The Oscar-winning 1990 movie Clint Eastwood refused to star in: “I’m Dirty Harry, I can’t be”
Despite having four Academy Awards of his own, Clint Eastwood has never been in an Oscar-winning movie that he didn’t direct, which is his own fault, really.
He turned down the leading role in Richard Donner’s Superman, which won the prize for ‘Best Visual Effects’, and declined a part in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, which claimed gongs for its cinematography and sound, so the opportunities were there.
Clearly, the best way for the iconic star to nudge himself into the awards season conversation is to bet on himself, which he did, which is why he’s got four of them, plus another seven nominations and a quartet of Golden Globes. He could have played the lead role in a three-time winner, though, but he couldn’t quite wrap his head around the concept.
While he can do dry, deadpan line readings in his sleep, comedy has never been Eastwood’s strongest suit. He’s never embodied a character you could call hammy, probably because he knew he’d be rubbish at it, so it makes sense that he would decline top billing in a heightened, stylised, makeup-heavy comic book adaptation.
At one point during its laborious development process, by which time it had already passed through Steven Spielberg’s hands, John Landis signed on to helm Dick Tracy, bringing Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr on board as screenwriters, which would be the draft eventually used when the film went into production in February 1989.
Warren Beatty had been interested in playing the title role since the mid-1970s, but he wasn’t under serious consideration until the ‘Man with No Name’ said no. “Well, Clint Eastwood turned me down,” Landis reflected. “I’m the guy who hired Warren Beatty.” It worked out in the end, but the filmmaker’s first choice could have been inspired. Either that, or an unmitigated disaster.
“I did go to Eastwood,” Landis doubled down. “And he said, ‘I’m Dirty Harry, I can’t be Dick Tracy’, because he was still making Dirty Harry movies. I also don’t think he got it, why you would make a comic book movie. But I really had a hard time figuring out who could be Dick Tracy, and I’m the one who thought of Warren.”
Of course, Beatty ended up directing the picture himself, which earned over $160 million at the box office, won Oscars for ‘Best Makeup’, ‘Best Art Direction’, and ‘Best Original Song’, and received a further four nominations, including ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Al Pacino’s scenery-inhaling turn as Alphonse ‘Big Boy’ Caprice.
In another world, that could have been Eastwood wearing the fedora and trench coat, running afoul of organised crime syndicates, femme fatales, masked vigilantes, and city-wide corruption. It wasn’t up his street by any means, and there are no guarantees it would have worked, but you’re lying if you say you wouldn’t want to see how it would have turned out.
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