Clint Eastwood: Actor & Director

[Avadi to America]

http://www.the-dirtiest.com/dirty.htm

He doesn't break murder cases.
He smashes them.

Plot

Directed/Produced by Don Siegel
Screenplay by Harry Julian Fink,
Rita M. Fink and Dean Riesner
Dirty Harry
(1971)

"Well I'm all broken up about that man's rights."

San Francisco is threatened by Scorpio, a killer who has vowed to kill a person a day until his demands have been met by the city. After escaping a trap that the police set for him, Scorpio decides to raise the stakes.

He kidnaps a young girl and buries her alive, forcing the city into a race against time before the girl's oxygen supply runs out. After the mayor agrees to his terms, Harry Callahan is assigned the task of bagman. But Harry has his own ideas about what to take to Scorpio, and he'll see he delivers it- even if he has to make the case personal.


Trivia


Dead Right
The script, Dead Right, was written by the husband-and-wife writing team of Harry and Rita Fink. The storyline centered around an aging, New York cop named Harry Callahan who became obsessed with catching a sniper- even at the expense of his own career.

The Finks had just finished working with John Wayne on Big Jake, and initially had him in mind when attempting to sell the script. They presented it to Wayne's production company, but he declined over the film's graphic violence. Wayne later regretted the decision, which is one reason why he chose to star in 1974's urban cop thriller, McQ. (Ironically, the latter was set in Seattle- a city which was also an early contender for Dirty Harry.)

The script was then picked up by Universal, where Clint Eastwood was under contract. Eastwood was interested in starring, but Universal stalled and eventually lost the option.

Sinatra
Dead Right soon found its way to Warner Bros., where it was regarded as a potential vehicle for Frank Sinatra. This decision was primarily based on the success of Sinatra's The Detective a few years earlier.

Prior to meeting with Sinatra, Warner asked John Milius if he could do a quick rewrite of the script. He agreed, in exchange for $35,000 and a $2,000 Purdy shotgun.

Milius created a new opening for the film that was inspired by the opening sequence of Patton. It featured Harry Callahan giving a lecture to a roomful of cops, and demonstrating various firearms. It was in this same vein that the famous "Do I Feel Lucky?" speech originated.

Warner met with Sinatra and he agreed to star in the project. However, he had undergone wrist surgery a few months earlier, and the lingering injury would ultimately force him to back out prior to filming.

The first choice for director was between Irvin Kershner or Sidney Pollack. Kershner ended up being set to direct, only to be left out after Sinatra exited.

A New Star and Script
Warner then offered the role to Paul Newman, but he turned it down over concerns about the film's political message. Newman is said to have suggested Eastwood for the role, but Warner's next choice was Steve McQueen- who also passed.

Eastwood was finally approached by Warner and he made two requests: He wanted a rewrite for the script and Don Siegel as director.

During its long journey to a studio and star, Dead Right had undergone multiple drafts. Eastwood felt that its current state- which featured an overblown climax involving police snipers, a helicopter, and an airport hijacking- had lost the intent of the original. As a result, he wanted a return to the Fink's smaller, more personal conflict.

Siegel was under contract to Universal, and didn't think he would be able to direct. Eastwood personally asked Universal to let him hire Siegel for the project.

Eastwood approached Siegel with four drafts of the film- the original and three rewrites. (One of which was credited to Terrence Malick.)

The sniper villain in some of these early drafts was not a psychopath attempting to blackmail the city. Instead, he was a vigilante concerned with eliminating wealthy, influential criminals (ie. mafia; lawyers; etc.) that the police had been unable to prosecute. This idea would later provide the basis for the sequel, Magnum Force.

Dean Riesner was hired to rewrite the earlier drafts to suit Eastwood's younger portrayal. Don Siegel ended up finishing Riesner's draft by writing the showdown at the rock quarry himself.

Riesner's draft included a variation of Milius' "Do I Feel Lucky?" speech, and the famous scene also ended in a dramatically different way: Instead of firing at the wounded bank robber, Harry held the .44 to his own temple. After the click of the empty gun, Harry simply laughed and walked away.

Siegel wanted to change the film's New York setting, having already used the city for both Madigan and Coogan's Bluff. He briefly considered Seattle before choosing San Francisco. Both Eastwood and Siegel had watched the San Francisco 49er's last game at Kezar Stadium, and felt it would be a perfect place to film a dramatic showdown.

Scorpio
The character was based on the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized San Francisco in the late sixties and was never caught. He once sent the city a note threatening to hijack and kill a busload of schoolchildren, which is where the inspiration for Scorpio's similar feat originated.

Audie Murphy was first approached to play Scorpio. He was killed in a plane crash in 1971, before his decision on the role was known.

James Caan was also an early consideration, while Sinatra was still attached.

Eastwood and Siegel discovered Andrew Robinson performing in a live production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Robinson was a pacifist and required a week of intensive firearm training just to be able to handle a gun realistically. When Robinson later asked Don Siegel why he had been chosen for the role, Siegel replied, "Because you have the face of a choir boy".

