Birthday of the Patriarch of American cinema
Clint Eastwood, the oldest of the now surviving great directors of American cinema, was born on May 31, 1930. Clint Eastwood is perhaps the only filmmaker in the United States who can be called a "real American" or even a "Native American", as his family tree counts from William Bradford, one of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, which moored the shores of America in 1620 year. 12 generations of Clint Eastwood's ancestors lived in the United States.
Clinton Elias Eastwood, Jr. was born in San Francisco, in a family that has nothing to do with theater or cinema. He studied poorly in high school, and did not differ in exemplary behavior. For various hooliganism, he was repeatedly expelled from school. Some classmates expressed doubts that he even managed to finish high school. Reliable information about the study of Eastwood in high school is not available, or rather, they are subject to strict confidentiality. But then it is reliably known that by the age of 21 he had tried himself in various professions: bodyguard, courier, grocery delivery man, forest fireman, golf caddy.
In 1951, he tried to enter the University of Seattle, but instead of a student bench, he ended up in the US Army. Based on the fact that the United States conducted military operations on the Korean Peninsula that year, many believe that Eastwood participated in the Korean War. But no. Eastwood's entire army service was held at Fort Ord military base in California. In the army, Eastwood's behavior, like in school, was not disciplined. After one of the AWs to Seattle, where Clint flew on a date with a girlfriend, a bomber piloted by Eastwood's friend fell into the ocean. Clint with a friend-pilot had to swim to the coast on a liferaft more than 3 kilometers.
It is difficult to say how the future of Clint Eastwood would have happened, but it so happened that in the same place, on the military base of Fort Ord, shooting of the series in the genre of "Rawhide" was held. One of the crew members, a certain Chuck Hill, drew attention to Eastwood, which is understandable, given his almost two-meter height. Chuck Hill managed to organize in 1954 a meeting between Eastwood and director Arthur Lubin. The director was also impressed by Clint Eastwood's external data, but given the complete lack of acting experience and the presence of some diction defect - the manner of speaking through his teeth - sent him to drama courses. Eastwood never got rid of the manner of speaking through his teeth, but made her his own corporate identity. And in 1955, Clint Eastwood's acting debut took place. In three films, Eastwood starred in episodes, without an indication in the credits, but in one - “Francis in the Navy” - directed by Arthur Lubin, Clint received a very solid role, albeit not the main one. So began the cinematic career of Clint Eastwood.
For a long time, or rather, 16 years, Clint Eastwood was known exclusively as an actor, mainly in Western films. Thanks to these roles, Eastwood was recognized in the United States as an "icon of masculinity," which remains to this day, despite his advanced age. In 1971, Clint Eastwood's directorial debut took place in the movie "Play Misty for Me". He somehow
"hinted that one of the reasons he first got into directing was an impatient nature: "I didn't like to sit around between takes, waiting for them to light the set, while I was reading books, taking naps or playing Pitch. I like to move. As the director, there's always something to interest me. One of these days, I may just go into directing full time and forget about the acting."
To date, Clint Eastwood has 39 self-made feature films, plus in one film he replaced the director who started shooting. Of these films directed by Clint Eastwood, 7 were included in the Golden Thousand, including "Million Dollar Baby", "Gran Torino", "Unforgiven", "Mysterious River", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Changeling", "The Bridges of Madison County". Thanks to this indicator, Clint Eastwood is included in the list of 100 greatest world film directors, compiled by FilmGourmand.
Clint Eastwood’s filmmaking career was marked by 153 film awards. It is absolutely logical that the vast majority of these film awards are American. But in addition to American awards, Eastwood was also awarded the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes International Film Festival, 3 French César Awards, 3 Italian Prizes David di Donatello, Golden Lion of the Venice International Film Festival, Danish Bodil Prize and others.
In 2016, Clint Eastwood, almost the only major figure in American cinema, openly supported the election of Donald Trump as president, which spoiled relations with a significant part of the American cinema party. Perhaps for this reason, in recent years, he has been avoiding participating in Oscars. And he does it right: it’s worthless for symbol of masculinity to decorate the gatherings where clowns in skirts rule the ball. And this is understandable: back in 1986, the guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, wrote that Eastwood is
"one of the few stars in Hollywood history so powerful that he can commission his own scripts, choose his own films, and then produce and direct them himself. Every single shot in an Eastwood film reflects his thinking, his taste, his decisions."
In honor of the birthday of the great director, I want to remind the fans of his work the frames from his best movies included into the Golden Thousand.
