Trouble with the Curve (2012)

Trouble with the Curve (2012) Dir: Robert Lorenz Cast: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake Decent, checked off the list for Clint. Didn’t meet the expectations and didn’t realize it wasn’t Clint’s direction till, I saw the credits roll. Can be passed off.

Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Heartbreak Ridge (1986) Cast: Clint Eastwood Director: Clint Eastwood Well, a little corny and highly predictable, I just watched it for Clint.

Clint Eastwood

I have met him many a times, and even stayed with him too. But then I noticed the uncanny resemblance and outlook only during my last visit to New Delhi.

I was staying over at Jacob uncle’s place, and over lunch he was sharing his experience. He was recollecting how when he was a bachelor he used ride 150-160 km daily on his Royal Enfield – Bullet. He narrated an incident when, he had just returned from one of his such trips, and suddenly remembered he forgot something. He immediately turned his bike to fetch it. One of the trucks had just dumped a fresh load of sand on the road, which uncle didn’t know. He lost his balance, skidded and fell down, with the Silencer of the bike on his calf muscle. Unable to lift the bike himself, he took help from the passersby. He was on his feet again, met the doc, and returned to his room. Next day morning is only when he realized, he was hardly able to keep his feet on the ground. It required two weeks of bed rest to recover.

While he was narrating the story I looked at his limbs, I looked at his hair, I looked at his facial feature, I tried to imagine a younger him. And then I saw his current self. He looked like Clint Eastwood. His grey round neck T-shirt and khaki trousers reminded me of Clint Eastwood from Gran Torino and his Bullet escapade reminded me of Dirty Harry. Its uncanny, both the resemblance and that I didn’t notice it before.

Invictus

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast : Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
Academy Nominations: Best Actor in Leading Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role

When Nelson is going for his morning jog, the day after he is elected the President, the newspapers carry the headline – ‘You have won the Election, but can you run a country?’. Nelson tells, ‘Yes it is a valid question’. This sets the pace for what is in store for us. Every moment, Nelson has to live up to the expectations of 43 million South African nationals, a rainbow nation with diversity in color and nationality. And Nelson is a shining example of an upright moral conscience, with the urge to make SA an leading nation on the world map.
When he invites Matt Damon for a discussion, he ask him a direct question, what is your philosophy of leadership?
Matt Damon is portrayed as a ordinary citizen, player and a captain. He does not suddenly become an unconquerable super hero out of the blue. Instead he feels the need to win, at any cost and inspire his team….

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Absolute Power

I did not know that Laura Linney was in it. Neither did I know that Clint plays her dad. I had seen a particular shot from the movie on Warner Brothers, but didn’t pay too much heed to it. Later a few days back it was playing again, I just could not believe the odds of two of my favorite actors sharing the screen space together. I did not see the movie from the start, but then it was a treat, not so much for the plot or the film, but to see Laura and Clint together. Did I ever wish them to come together, maybe never, it never crossed my mind.

The Enforcer

I am not sure of the chronology of the Dirty Harry series, I could have, should have looked up in IMDB. This time around I decided to do a blog with any reading or checking before hand. It goes from my mind to the screen. Of course for those who read these lines, it could very well be from you to me. Well it ain’t all that dramatic what I wish to say about the movie, but the melodrama here is, more so my state of my mind. Not essentially because of this movie but then a confluence of so many things, which also includes this movie and all the other movies and everything else that happens.

Getting back, Harry is back, Dirty Harry is back. I liked ‘Dirty Harry’ more than the Enforcer. I like the girl in the movie, her trying to catch up, trying to learn things on the job, and the way how Harry teaches, pretty much in the job. And that too learn it the hard way, if you are smart, then you might do it faster. May be that’s how things happen around at my work too…And of course few one liners as always, but nothing like, Magnum talking in Dirty Harry. So pretty much this article is more about Dirty Harry and me than its about ‘The Enforcer’. So it be.

The Unforgiven 1992

This is the first time for most of part of the movie, Clint Eastwood is just a legend of the past. The man who was like no one, and the one who has mend his ways, well a complete U turn. Then no particular reason which was obvious to me, though he has taking care of hogs, decides to return. And when he does hell breaks loose.

That’s not what was of particular interest to me come to think of it. It was the narrative which runs in the beginning and in the end, and that was something

High Plains Drifter

This is the real rough and uncouth side of a drifter. Somewhere the plot has traces of Seven Samurai, but with a twist in the tale. The characters are very memorable, very well developed, and sometimes very typical too.

I like the part where Mordecai is made the Sheriff, it vaguely reminded me of the Bottom from Midsummer Night’s dream. I know revenge is not all that a great virtue at all, but still somewhere down below it gives some pleasure to see the revenge on screen. Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, Boondock Saints well, some of the secret pleasure in watching revenge on screen…

Play Misty for Me

After seeing Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me, I was sure the kind of roles in which I wish to see him. Definitely not as a romantic. Somewhere his ‘raw appeal’ gets lost in the whole business…Claimed to be one of the all time favorite thrillers, it is not of the movies which I particularly enjoyed.

Dirty Harry

Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Clint Eastwood
Year of Release: 1971


I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

You don't assign him to murder cases, You just turn him loose


The other day during lunch, I said, that Clint Eastwood as a director made path-breaking movies. Then what exactly defined path breaking movies really? Path breaking could be the plot, the direction, the handling of the subject, it could be innumerable things. For Clint Eastwood I think it was the characterization and its impact on the audience. The influence of these characters on the cinema to come years after is proof enough. It also has strong depiction of the times then, the way how the society was evolving and its vices and addictions. I need to read more on how Clint Eastwood got to understand the psyche of the cops so well, and create a character so raw, and so powerful. Lot of Bollywood movies too, have been influenced by him.

Coogan's Bluff

Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Sarah Clark,
Year of Release: 1968

Clint Eastwood, hunts, yes hunts his fugitive and nabs him after three days of hunting. From Arizona, Coogan has it all and whatever it takes to bring the convict behind the bars. He is sent to extradite a
Convict to NY and to find his way through the NYPD red tapism and bureaucracy. He does it with style and also he has a way with women, of course; he does, he is Clint Eastwood after all…

Sarah Clark tries really hard to stop the romantic invasions from Coogan, but, Coogan being you know can guess what happens. Its sometimes great to see the effect he has on women, you believe, there are men, who can still weave their magic…

A perfect World

Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, directed by Clint Eastwood…

Gripping, good build up, great performances, moving and smart. The ability of the cinema to show people in different shades from behind the lens in a way that we tend forget out prejudices and morality on some issues. I had 100% sympathy for Kevin, but in real life would I patronize a outlaw, may be not.