Andrew Robinson was apparently a little too convincing as the mad killer, Scorpio. He received death threats after the film's release and eventually had to get an unlisted phone number. He also found trouble getting in to auditions- many producers really thought he was crazy.

Look carefully at Scorpio's outfit, and you'll notice a peace symbol belt buckle. While the press had their own interpretation of this, Siegel's explanation of it was simply, "It reminds us that no matter how vicious a person is, when he looks in the mirror he is still blind to what he truly is."

Cameos
Character actor Albert Popwell had a total of four roles throughout the series:
Dirty Harry- The bank robber who doesn't feel lucky.
Magnum Force- J.J. Wilson the pimp
The Enforcer- Big Ed Mustapha
Sudden Impact- Horace King

Director Don Siegel can be seen walking by Harry's car, as Harry and Chico return to headquarters. Siegel's son, Kristoffer Tabori, also appears briefly as a hippie. The two previously shared a scene with Eastwood in the Siegel-directed Coogan's Bluff. (They had cameos as passengers on the escalator.)

After the sequence where Harry disrupts a bank robbery- by four black men- Siegel wanted to suggest a more tolerant side of the character. He devised a follow-up scene where Harry's injuries are treated by a black intern that appears to be an old friend of Harry's. When the studio refused to okay the short scene, Siegel was forced to film it quickly, using Second Assistant Director Charles Washburn as the intern.

Two actresses were used to portray Anne Mary Deacon. The photographs that are sent to the mayor feature Melody Thomas Scott, who had previously appeared with Eastwood in The Beguiled. However, the body that Harry witnesses being lifted out of the ground was played by Debralee Scott, (no relation).

The role was Debralee Scott's acting debut, and was filmed shortly before her 18th birthday. Scott later became a familiar face on television, in shows such as "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", "Welcome Back, Kotter", and "Match Game".

Harry drives a 1968 Ford Galaxie 500.

The opening scenes in the Mayor's office were filmed in then-Mayor Alioto's office.

A section of the Philippine police force requested a print of the movie for use as a training film!

Quotes

"It's not about a man who stands for violence, it's about a man who can't understand society tolerating violence." -Clint Eastwood

office.wav
Mayor: Alright, let's have it.
Harry: Have what?
Mayor: Your report, what have you been doing?
Harry: Oh, well, for the past three-quarters of an hour I've been sitting on my ass in your outer office, waiting on you.

Harry: Wait a minute, do I get this right? You're gonna play this creep's game? Why don't you let me meet with the son of a bitch?

policy.wav
Mayor: I don't want any more trouble like you had last year in the Fillmore district. Understand? That's my policy.
Harry: Yeah, well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That's my policy.
Mayor: Intent? How did you establish that?
Harry: Well a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher's knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross!

lucky.wav
Harry: Ah Ah, 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've kinda 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?

Harry: You know she's dead, don't you?

Cast
Harry Callahan: Clint Eastwood
Lt. Bressler: Harry Guardino
Chico: Reni Santoni
The Mayor: John Vernon
Scorpio: Andrew Robinson
Chief: John Larch
DeGeorgio: John Mitchum
Mrs. Russell: Mae Mercer
Norma: Lyn Edgington
Bus Driver: Ruth Kobart
Mr. Jaffe: Woodrow Parfrey
Hot Mary: Lois Foraker
Rothko: Josef Sommer
Bannerman: William Patterson
Liquor Proprietor: James Nolan
Sid Kleinman: Maurice Argent
Miss Willis: Jo De Winter
Reineke: Craig Kelly
Bank Robber: Albert Popwell
Underwear Chick: Cathy Harper

[Avadi to America]

there is an interesting discussion forum....

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/index.php

[bingleguy]

am watching his Letters from Iwo Jima ...... rendu naalaa paathukittu irukken hopefully must complete it today ....

[great]

am watching his Letters from Iwo Jima ...... rendu naalaa paathukittu irukken hopefully must complete it today ....

Hopefully its due to time constrain right, BG !!!

[ajithfederer]

Its a very good film-nga BG. The entire film is taken in japanese and it is shown in the POV of Japanese soldiers. Battle scenes are on par with Saving Private Ryan or in fact more. The mental preparation for most of the soldiers who are drafted into the war unwillingly is brought out well. Some would be willing to surrender even before fighting . The Japanese General in that film (Ken Watanabe) had acted very well and he is in Inception.

am watching his Letters from Iwo Jima ...... rendu naalaa paathukittu irukken hopefully must complete it today ....

[groucho070]

there is an interesting discussion forum....

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/index.php

Am a member, same username as here. But hardly go there.

[Avadi to America]

http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog...star-ever.html

Is Clint Eastwood the Longest-Running Movie Star Ever?
TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009 AT 6:19PM
With Clint Eastwood's return to the top of the box office courtesy of Gran Torino, I thought it might be revealing to see what movie star had the most box office clout the longest. In order to determine a winner, we're relying heavily on end-of-the-year box office numbers, and then digging a little deeper beyond that.


