Pale Rider and Hang Em High and that's not to mention the unique noir western, The Beguiled. To my mind the only weak Eastwood western is Joe Kidd and all the others are essential films for any fan of the genre.Hang Em High (reviewed HERE) was Eastwood's first American western movie and that same year he teamed up with Don Siegel for the East meets West Coogan's Bluff which was the inspiration for the TV series, McCloud. The two men worked so well together that actor and director were back together for Two Mules for Sister Sara which Eastwood described, at the time, as "African Queen meets the man with no name." The films is a quirky comedy western with Shirley McClain stealing the show. Interestingly she was only cast after Eastwood's first choice, Elizabeth Taylor dropped out.
Director and star reunited in 1970 for one of Eastwood's strangest, but compelling, westerns - the psycho-noir melodrama The Beguiled. Eastwood is an injured Union soldier totally at the mercy of a group of women. The Siegal/Eastwood partnerships is comparable in terms of success to that of Wayne/Ford. Siegal of course was the director of the seminal Dirty Harry.
Eastwood's first w
estern in the directorial chair was the excellent, supernaturally tinged, High Plains Drifter. It's a blood thirsty uber-violent western that owes much to the Leone Dollar Films but Eastwood is smart enough to give the film a twist with its other worldly atmosphere. Truly excellent.The Outlaw Josey Wales with Eastwood once again in the director chair is equal to the majestic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It's brilliant sprawling western that improves each time it is watched.
Eastwood's next western, Pale Rider (1985) was a cross between Shane and High Plains Drifter. The introduction shot of Eastwood inverted the opening shot of High Plains Drifter. Where in Drifter Eastwood's character seems to appear from nowhere on the fiery plains this time it is reversed and Eastwood appears from out of the heavenly clouds. Indeed the character in Pale Rider is Ying to Drifters, Yang. Again
an excellent western.The Unforgiven (1992) is Eastwood's masterpiece - one of the seminal films of the genre by anyone. It is interesting that in actor identification for the western Eastwood is second only to John Wayne and yet out of Eastwood's vast filmography only eleven of them are strictly westerns. I'm not counting the likes of Coogan's Bluff, Honkeytonk Man and Bronco Billy here although it could be argued they are contemporary westerns.But what a contribution the great man has made to the genre.
3 comments:
Along with John Wayne, the American actors most heavily identified with westerns. Possibly Jimmy Stewart as well.
Seeing the title reminded me of the series of Man With No Name novels by Joe Millard. Have you seen any of those?
randy - I've read a couple of those books - many years ago, though
I've got most of the Man with no Name books. They aren't bad. There were some originals as well as movie-tie ins written in the series.
Two Mules for Sister Sarah is a good one. I wasn't a huge fan of Coogan's bluff or Joe Kidd.
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