Clint Eastwood

[Dietrich]

Clint Eastwood is one of the most highly respected and best loved movie greats of our lifetime.What is your favorite Eastwood movie? You get two choices.One choice where he plays a western hero,i.e. Fistfull to Unforgiven and one choice in which he plays a modern day hero,i.e. Dirty Harry to Gran Torino. A word of warning;I cannot protect anyone who chooses Bridges of Madison County from injury inflicted upon them for this choice.

[jeep45238]

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Gran Torino (been in love with those cars since I was 13 - ma used to have a '73 sport fast back with a 351 Cleveland in it )

[unclenunzie]

Modern day: Dirty Harry. Besides his perfect character performance, I love the 1970's setting and his interactions with the minor characters. "Do you feel lucky, Punk?"

Westerns: Good, Bad, Ugly. Really hard to pick, I could repeatedly watch any of them in which he is an active gunslinger. Though in this film Lee Van Cleef is the standout.

[medezyner]

That's a hard question for sure but I gotta say that Grand Torino is at the top for me. I love his westerns (how can you not) but when Grand Torino ended, the first thing I thought was “Oscar”. Well, they didnt gave him zip, but I never gave a rats behind about the Oscars.
Clint’s got a few classic lines in that one too –
Thug: What you lookin' at old man?
Walt Kowalski: Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have messed with? That's me.
Or this one:
Neighbor: There’s a ton of food.
Clint: Yeah, well just keep your hands off my dog.
Neighbor: No worry, we only eat cats.
It’s got it all: Classic Eastwood faces and lines. And you cant miss the 1911A1 and M1 he displays. I gotta rent it again.

[getsome]

Dang Dietrich, You scared me with the title of the thread, I thought that he might have passed and I didn't hear....This is a tough one cause he is such a great actor, director and one of my all time heros.....For western I'm really torn but will have to go with "The Outlaw Josie Wales" which he directed.... Two favorite bits of script, Bounty hunter: Your wanted Wales... Josey: Rekon I'm right popular, you a bounty hunter?.......Bounty hunter: A man's got to do something for a living these days.....Josey: Dying ain't much of a living boy..... Another one is where Jamie says: I wish we had time to bury them fellas....Josey: To he!! with them fellas. Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms...... For modern movies as much as I love the "Dirty Harry" movies, (To many great lines in those te even get started) My favorite has to be "Gran Torino" He is perfect as Walt Kowalski, Love the scene where he takes Thao to see Martin the barber and teaches him how to talk to another man, thats priceless!!!....I'm getting up there in years myself and can see becoming just like walt, I find myself making that growling Aaaahhhhhh kind of sound thing all the time, not sure if I was doing it before seeing the movie or not but I suspect I was and just didnt notice it.........Great post Dietrich, did I win the prize????

[medezyner]

My favorite has to be "Gran Torino" He is perfect as Walt Kowalski, Love the scene where he takes Thao to see Martin the barber and teaches him how to talk to another man, thats priceless!!!....I'm getting up there in years myself and can see becoming just like walt, I find myself making that growling Aaaahhhhhh kind of sound thing all the time, not sure if I was doing it before seeing the movie or not but I suspect I was and just didnt notice it.........

Oh man, I wet myself watching that scene! My wife just looked at me while I literally had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. Guys can relate to it.

[steve666]

Western: The Outlaw Josey Wales

Modern: Heartbreak Ridge

[Bawanna]

I love em all cept maybe that flop Bronco Billy. My coworkers thought he came to me for the script in Gran Torino, what a great movie and only Eastwood could pull that off without retribution from the PC police. "What are you spooks up to?"
I gotta go with Unforgiven although Josey Wales was a tight race. I must have watched Unforgiven 15 times when I was in the hospital after bustin my back. Nurses thought I was insane. Play it again.
Schofield kid can see 5 yards, we're fine. Reminds that Schofield is on my must have list. Never ends.

[gb6491]

Modern: Heartbreak Ridge

Absolutely!
Semper Fi,
Greg

[steve666]

Absolutely!
Semper Fi,
Greg

OooRah

[Vinikahr]

OK trivia for the Heartbreak Ridge.
I visited the Island of Vieques, where the movie or part of the movie was filmed. Nice place, I was woke one morning with artillery fire from the navy ships. I though it was the end of the world that morning.

