The role Clint Eastwood refused to reprise: “Not at my age”
During the buildup to the release of a 2008 Clint Eastwood movie, a rumour began circulating on the internet that piqued the interest of a hell of a lot of people.
Before much was known about the plot of Gran Torino, which Eastwood had chosen to star in as well as direct, Ain’t It Cool News (remember them?) published an intriguing e-mail from an anonymous tipster. This person had allegedly advertised his vintage 1974 Ford Gran Torino for sale, and less than 24 hours after the posting, he was contacted by someone from Village Roadshow Pictures.
As fate would have it, the production company was in the market for that very vehicle to take pride of place in Eastwood’s new movie, which the tipster claimed was described to him as a thriller about a vicious killer being tracked by a retired police detective, with the only clue to his identity being the muscle car he drives. Oh, and that retired sleuth’s name? Harry Callahan.
Like throwing a lit match into a kerosene chatroom, the internet blew up. The picture was quickly billed as the next Dirty Harry instalment, but the veteran actor poured cold water on that really quickly: “Some idiot came up with some theory,” he growled through gritted teeth, before assuring The Guardian this picture wasn’t a sequel. Worse than that, though, was Eastwood’s follow-up statement: there would never be a Dirty Harry 6, because he was finished with the role. “Not at my age,” he noted. “There are certain age limits on police officers. They’d have retired me out at 65.”
Now, the fact that Callahan would have retired from the San Francisco police force at 65 isn’t really as prohibitive to making a sixth movie as Eastwood let on. As hinted at by the anonymous e-mailer, there’s certainly a story to be told about an elderly Callahan coming out of retirement for one last job, either as a consultant or simply as a vigilante. However, this wasn’t the first time Eastwood had poo-pooed the idea of a sixth Dirty Harry adventure, and his reticence has always been tied to his age. The star was already uncomfortable with playing Callahan in The Dead Pool when he was 58, so adding another 20 years to his grizzled face and creaking limbs wasn’t ever really on the cards.
Having said that, if you caught the Unforgiven star in a good mood, he was happy to throw around a few silly ideas about what Callahan would be doing as an old guy unable to shoot bad guys anymore. “Harry is retired,” Eastwood told The Los Angeles Times in 2008, setting the scene for his never-gonna-happen sequel. “He’s standing in a stream, fly-fishing. He gets tired of using the pole, and BA-BOOM!” Hilariously, this boom was accompanied by a grinning Eastwood miming Callahan pumping some lead into those frustratingly elusive fish.
Clearly on a roll, an amused Eastwood then began throwing other notions at the wall to see what stuck. “Or,” he chuckled, “Harry is retired and he chases bad guys with his walker?” Don’t like that one? How about everyone’s favourite (potentially) right-wing cop owning a tavern? Maybe one night, a group of jerks drink the place dry, but refuse to pay their tab. “So,” Eastwood mused, a sly smile creeping across his lips, “Harry reaches below the bar. ‘Hey, guys, the next shot’s on me.'”
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