To many a boy Clint Eastwood is the ultimate man’s man. His personality on film is often that of the gruff outsider, the guy who people don’t like but need to get the job done. Fistful of Dollars is one of my earliest film memories and I remember very clearly watching it on my grandparent’s big colour TV (my parents only had a black and white at the time). I was totally taken with the man with no name. A guy who’s smug demeanour could never be dented because he absolutely knew he was the strongest fastest man in the room. I didn’t encounter Dirty Harry until many years later. I never took to him in the same way, he just wasn’t as cool. Now of course it’s Dirty Harry that defined Eastwood’s 80’s career.
When Eastwood directed Unforgiven in 1992 it was a spectacular way to draw the man with no name character to an end. To clearly show what the past could do to a man. The character had made a concerted attempt at redemption but found himself drawn back in to the life. 16 years ago it seemed like a career closer for Eastwood but here we are again with him directing his closure to Dirty Harry.
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