[wyntrout]

Man, you scared me, too. I thought I had missed something on the news!
I grew up with Rawhide and Wagon Train and Gunsmoke, etc.
I would have to go with Fist Full of Dollars for the western and Dirty Harry for the iconic Eastwood flicks, but Gran Turino was terrific, though the ending wasn't what I had hoped for... being very bloodthirsty and all. I was choked up with happiness and sorrow several times during that movie... lots of emotions.

And now a related story:

I came back from 'Nam and Okinawa in August 1968 and FFoD and the Dollars Trilogy were foremost in my mind... for movies. I just had to go out and buy a single-action .22 revolver and try to shoot it like Clint did. It was a cheap Hawes(West German) thing of pot metal and steel sleeves for the cylinders and barrel. It had some kind of floating firing pin, but was unsafe for 6-round carry. You ask, "How do you know?" Uh... one time after I had been shooting with rat shot, I was picking up the holstered gun from the trunk of my '58 Chevy Impala and the gun fell out of the holster... grip down, landing on the hammer, obviously, and it discharged! That really shook me up and I took inventory to see where I might have been struck, for surely the shot had hit me somewhere or the inside of the trunk lid and ricocheted onto me! I don't know how, but that was some kind of lucky that the blast went into free air, missing everything. That changed my carry practice... at least for transport!
I had a lot of fun with that gun -- not all of it the good kind. I split a bullet once fanning it -- knocked a little chunk of the pot metal out from between the steel cylinder sleeve and the cylinder.
The worst was yet to come, though. A buddy and I got some beer and iced it down in a small trash container and went to a nearby gravel pit. He was carrying the beer and I strapped on my gun and I said watch this, where I proceeded to "fast draw" emulating my hero Clint. "Bang", oops, didn't quite get the gun presented. I looked down at my feet and the ground, wondering if I had hit my foot or near it. As I started looking up my shorts, I saw some ticking or fiber sticking out. I looked up near the gun and then went back to the ticking, thinking maybe the blast had caused a tear in my shorts. By now that area was red! I dropped my shorts and saw a hole there with just a tiny trickle of blood. I then noticed the smaller hole at the outside top of my right thigh. Yikes! I'm wounded! I didn't feel a thing and evidently missed any bone, arteries, veins, or whatever. There was very little bleeding and only a little stinging as we went to the hospital or campus clinic -- don't remember. I do remember the campus cops laughing and joking and the newspaper article says it all.

I was given crutches and after about 30 seconds with those I said "F*ck this sh*t" and ditched them. I was very lucky and even luckier that it hadn't been my Browning Hi-Power. I had only practiced with it empty. I'm pretty sure those were LR hollow points, but the bullet didn't do much damage as it traversed diagonally through my upper front thigh about 7".
I learned a few things and never got back into "fast draw cowboy" stuff. I did continue to watch and marvel at Clint's technique and speed in the "Dollars" series. Yeah, I know that's enhanced Hollywood stuff!

Anyhow, I've been waiting for a point to share this with you for your consideration and hoots. Enjoy... and yes, laugh your a$$es off.
Wynn

Clint will be 80 on May 31st this year. I hope that he makes it to at least 100!

Added: The photo of me is from one of those photo booths where you got a strip of 4 photos for 25˘. It's not a MUGSHOT!

[Bawanna]

Bout time you got up Mr. Wyn. I had one of them Hawes pot metal 22's long ago myself. Never did shoot myself. Now we know you were famous and no stranger to wounding yourself. That had to be a Purple Heart for sure.
Vinikahr, please dont leave us hanging here. The artillery fire, was they shooting at your island or dummy ships or what? Talk about the proverbial rude awakening. Like cease fire, there good guys over here?

[Vinikahr]

Vinikahr, please dont leave us hanging here. The artillery fire, was they shooting at your island or dummy ships or what? Talk about the proverbial rude awakening. Like cease fire, there good guys over here?

They were shooting at a piece of land or small island near by. This concerned the local and until recently the Navy is not doing it not more. Concern about all the chemicals from the shells etc..... I was sleeping at one of the bunkers, dang it, it was hot as hell even in the night time.
It was a great place to train!

[recoilguy]

You gonna draw them pistols or whistle Dixie?
Dying aint much of a livin .....boy

All time favorite The outlaw Josie Wales

modern ....Gran Torino....he is classic in that one

RCG