“I’ve got to watch it”: The 1976 Clint Eastwood movie that Morgan Freeman “can’t pass up”
Is it a coincidence that whenever Clint Eastwood has won ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Picture’ for a movie at the Oscars, Morgan Freeman has also starred in them?
Clearly, when the pair work together, some kind of magic happens. Their first collaboration with each other came in 1992 when they co-starred in Eastwood’s Unforgiven, which he brought to the big screen from a screenplay by David Webb Peoples.
The crime western saw Eastwood play a former outlaw, Will, who now lives a quiet life raising his children as a widower, while Freeman played his old pal, Ned. Despite being retired from criminal life, the pair team up for one last job when a local prostitute is disfigured, seeking vengeance.
The movie was a critical and commercial success, although it wouldn’t be until the 2004 movie Million Dollar Baby that they’d reunite, this time with Eastwood playing a boxing trainer and Freeman as his assistant. This time around, not only did Eastwood scoop up ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Picture’, but Freeman also won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ (and Hilary Swank even took home ‘Best Actress’). It’s safe to say, then, that when Eastwood and Freeman work together, it’s going to be good.
It helps that Freeman has loved his friend’s work for a long time, and he greatly admires his skills as a director, too. “I think Clint is an actor’s director,” the actor once told RTE, “He doesn’t direct actors. He directs movies. He hires actors, and it’s your job. And I love that about him that you establish your own character; you play it and do what the scene calls for. [He’ll] have the scene set up. Cameras will be where we want them to be. Lights will be where we want them to be. And go for it.”
But what is Freeman’s favourite Eastwood movie? There are so many to choose from, of course, like his breakthrough in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy or his anti-hero protagonist of Dirty Harry, but there’s one that he just can’t miss. If it’s on, he has to watch it, no matter what he’s doing.
“I like all movies with Clint, but The Outlaw Josey Wales is one I can’t pass up,” he told Rotten Tomatoes, “If I’m scrolling through and I come across it, I’ve got to watch it.”
The 1976 film was directed by Eastwood and stars him in the lead role as the titular character, who was once a farmer but now seeks vengeance on those who killed his family during the Civil War, leading the life of an outlaw and forming a family of outsiders in the face of losing his own, all the while trying his best to avoid the bounty hunters on his case.
The movie was only nominated for ‘Best Original Music Score’ at the Oscars, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t highly acclaimed by critics. Josey Wales remains one of Eastwood’s most well-loved characters, and it’s here that he does what he does best: playing the outlaw who stands his ground in the face of opposition.
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