Top 5 – Clint Eastwood Movies

Clint Eastwood is a Hollywood icon.  From his days as The Man With No Name to two-time Oscar winner, he has established himself as a great actor and great director.  This weekend, Eastwood’s latest effort as a director, Sully, comes out.  So in honor of that, here are the best Clint Eastwood movies.

And for this list, I focused only on the films that Eastwood directed (though he appears in a few of these).

5 – LETTER’S FROM IWO JIMA (2006)

In 2006, Eastwood released two films chronicling the battle of Iwo Jima.  The first, Flags of Our Fathers, showed the story of the American solders who raised the flag after the victory and Letters from Iwo Jima looks at the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.  While Flags is a solid movie, Letters is far superior in every way.  This is a harrowing, heartbreaking look from a perspective nobody really thinks about.  Ken Watanabe is incredible as the doomed General who keeps on fighting a battle he knows they cannot win.  With Eastwood behind the camera, the movie is expertly crafted and balances the riveting war scenes with moments of raw emotion.  This is the most underrated Eastwood movie and one of the best War movies of all-time.

4 – GRAN TORINO (2008)

Gran Torino shows the best of Eastwood both as an actor and as a director.  Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a disgruntled and racist Korean War veteran who tries to reform his Hmong neighbor (Bee Vang) after he tries to steal Walt’s prized 1972 Gran Torino.  Eastwood is sensational as Walt, giving the best performance of his career in years.  He is a fully realized character with a full arc that we can relate to and sympathize with.  The screenplay is perfect and is one about redemption, friendship, and life.  It is oddly funny, dark, moving, and entertaining movie featuring great direction from Eastwood and one of his best performances ever.

3 – MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004)

Million Dollar Baby is one of the five saddest movies I have ever seen.  It is a film that starts off as a standard boxing movie and takes a hard left turn that will shock the hell out of you.  Eastwood once again stars as Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer who takes a determined female boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), under his wing.  They rise to the top of the boxing ranks before tragedy strikes, changing both their lives forever.  Eastwood plays his classic tough guy persona, but turns in some of his most emotional scenes ever in the last third.  Swank rightly won her second Oscar for her physical performance and Morgan Freeman, who plays Frankie’s best friend and co-worker, finally won his long overdue Oscar, as well.  This Best Picture winner is one that will rip your heart out.

2 – UNFORGIVEN (1992)

If John Wayne was King of the Western, Eastwood is the Prince.  Having established himself as The Man with No Name and Josey Wales, he took over the reigns after Wayne left the genre and kept it alive in the 70’s.  When the genre hit a low in the 80’s, Eastwood reinvented and revitalized it with Unforgiven.  This is a chilling look at an old, retired gunslinger (Eastwood) who takes on a job to kill a corrupt officer (Oscar winner Gene Hackman).  This is the darkest Western I have ever seen, with some shocking violence and a real grittiness unlike any before it.  This was also the film that established Eastwood as a great director, having won Best Picture and Best Director at that year’s Oscars.  This is one of the greatest Western’s of all-time and the launching point for Eastwood as a serious director.

1 – MYSTIC RIVER (2003)

Since I can remember, I have always had a unique taste in movies that were different than most of my friends.  When Mystic River came out, I was fifteen.  No other fifteen year old, that I was aware of, had any interest in the film, let alone heard of it.  So, I did something no fifteen year old would think of doing; I went and saw the movie by myself.  It was the first time I’d ever done it, but not the last.  That isn’t the reason why it is number one, but it does help, as the movie was significant in my cinematic career.  From the first time I saw it to all the countless re-watches over the years, Mystic River has established itself as a true masterpiece.  This is a cold, complex, moving film about family, friendship, murder, revenge, and how the past can impact your future, all woven into a murder mystery.  We get career best performances from Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon, as well as Eastwood’s best effort as a director.  The movie is great to look at and he keeps the mystery tight and interesting, giving us a shocking payoff at the end.  Mystic River is one of the twenty greatest movies I have ever seen and the best movie Clint Eastwood has ever made.

What are you favorite Clint Eastwood movies?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix.  And make sure to LIKE Kevflix on Facebook!