The five worst movies directed by Clint Eastwood
He might be one of the most iconic stars Hollywood has ever produced, but only two of the 11 Academy Award nominations gathered by Clint Eastwood over the years have been for his acting exploits.
Instead, the majority of his accolades have come through his work as a director and producer, netting him four Oscars in total after Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby both won ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’. If anything, his behind-the-camera efforts have proven to be just as notable as his performances, giving Eastwood a second lease of life as one of the industry’s most consistent filmmakers.
Alongside the aforementioned Oscar-winning duo, movies like Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Letters from Iwo Jima, American Sniper, The Bridges of Madison Country, Mystic River, and Play Misty for Me have underlined Eastwood’s ability to move between genres effortlessly and craft memorable features, regardless of whether or not he’s even required in an on-screen capacity.
However, nobody boasts a 100% success rate on either side of the camera, and that was always going to be true of someone who’s helmed 40 features. Unfortunately, the following five have ended up at the bottom of the pile, if at least for different reasons.
Clint Eastwood’s five worst movies:
5. Sudden Impact (1983)
Before Mission: Impossible adopted the trick, Eastwood’s Dirty Harry got there first by having each of its five instalments helmed by a different director. The leading man only took the reins on one of them, and at the very best, it’s the second-weakest of the bunch.
Of course, Sudden Impact endures for introducing “go ahead, make my day” into the lexicon as one of the star’s most iconic soundbites, but that’s pretty much the only memorable thing about it. Pulling double duty has never typically posed a problem for the actor and filmmaker, but in this instance, it always feels as though his priorities lie behind the camera at the expense of a surprisingly subdued performance.
The law of diminishing returns had already set in on the franchise, but Eastwood did nothing to stem the tide in what should have been a resurgent return to form, given that he was finally calling the shots and crafting a new adventure for one of his most iconic characters. Instead, it was a damp squib with one unforgettable quote.
4. Hereafter (2010)
Eastwood’s signature style as a director has always been workmanlike rather than ambitious, and Hereafter offered an example as to why after the director’s attempt to wrangle a triple-pronged narrative into a cohesive and engaging whole fell remarkably flat.
Matt Damon’s construction worker, Cécile de France’s reporter, and Frankie and George McLaren’s shared performance as schoolboy Marcus are all affected in different ways by the death of someone close to them, which causes them to embark on a trio of differing spiritual journeys.
It did land an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Visual Effects’, but Eastwood resolutely fails to toe the line between thought-provoking ruminations on the afterlife that flirt with the supernatural without falling victim to saccharine sentimentality and cheap plays at the heartstrings, yielding one of the most forgettable features of his career as a result.
3. J. Edgar (2011)
On paper, Eastwood partnering with Leonardo DiCaprio for a biopic chronicling one of the most notable figures in modern American history had awards season glory written all over it, only for J. Edgar to find itself shut almost entirely out of the conversation, and deservedly so.
The leading man’s Golden Globe nomination was the sum of its recognition, but despite DiCaprio’s best efforts, at no point does the increasingly heavy use of prosthetics come across as remotely convincing. The technical aspects are underwhelming, too, giving off the vibe of a stage play captured for the big screen rather than a warts-and-all biographical drama that cuts deep beneath the surface.
It should have been a slam dunk given the subject, director, and star, but J. Edgar was functional at its very best. The insight was lacking, the melodrama was on the nose, and it was about as superficial and cautious as the genre can get.
2. The Rookie (1990)
Eastwood and Charlie Sheen together in a buddy cop flick at last, said nobody as The Rookie found itself pilloried from all corners and suffering the ignominy of going down in a blazing ball of box office flames.
The veteran getting paired up with the wet behind-the-ears novice is a tale as old as time, but what kills The Rookie is its failure to stick to one tone, with the film instead opting to pinball between bickering odd-couple caper, hard-boiled thriller, family drama, and boilerplate action flick and mastering none of them.
The story is threadbare, the chemistry between the leads is non-existent, the key players are all archetypal caricatures in one way or another, and if further illuminated that despite being one of cinema’s all-time greatest action heroes, Eastwood is nowhere near as adept at directing them.
1. The 15:17 to Paris (2018)
Eastwood is not an experimental filmmaker, and the central gimmick behind The 15:17 to Paris proved to be its undoing when the hiring of non-professional actors tanked what should have been the stirring recreation of an incredible true story.
Three American travellers taking it upon themselves to thwart a terrorist attack on the titular train is jaw-dropping as it applies to the real world, but the film made a fatal mistake in casting Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos as themselves.
Their bravery and heroism can’t be denied and demands to be celebrated, but Eastwood’s style is ill-suited to the gritty, intimate, docudrama-style approach, while the three leads are stifled by a clunky screenplay and their own status as blatant non-actors woodenly recreating their own feats in what was supposed to be a rousing Hollywood production.
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