Morgan Freeman names his favourite Clint Eastwood movie: “One of my favourite, favourite films”
They may have only worked together on three occasions, but there’s still plenty of evidence to suggest that Morgan Freeman is the luckiest charm of Clint Eastwood’s directorial career.
Their first collaboration came on Unforgiven, arguably the magnum opus of Eastwood’s storied career. One of the greatest films ever made and an elegiac swansong for the star and director’s association with the Western, the grizzled veteran was rewarded with Academy Awards for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
A dozen years later, they reunited under vastly different circumstances, but the results were largely the same. Powerful boxing drama Million Dollar Baby won Eastwood another two Oscars for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, with Freeman getting into the act this time after taking home the trophy for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
Their third and final feature together was Nelson Mandela biopic Invictus, and while it didn’t hit the same heights as their previous partnerships, there’s no shame in that. Still, it earned Freeman a ‘Best Actor’ nod at the Oscars and earned over $120 million at the box office, so it’s not as if it was anywhere close to being a failure.
Working with Eastwood has been a genuine highlight of Freeman’s professional life, with their association being held up by the distinguished thespian as some of his most cherished contributions to cinema. However, when it came to naming his favourite movie starring the iconic face of the Western’s second boom period, he glanced a little farther into the past.
The Coen brothers are of an identical mind, and Eastwood himself has named it as the project more people stop him to talk about in the street than any other, so Freeman found himself in seriously esteemed company when he plumped for The Outlaw Josey Wales as one of his all-time top picks.
Describing it to Rotten Tomatoes as “one of my favourite, favourite films,” he confessed that “I don’t know what it is about The Outlaw Josey Wales that sticks,” before immediately changing his mind and deciding that he did know, after all.
“Oh, I do know what it is; it’s the relationship with Chief Dan George. The narration, as it were, of Chief Dan George in that movie, you know,” he said. “He’s so dry, and it’s humorous but true.” The prickly relationship between George’s Lone Watie and Eastwood’s title character is defined by their barbed banter and begrudging mutual respect, and it evidently held huge sway over Freeman.
It may not be entirely accurate or completely fair to call The Outlaw Josey Wales underrated when talents as famed as Freeman and the Coen brothers believe it to be among Eastwood’s finest, but it’s also not untrue to suggest it rarely gets placed on the same pedestal as his most iconic work on either side of the camera.
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