The actor Clint Eastwood believes will be remembered in “100 years”
Clint Eastwood began acting in 1955, directing in 1971, and even composing for movies in 1992. During that time, he’s worked with countless thousands of people. Hollywood’s most respected living legend, his big break arrived in the 1960s, offering an alternative to John Wayne as one of the most violently popular western stars.
Having established a tough outlaw image in the formative TV series Rawhide and mastered it in Sergio Leone’s legendary Dollars Trilogy, the dashing gunslinger consolidated his status as the iconic anti-hero cop Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry franchise.
Throughout his six-decade stint under the Hollywood limelight, Eastwood expanded his skillset to become a leading producer and director, earning four Academy Awards and four Golden Globes for his duties behind the camera. Remarkably, Eastwood has continued to stay active at 94 years of age and completed his final movie, Juror #2, just last year.
Eastwood has lived the best part of a century and will undoubtedly be remembered for another century at least. Cameron Crowe, the esteemed filmmaker behind such titles as Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky and Almost Famous, once conversed with the Hollywood veteran and ended up discussing a couple of their favourite actors.
Clint Eastwood on legacy and the enduring talent of Tom Cruise
“I met Clint Eastwood once. I asked him about Chris Penn because he had worked with Chris Penn on Pale Rider,” Crowe told Film School Rejects. “We were talking about what an amazing guy Chris Penn was, and for some reason, we got on the subject of Tom [Cruise]. Clint Eastwood said, ‘100 years from now and more, people will look back on this generation of films, and the guy who will stand out more than anyone else will be Tom Cruise’.”
“Coming from Clint Eastwood, like, a foot-and-a-half away from you telling you that, I couldn’t wait to tell Tom that! [Laughs] I think it’s true,” the director added, endorsing his frequent collaborator. “You could create an argument for a number of other actors, but I don’t know anyone who’s built this kind of body of work in movies that will stand the test of time, and I would be honoured if one of our movies was a part of that. He’s done so many different, time-defining projects.”
In the interview, Crowe was asked whether he felt Cruise was oddly underrated as an actor, perhaps because “he doesn’t physically transform the way Daniel Day-Lewis does.”
“It’s true,” Crowe pondered. “He builds this body of work, movie after movie, and character after character. He gives you this body of work that’s rich and personal. He puts himself into every one of these movies. For a guy who’s so universally known, he’s not afraid of getting personal, even in a movie like Oblivion.”
Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion was a post-apocalyptic action movie that played to Cruise’s strengths but sadly didn’t excite many critics and moviegoers upon its arrival. However, Crowe managed to salvage excellence in Cruise’s performance.
The story of Oblivion is set in a post-apocalyptic future where Earth has been devastated by a war with an alien race known as the Scavs. Jack Harper is one of the last drone repairmen stationed on Earth to extract vital resources from the planet’s surface. His mission is to help extract resources and assist in the relocation of humanity to a distant colony on Saturn’s moon, Titan.
“The scene on the Empire State Building is so romantic and emotional,” he continued. “He puts his heart out there, and it becomes so memorable over time. You see these performances where the guy is just vulnerable, and sometimes it’s hard to see because the Tom Cruise of it all is so commanding at the centre of the movie. You see more of it the second time.”
Cruise has always been something of a curious case – half action figure, half mirrorball. He doesn’t disappear into roles like Daniel Day-Lewis because he doesn’t need to. The challenge with Cruise has never been transformation, but rather how it translates to the audience on many different levels. What’s this bloke really trying to say behind the clenched jaw and thousand-yard stare? Clint Eastwood saw it: the performances aren’t showy, but they’re consistent, honest, strangely intimate. For all his fame, Cruise doesn’t hide behind it, which is commendable no matter how you look at it.
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