The Clint Eastwood classic he didn’t think anyone would like: “I thought the picture would be rejected”
Few actors have proved their unwavering brilliance behind the camera as well as in front of it quite like Clint Eastwood. Of course, stars like Orson Welles and Ida Lupino are undeniable examples, but for Eastwood, his career has stuck out as one of the most prolific.
Since the 1970s, he has directed 40 movies, and only 16 of these do not feature Eastwood in front of the camera.
After the success of the Dollars trilogy, which saw him appear under the direction of Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone for three classic westerns, most notably The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Eastwood found himself in a fruitful position. With Hollywood at his fingertips, he was soon able to secure a directing deal, releasing his debut in 1971 with the thriller Play Misty For Me.
From there, he moved between various genres as a director, although westerns were often his first choice, reveling in the iconic American world of cowboys and gritty violence. That decade, he made High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales, while also highlighting his penchant for action with The Eiger Sanction and The Gauntlet.
As the 1980s rolled around, he continued to move between westerns, action movies, and even musical dramas, but as his career as a director continued, there came a moment when he realised that he wanted to change things up a bit. He wasn’t necessarily bored with what he was making, but he was getting older, and he now felt as though he was ready to try something a little less in-your-face.
However, Eastwood was apprehensive that his subsequent project, 1992’s Unforgiven, wouldn’t be received as well as his previous movies. He told Michael Henry Wilson in a 1998 interview, “The action-packed movie was fun when I started, let’s say when I was in my twenties or thirties. Sometimes, the material had a good story; sometimes, it had great action, lots of movement and color. But at some point in your life, that’s enough. You look for character studies instead, even if it’s less commercial. When I was making Unforgiven I thought it was going to be unsuccessful.”
The film starred Eastwood alongside icons like Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman, and it ended up becoming a huge success, with the filmmaker even taking home ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards. Luckily, Eastwood had nothing to worry about when it came to the reception of Unforgiven, but that didn’t stop him from fretting that people would find it too intense.
“It wasn’t a shoot ’em up like The Wild Bunch or the Sergio Leone westerns. It departed from the tradition I was part of. Gunplay was sad. You saw kids being killed for nothing. I thought the picture would be rejected for all those reasons,” he added.
Unforgiven is, to put it simply, quite an unforgiving watch, with Eastwood playing a retired former killer who gets back on the horse for one last job in the name of family and vengeance. Despite its ruthlessness and tragedy, it seemed to resonate with many audiences, and it remains one of Eastwood’s most popular movies.
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