As we move decade-by-decade through Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood’s mythic career, we arrive at the decade full of the toughest picks. What a 1970s Eastwood had. These were the years where he not only cemented a star status that lasts to this day — to age 91 and far longer than any other star in history, he also became a living legend and respected director.
Some tough choices ahead, but I have to be a man and muster on. Well, not a total man. To make things a little easier on myself, I’m disqualifying three titles I wrote about in a previous top five: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Play Misty for Me (1971), and Every Which Way but Loose (1978).
Thunderbolt would have definitely made this top five.
- The Gauntlet (1977)
Eastwood directs Eastwood in his most obvious I’m-not-here-to-please-the-critics titles until 1990’s The Rookie.
Clint throws logic and good taste to the wind in favor of crowd-pleasing exploitation, including nudity, sex, a shit-ton of violence, and punching a lesbian in the face.
A huge hit and a total blast.
- Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Eastwood’s final film with his director/mentor Don Siegel remains an exciting prison escape movie and one that’s based on a true story.
It’s Eastwood vs. the Establishment, as personified by a superb Patrick McGoohan.
A crowd-pleaser from beginning to end.
- High Plains Drifter (1973)
Eastwood’s second time behind the camera announced his arrival as a director to be reckoned with. Clint plays The Stranger, another man with no name who comes to town, takes over and pursues an agenda not made clear until the closing moments.
Director Eastwood not only delivers a lean and (very) mean western (one so popular it must have played on ABC’s Sunday Night Movie a half-dozen times), it’s something even more… The way Eastwood shifts the story’s tone throughout is the work of a director who knows precisely what he wants and how to get it.
- Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Eastwood’s near-epic grossed ten times its budget, played on TV forever, and has only grown in status.
Clint’s screen presence, which was already formidable, blazes even hotter in this stunning revenge tale about the last man in the world anyone should fuck with: a guy who just wants to be left alone.
They killed Josey Wales’ wife and son, and now hell is coming.
- Dirty Harry (1971)
Every time I watch this movie, which I’ve seen at least 50 times (including at age five in the theater), I’m awed by how “modern” it is. Fifty years on, Don Siegel’s masterpiece is still a revelation—everything from its score, camerawork, and most especially the editing, still feel ahead of their time. There are only two other titles that provoke the same reaction from me: Dodsworth (1936) and Citizen Kane (1941).
Paul Newman said no because it offended his liberal sensibilities. John Wayne said no (and came to regret it) because of the violence. However, Eastwood liked the film’s message, liked how it spoke up for crime victims in an era where they were being forgotten, and as a result, shot right past superstar and into the stratosphere of legend and myth—where he rightfully remains to this day.
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