The “dumb” movie that left Clint Eastwood “incensed”: “I had no control over that thing”
Other than the fact he’d always fancied working on the other side of the camera, one of the main reasons why Clint Eastwood was so keen to develop and direct his own projects was so that he didn’t have to work with idiots anymore. If he called the shots, then there’d be nobody else to blame but him.
He had to bide his time, though, and it wouldn’t be until his 23rd appearance in a feature that he made his directorial debut. Even at that, he’d scratched and clawed for over a decade just to keep his head above water, with Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy the catalyst for his ascent to stardom.
Once he’d returned from his international jaunt, producers did what producers do and offered Eastwood every western under the sun. He wasn’t too enthusiastic at the prospect, even if Hang ‘Em High was worth it, but the actor’s desire to subvert his screen persona backfired horrendously when he thought making Paint Your Wagon would be a good idea.
If he wasn’t being offered westerns, then he was being bombarded with action scripts, so he zagged when everyone wanted to zig and agreed to headline Kelly’s Heroes. The 1970 wartime caper isn’t one of his best, and Eastwood wasn’t a happy camper after fighting the production every step of the way.
“They had a thing called Hogan’s Heroes, very popular on television, and so they come out with Kelly’s Heroes, which is a dumb title,” he declared. “I had no control over that thing, not that I have any better taste than anybody else, but I wouldn’t liked to have done that movie with a little more control.”
Unfortunately, he was just an actor for hire, so nobody in a position of power gave a shit what he thought. “It’s an alright picture,” he conceded. “I’m not putting it down, I just think it could have been a very, very good movie with a little something added special. It was one of the best anti-war stories I’ve ever seen, but it was subtle, it was never preachy. But all that was taken out.”
He didn’t like the title, he didn’t like the way the film had been edited, and he thought the studio had butchered Kelly’s Heroes beyond recognition. To make matters worse, MGM was in a state of transition between new owners after suffering financial difficulties, and the new regime wasn’t interested in listening to any of his suggestions for how to improve the end product.
“That’s another thing that got me incensed,” Eastwood acknowledged. “After spending six months on the road and living out of a suitcase in Yugoslavia, which isn’t bad, it’s a pretty country and everything, then you come back and some jerk sells the picture because he’s taken over a studio that’s broke and wants to make a lot of low-budget films.”
Despite his protestations, the movie made money at the box office and scored strong reviews. In another saving grace, it was Eastwood’s penultimate film shoot before his career changed forever; after wrapping The Beguiled in mid-1970, the following year was his most definitive yet, with his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, and Dirty Harry releasing six and a half weeks apart.
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