This is not a list of who's made the most money. That's a completely different argument, especially because the industry has changed so much in just the past 20 years in terms of what actors get paid. We want to know which actor or actress most consistently produced big hits the over the longest period of time.
Keep in mind that Tom Hanks hasn't even been a top ten draw for 25 years and you begin to see how difficult this list is to crack. Realistically, Harrison Ford can qualify, thanks to the success of the last Indiana Jones. But that still only puts him at 35 years, thanks to American Graffiti. Nicholson's a real possibility, and we'll explore his credentials in a bit.
Clearly, Eastwood has to be near the top of the list. After all, his first film to crack an annual top ten list was, somewhat embarrassingly, Paint Your Wagon, the western musical in which both Eastwood and Lee Marvin sing showtunes. They call the wind Mariah, indeed. It may not seem like much, but 40 years ago, $14 million was a lot of money at the box office. Paint Your Wagon was the seventh-highest grossing film that year, and only three movies made over $20 million.
While Eastwood's new movie probably won't wind up in the top ten of 2009, we're counting it for the sake of argument because it inspired this whole thing. Million Dollar Baby was a $100 million movie in 2004, good enough for 24th that year. And that's the sort of thing that makes this list so tough to break into. Eastwood has a 40-year run as a major box office star. The 70s, 80s, and 90s all feature films that hit number one for multiple weeks, and he's had plenty of top ten annual finishes, too. So in that respect, the sheer number of times he's managed to do so well has to account for something.
But there are a few other candidates with career longevity we should look at, although not too many. Jimmy Stewart spanned almost exactly the same number of years, from 1938's You Can't Take it With You to Airport '77. Like Torino, the Airport sequel made a lot of money but wasn't a top ten film, however Stewart was a major star for several decades, well into the 1960s, and the Airport thing is kind of a one-off.
I think we can excuse The Duke at this point; John Wayne was a big star, but his first top ten finish wasn't until he was 42, in The Sands of Iwo Jima from 1949. Considering his last film was in 1976, and his last major hit was about a decade before that (True Grit), we'll put him in the ring of honor, but he's not winning this debate.
Paul Newman began his film career in the late 1950s, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof landed at the number four spot for 1958. Now, we're going to absolutely count his supporting role in Road to Perdition in our list; he did get an Oscar nomination, after all. Like Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, that film was the 24th-highest grossing movie that year. We could also cheat and throw Cars into the mix and give Newman 48 years of huge success. I don't like to consider animated movies for actors' bankability, but if you want to, you could. Without it, you'd have to go way back from Road to Perdition to the 1980s to find a Newman film that qualifies, with The Color of Money, The Verdict, and Absence of Malice all finishing in the top 20 in their respective years. He's certainly a top three candidate.
As for Jack Nicholson, he's definitely a contender for the title, and you could easily make the case that he's the pick. After all, The Departed and Anger Management were both in the top 20 in their respective years, he had two top ten finishes in the 1990s (As Good As It Gets and A Few Good Men), three of them in the 1980s (Batman, Terms of Endearment, and The Witches of Eastwick), as well as two more in the 1970s (Cuckoo's Nest and Carnal Knowledge), kicking it all off in 1969 with Easy Rider. Hard to knock the achievement, as well as all those Oscar nominations, and if he keeps it up for another five years or so, there won't be any doubt that eventually, this is Nicholson's list.
But in the meantime, our winner is Henry Fonda. Like everyone else on the list, Fonda obviously had a very long and successful career, capped by On Golden Pond, a Best Picture winner, a personal Oscar win for Best Actor, and a top-three box office finish in 1981. You'd have to go back to 1939 to find his first big commercial successs, Jesse James. He also gained plenty of attention in The Young Abraham Lincoln that year, and followed it up with an Oscar nomination in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath. A steady performer for nearly 30 years, Fonda had back-to-back top ten finishes in 1962 and 1963, thanks to The Longest Day and How the West Was Won. He even had a top ten finish in 1968 with the original Yours, Mine, and Ours.
You could argue for Katharine Hepburn, since her first top ten finisher was 1933's Little Women and her last was also On Golden Pond, giving her a 48-year track record, however, she wasn't able to stay on top throughout those 48 years. Hepburn wouldn't have another top ten finisher until The African Queen in 1951, and not again after that until Guess Who's Coming To Dinner in 1967. So, she really only made a year-end top ten four times.
What really keeps Fonda at the top of this list, in my mind, is the consistency. He's the only actor to place in the top ten at least one year in at least five decades, with Jesse James, Mr. Roberts, any one of three films from the 1960s (plus three others in the top 20), Midway in 1976, and On Golden Pond.

[groucho070]

Paint Your Wagon, high-grossing film-ah I thought it was a flop, it was the reason why Eastwood wowed to do only small films with smaller budget!

[raghavendran]

this cowboy hero is actually the most stylish hero of hollywood...avare parthu namme aalunge neraya copy adichirkange

[Avadi to America]

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