Clint Eastwood"s War Filmography
Clint Eastwood is one of American's most iconic film stars. He's also starred in a number of war films. Here are the best and the worst.
This was the gigantic summer action picture of its day. It was hugely expensive and hugely profitable. Detailing commandos that parachute behind enemy lines, infiltrate a German base posing as Nazis, and break-out a captured American general. While this film is beloved by many, for myself - not having the nostalgia of it being a childhood memory - the film is just too silly to take seriously. (The film features Nazis speaking in perfect English, the language barrier is never even considered.)
Rating: 1 star out of 5
Directed by Clint Eastwood, this film about the battle for Iwo Jima, was released in the same year as Letters From Iwo Jima, which showed the battle from the Japanese perspective (see entry below). Eastwood makes an interesting decision with this film. He shows us some combat, but then he leaves the combat arena and spends most of the film state side, following Marines on a good will tour raising money for war bonds. The film's more interested in the idea of propaganda, and how we idolize moments (like the infamous flag raising on the island), that were more manufactured than authentic. Personally, while it's an interesting film, I would have preferred a bit more of the Iwo Jima battle.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
This Clint Eastwood directed film which sees the famous battle of Iwo Jima from the enemy's perspective. Considering how dehumanized the Japanese were during the war, caricatured as inhuman violent barbarians, this thoughtful film, which shows them struggling with the same desires, hopes, and dreams as American soldiers is exceedingly well done. It was filmed as a twin picture to Flags of Our Fathers.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Perhaps the only war film about the "war" in Grenada (which, being that Grenada had like 100 people on the island, lasted all of a day, I think). Clint Eastwood (who also directed) is in classic ferocious form as a gunnery sergeant placed in command of a misfit platoon of Recon Marines, who is out of step with the modern Marine Corps. Funny and entertaining, Eastwood chews up the scenery. Heartbreak Ridge is a fun film that's a favorite among many veterans.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
American Sniper, the Clint Eastwood adaptation of the Chris Kyle book about the American military's most successful sniper is part kinetic and intense action film about the Iraq war and part case study of how much one man can endure; in the film Kyle serves as an absorbent collection device for horror, trauma, and all the other awfulness that war can bring. His ability to experience the terribleness of war and just "squash it down deep inside" seems to be endless...until it's not. (One can imagine that taking 150 lives - as the number of kills the military formally credits him with - or taking 250 lives, as is suggested to be the real number, would have that sort of an effect on a man.) The film is not perfect, it provides no introspection to the Iraq war in itself, but it's highly entertaining, and also very contemplative. Bradley Cooper does an amazing job as Kyle.
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1. Where Eagles Dare (1969)
This was the gigantic summer action picture of its day. It was hugely expensive and hugely profitable. Detailing commandos that parachute behind enemy lines, infiltrate a German base posing as Nazis, and break-out a captured American general. While this film is beloved by many, for myself - not having the nostalgia of it being a childhood memory - the film is just too silly to take seriously. (The film features Nazis speaking in perfect English, the language barrier is never even considered.)
Rating: 1 star out of 5
2. Flags of our Fathers
Directed by Clint Eastwood, this film about the battle for Iwo Jima, was released in the same year as Letters From Iwo Jima, which showed the battle from the Japanese perspective (see entry below). Eastwood makes an interesting decision with this film. He shows us some combat, but then he leaves the combat arena and spends most of the film state side, following Marines on a good will tour raising money for war bonds. The film's more interested in the idea of propaganda, and how we idolize moments (like the infamous flag raising on the island), that were more manufactured than authentic. Personally, while it's an interesting film, I would have preferred a bit more of the Iwo Jima battle.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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3. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
This Clint Eastwood directed film which sees the famous battle of Iwo Jima from the enemy's perspective. Considering how dehumanized the Japanese were during the war, caricatured as inhuman violent barbarians, this thoughtful film, which shows them struggling with the same desires, hopes, and dreams as American soldiers is exceedingly well done. It was filmed as a twin picture to Flags of Our Fathers.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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4. Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
Perhaps the only war film about the "war" in Grenada (which, being that Grenada had like 100 people on the island, lasted all of a day, I think). Clint Eastwood (who also directed) is in classic ferocious form as a gunnery sergeant placed in command of a misfit platoon of Recon Marines, who is out of step with the modern Marine Corps. Funny and entertaining, Eastwood chews up the scenery. Heartbreak Ridge is a fun film that's a favorite among many veterans.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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5. American Sniper (2014)
American Sniper, the Clint Eastwood adaptation of the Chris Kyle book about the American military's most successful sniper is part kinetic and intense action film about the Iraq war and part case study of how much one man can endure; in the film Kyle serves as an absorbent collection device for horror, trauma, and all the other awfulness that war can bring. His ability to experience the terribleness of war and just "squash it down deep inside" seems to be endless...until it's not. (One can imagine that taking 150 lives - as the number of kills the military formally credits him with - or taking 250 lives, as is suggested to be the real number, would have that sort of an effect on a man.) The film is not perfect, it provides no introspection to the Iraq war in itself, but it's highly entertaining, and also very contemplative. Bradley Cooper does an amazing job as Kyle.
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