The 2006 movie Clint Eastwood said had no reason to exist: “I don’t understand”
The world turns in different ways for different people in Hollywood, but Clint Eastwood was ready for it to stop when he questioned why a particular movie even needed to be made in the first place.
In a way, he had a point, since it was a production that was questioned by a lot of people. However, once it was actually released, made a lot of money, won strong reviews, and showed unexpected legs, someone was well within their rights to show up at the legend’s door and force-feed him a slice of humble pie.
As an old man, and someone who’s been an old man since the 1990s, it’s understandable that there are certain modern developments in cinema that left Eastwood confounded. He’s used CGI, but only sparingly, and he enjoyed comic books when he was a youngster, but like many other veterans, he wasn’t too impressed with superheroes becoming the dominant form of big-screen entertainment.
Franchises, in general, have been a no-go area for a long time. Yes, he made three Dollars films with Sergio Leone and five Dirty Harry flicks, but the final instalment in each series was released in 1966 and 1988, respectively, and after that, the four-time Academy Award winner never returned to the well.
He could have done, especially with nostalgia becoming increasingly important to the studios, but he didn’t. Eastwood rejected a follow-up to The Outlaw Josey Wales, which was made without him, and he could have played James Bond and Superman, but neither iconic role was his bag.
Shortly after putting the finishing touches on 2004’s Mystic River, word reached the actor and filmmaker’s ears that, after a decade and a half sabbatical from the big screen, one of modern Hollywood’s most legendary fictional characters was on their way back to the silver screen, and he didn’t know why.
“You have to start to grow within yourself, or else you’ll start going backwards,” he growled. “I don’t understand Sylvester Stallone. I hear he’s going to do Rocky again. For me, it would look like you’re doing it for a paycheque.” In a way, he was, with Sly’s career having fallen on hard times by the mid-2000s, but he also had unfinished business with the ‘Italian Stallion’.
The failure of Rocky V had haunted its creator ever since, and to put things right, he dusted Rocky Balboa off once again and sent him back into the ring. From the outside looking in, it seemed like a transparent and cynical attempt to restore himself to former glories, but the self-titled 2006 sequel was actually pretty good, and it made enough money to give Stallone a shot in the arm and rejuvenate his reputation.
If that’s how Eastwood felt about Rocky Balboa, though, who knows how he felt about Stallone ending another lengthy exile to reprise the role twice more in Creed and Creed II, which were once again more than worthy additions to the Rocky canon.
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