggest flaw of the movie is the pedestrian direction by TV helmer Ted Post, and it lacks the style and invention of the Spaghetti Westerns it’s emulating.

By 1974, Eastwood was riding high. He had two Dirty Harry movies under his belt, plus he’d made the move behind the camera with films like High Plains Drifter. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot saw him experimenting with his screen image, and this comedy thriller sees his thief teaming up with a young protégé (played by Jeff Bridges) to pull off a major score.

The movie is also notable for being the directorial debut of Michael Cimino, helmer of The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot has aged badly in certain regards (especially in its treatment of female characters) but it’s a charming thriller that also ends with an unexpected gutpunch.

Eastwood is great in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, but the film is absolutely stolen by Jeff Bridges. The movie was proof positive that Bridges was destined for bigger things, and the Academy Award nod he received was well-earned.

1980s: Tightrope

A year prior to the release of Tightrope, Clint spouted the iconic “Make my day” in Sudden Impact, the fourth Dirty Harry outing. Audiences may have walked into 1984’s Tightrope expecting another tough cop actioner from Clint; what they got is a disturbing psychosexual serial killer movie where Eastwood’s detective has to reckon with his own inner darkness.

Tightrope can’t really be labeled an erotic thriller since it lacks the spiciness of something like Basic Instinct, but it explores similar terrority. It’s ultimately a character study of Eastwood’s family man detective, whose hidden life of visiting sex workers becomes part of his latest case.

It’s a murky, muggy thriller, where Clint plays very much against type. Sure, it has chases and a final showdown with the killer, but Dirty Harry it most certainly is not. While not exactly a light watch, Tightrope is one of Eastwood’s most neglected thrillers from the 1980s.

1990s: Absolute Power

After the success of Unforgiven, Eastwood pivoted into roles that still saw him kicking ass whilst also acknowledging his advancing years. 1997’s Absolute Power falls into that category, where he plays a thief who happens to witness the POTUS (played by Gene Hackman) accidentally killing his lover. Needless to say, the President’s men soon make moves to silence him.

Based on a novel of the same name, Absolute Power is the kind of adult thriller that rarely gets a major release anymore. Its cast is unbelievable (Ed Harris! Laura Linney! Judy Davis!) and Eastwood directs with an assured hand. Absolute Power is somewhat leisurely paced, which might put off fans of shows like 24 or Reacher, but it’s still an absorbing ride.

It’s best not to go into the movie expecting Clint to blow away bad guys with a big gun, either. It’s more of a character study for Eastwood, where his thief confronts his own moral line and pushes himself to do the right thing – even if it puts him against the U.S. government.

2000s: Letters From Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima is a companion film to Eastwood’s own war drama, Flags of Our Fathers, which explored the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of American soldiers. Eastwood understood that a balanced look at this conflict needed to explore the Japanese side too, and convinced Warner Bros to fund this semi-sequel that arrived a few months after Flags of Our Fathers.

Letters from Iwo Jima is probably one of Eastwood’s most obscure films, and that’s a genuine shame. It’s one of his biggest swings as a filmmaker, being a Japanese-language drama that puts a human face on the other side of the conflict. The movie was better received than its companion film, too, with particular praise being given to Ken Watanabe’s stunning lead performance.

Despite performing well in Japan, Letters from Iwo Jima was a total bomb during its U.S. release. It’s a true gem from Eastwood’s career, and very worthy of rediscovery.

2010s: Sully: Miracle on the Hudson

Eastwood largely stepped away from acting during the 2010s to focus on directing. This didn’t slow down his workload, with many of his movies being based on real-life events. One of his most purely entertaining outings from his period is Sully: Miracle on the Hudson, with Tom Hanks playing Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who in 2009 performed an emergency landing of his commercial flight onto the Hudson River.

Sully’s actions and those of his co-pilot ensured all 155 passengers onboard survived, with the film depicting this landing and the NTSB investigation that followed. Despite being a critical and commercial hit in 2016, Sully has slipped from cultural memory, despite being an immensely satisfying drama.

Hanks and co-star Aaron Eckhart are fantastic, and at a tight 96 minutes, it zips along. Despite being a total distortion of reality, the closing investigation scenes are still thrilling to watch as Sully casually dismantles the case against him.

2020s: Juror No. 2

Juror No. 2 is Eastwood’s most recent movie, and could be his last. The movie overperformed after Warners (rather shamefully) barely gave it a release. The movie is a complex moral drama about a man who, after being called to be a juror in a murder case, realizes he might actually be responsible for the death in question.

Despite being in his 90s when he helmed the movie, Eastwood’s direction here is completely assured. The story asks difficult questions about the nature of justice and guilt, and offers no easy answers. Juror No. 2 also gave Nicholas Hoult a star vehicle worthy of his talents. Proving he’s way more than just a pretty boy actor, Hoult gets to dive deep with his flawed protagonist.

Juror No. 2 was well-received, but it was deserving of far more attention than it got. It’s an unflashy and well-acted morality play, and one that proved Clint Eastwood still had it after 70 years in the game.

Birthdate

May 31, 1930

Birthplace

San Francisco, California, USA

Height

6 feet 4 inches

Professions

Actor, Director, Producer, Composer