Comments on: Play it Again, Misty

By: lroibal

lroibal — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:18:48 +0000

{18} I liked the Book Mystic River better than the movie, but it’s interesting that Eastwood is drawn to the subject of killing told through flawed, unlikable characters.

By: Mr. OK Jazz TOKYO

Mr. OK Jazz TOKYO — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:49:49 +0000

[7][11] Huge Eastwood fan..been years since I saw “Bird” but remember liking it. Caused a lot of ruckus in the “jazz community” regarding authenticity, etc. But Clint’s jazz fandom is well known (awesome Cannonball Adderley cameo in “Play Misty For Me”!)

“Unforgiven” is a classic, one of the great “American” films..”Mystic River” over-rated crap though, with over-acting Sean Penn and Tim Robbins making me want to hurl..

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:45:59 +0000

Also fwiw, Unforgiven pretty much saved my life.

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:45:26 +0000

fwiw, I despise David Denby.

Eastwood is not as much of an “Actor” as DeNiro but then again DeNiro has been boring for a long, long, long time.

By: RagingTartabull

RagingTartabull — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:26:46 +0000

[14] ooooh I really don’t know if I would call “Heat” mindless at all, “Righteous Kill” definitely but not “Heat”-

By: bp1

bp1 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:37:07 +0000

[3] Oh. My. God.

Big Eastwood fan here. On my only visit to Washington DC, I had to have my picture taken in front of “Abe” in the same spot where Eastwood was eating ice cream and watching Rene Russo walk away. It was all in fun, but my wife still kids me about it to this day.

[2] It’s not as if DeNiro bats 1.000 in his movies. He’s had a few phone-it-in performances over the years. “Heat” was a mindless shoot-em-up fun movie, but it wasn’t much more than a vehicle to get DeNiro and Pacino sitting across a table from each other – finally sharing some screen time – seeing who can be tougher. DeNiro’s “scary mean-face tough guy” isn’t all that different from Eastwood’s brooding characters.

Ah well. No accounting for taste. I like DeNiro, Eastwood, Pacino – all those guys. I wouldn’t expect Pacino to play a cowboy any more than I would expect Eastwood to play a blind rich guy. (hoo ahh)

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:08:16 +0000

Wait a minute … Clint Eastwood was a pretty boy??

By: matt b

matt b — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:07:39 +0000

[11] I saw Play Misty For Me a year or two ago and its a very effective thriller with some obvious flaws. It’s Clint’s directorial debut and it shows in a few spots – there’s a dreadful romantic montage that seems pointless. However, it manages to be tense and scary at times and works for me. Also, Don Siegel plays a bartender and he and Eastwood are fun to see together.

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:02:10 +0000

I’d also like to see “Play Misty for Me”…

By: matt b

matt b — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:46:52 +0000

[9] Very early – in short, the scene where Eastwood watches the crime being committed while burglarizing the home. It’s really skillful and suggests a better movie. Man, talk about a movie I walked in expecting to love – Eastwood, Hackman, Judy Davis, Laura Linney…

By: Mattpat11

Mattpat11 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:41:10 +0000

[4] How early? Before or after Clint escaped the bumbling secret service agents conducting the world’s most incompetent cover up?

By: matt b

matt b — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:38:32 +0000

[7] I haven’t seen Bird in years, but I recall liking it very much with excellent work from Whitaker and Diane Venora.

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:32:44 +0000

How was “Bird”? I’ve only seen snippets but never the entire thing.

By: matt b

matt b — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:25:51 +0000

I do wonder about the vitriol of Leone’s comments – seems unusual because Eastwood always speaks so warmly of Leone. I wonder if Clint had just turned Sergio down for something. If you recall, Unforgiven contains the dedications “For Sergio & Don” – Leone and Don Siegel, who Eastwood considers his directing mentors.

By: RagingTartabull

RagingTartabull — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:24:21 +0000

I think he’s a truly gifted director, almost underrated in some corners. Barra tends to leave out Eastwood’s biggest accomplishments as a director as a means to making his argument…thats misleading and more than a little hacky. That would be like me saying “Coppola isn’t a good director because Rumblefish and Jack were bad movies”; what the hell kind of logic is that?

As far as an actor, he is what he is. I do not think he’s a great performer by any stretch, but very specific types of roles he can easily slip into and excel (I’m thinking along the lines of “In The Line of Fire” or “Unforgiven”)

By: matt b

matt b — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:23:47 +0000

[1] Absolute Power was a failure, no doubt, but it contained a sequence in the beginning that was just fantastic. Really clever filmmaking. Unfortunately, the rest of the film just didn’t live up to those opening moments. What a great cast, wasted.

By: a.O

a.O — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:22:57 +0000

Funny coincidence. I was in Santa Cruz this weekend and one of my dogs (the friendly one) went up to this surfer dressed in a wetsuit and holding his board. She was more excited than usual, and actually jumped up on him. I was embarrassed and I went up to him and apologized, except the words caught in my throat when I saw his face. It was friggin Clint Eastwood. He saw that I recognized him, smiled, and said, “No problem.” But it was in that raspy voice he used in so many of his roles, and I got a little chil, almost like he had asked me whether I felt lucky.

By: matt b

matt b — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:22:29 +0000

Well, Alex has already stated my thesis. The Barra piece just reads like a premeditated hit job and he doesn’t back up his points very well at all. Who in their right mind ever suggested comparing DeNiro to Eastwood as actors? They don’t even set out to accomplish the same goals while on screen. Eastwood is not a dynamic actor, he’s an incredibly knowing screen presence. He learned very early on how effective his image was on the big screen, and how less would equal more. Could you imagine a Method Dirty Harry? What a mess that would be.
What’s funny is that I read Barra’s list of some of Clint’s “clunkers” that we’d never want to watch again and found a few that I like very much.
Look, the bottom line is this: how many movie personalities are icons at Eastwood’s level? Given the breadth and length of the success of his career both as a movie star and as a director, he’s in rarified company.

By: Mattpat11

Mattpat11 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:21:30 +0000

I saw Absolute Power last week, thinking there was no way it could be bad, because it was a Clint Eastwood movie.

I was wrong.