Throughout his legendary seven-decade career, Eastwood has stuck to his guns while forging a singular path in Hollywood on both sides of the camera.
He has racked up four Academy Awards in the process.
His latest movie, Juror #2, is a tense legal thriller starring Nicholas Hoult as a jury member wrestling with an impossible moral dilemma.
And while the screen legend doesn’t appear in front of the camera in the film, it would make a fitting bookend to a seven-decade career that began with an uncredited walk-on part in 1955’s inauspiciously titled cheapie Revenge of the Creature.
With many movies on the 94-year-old’s résumé, we are bringing to you the most-thrilling ten of his movies. Let’s hope you agree with us.
1. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)
This movie features a compelling story, memorable performances, breathtaking landscapes, and a haunting score.
It is arguably the greatest of the spaghetti westerns.
In the movie, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach started as three gunslingers who compete for a cache of Confederate gold during the American Civil War.
2. A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964)
The Western movie helped define a new era for the Western and usher in its most iconic star, Clint Eastwood.
The epic is notable for being Clint Eastwood’s big break in Hollywood and also for being the beginning of the ‘Dollars Trilogy.’
The film was followed by For a Few Dollars More in 1965 and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in 1966.
Here, the legendary actor manipulates two rival gangs into warring against each other. As the premise suggests, it is a loose adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, but brought to life with Leone’s own iconic filmmaking style, becoming a unique and special adventure.
3. UNFORGIVEN (1992)
This classis epic is largely regarded as classic Clint Eastwood’s most important contribution to the Western genre as a director, setting a gold standard for the bleak, revisionist Westerns of recent decades.
Eastwood plays a former outlaw who has settled into a family life only to take a final job after being hired by a group of sex workers to kill that man who scarred one of them.
Unforgiven won Best Picture and Best Director, also, Clint Eastwood won two Academy Awards for it.
4. MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2024)
This sport movie is an Oscar-winning sports drama directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman – Eastwood as Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer who reluctantly takes on his first female fighter (Hilary Swank).
Her enthusiasm and respect for him as a coach allow them to grow a bond that makes him confront the mistakes of his past and allows her the confidence to be a competitor.
Million Dollar Baby earned him two Oscars: Best Picture and Best Director.
5. FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965)
In this Classic Western, Clint Eastwood starred as a bounty hunter forming an uneasy alliance with a rival to capture a ruthless outlaw.
Though the two are driven by their own motives, their temporary working relationship is an exciting spectacle and the best aspect of the film.
6. THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995)
The movie is romantic drama be directed. He also started as Robert Kincaid, a photographer hired to capture Madison County’s historic bridge landmarks.
There, he meets Meryl Streep’s Francesca Johnson, a married woman whose family is away on a trip. The two have a passionate romance, with the film excellently exploring the emotional depth of their characters.
It is the kind of sweeping romantic story that can be engrossing for audiences as well as heartbreaking, as it shows the many complications facing these middle-aged lovers.
7. DIRTY HARRY (1971)
The epic is known for its iconic catchphrases and intense action scenes, and has influenced countless films and TV shows in the years since its year of release.
He starred as a no-nonsense San Francisco cop who takes the law into his own hands in pursuit of a serial killer, Scorpio.
8. A PERFECT WORLD (1993)
This ‘creative’ is a gritty crime story with some dark and haunting aspects to it, all balanced wonderfully by Eastwood and elevated by the performances.
Many critics praised the role of Clint Eastwood in it as one of his finest directing achievements as well.
In the movie, Costner plays an escaped prisoner named Butch, who kidnaps a young boy.
Butch and the boy form an unlikely bond as they go on the run together, but Eastwood’s Red Garnett, a Texas Ranger leading the pursuit, must bring them both in.
9. THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT (1974)
Clint Eastwood in this crime dram is a seasoned bank robber named Thunderbolt with another partner-in-crime who shares the spotlight with him — Jeff Bridges, the energetic and charismatic drifter Lightfoot.
Eastwood is a criminal looking to pull off his next big job when he crosses paths with a fun-loving, reckless, but charismatic young man called Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges). The two form a quick bond as they set out to pull off the score.
The chemistry between the two lead actors is really what sells the movie.
The quickness with which these outlaws become best friends and the bond they share is charming, with a surprising sadness to the ending.
10. GRAN TORINO (2008)
Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran in a tough-guy mode.
He is an angry, bigoted man who forms an unlikely bond with a local Hmong teenager named Thao. He becomes an unlikely hero as he confronts the gang violence in his neighborhood.
The film earned praise for its thematic exploration of racism and redemption in contemporary America as Kowalski attempts to overcome his prejudices.
