Clint Eastwood Behind the Camera

To celebrate the release of Juror #2, my favourite films from the iconic actor as director

Gran Torino (2008). Credit: Warner Brothers

I’d argue no one has made the leap from actor to director as effectively as Clint Eastwood. Yes, a case can be made for Woody Allen, but then he was directing almost immediately, whereas Eastwood established himself as an iconic screen presence first and foremost. Inevitably, Orson Welles is also brought up in discussions of this kind, but his directorial career post-Citizen Kane (1941) features few bonafide classics. I could mention other great actor-directors — Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton leap to mind — but I still think Eastwood has the edge despite having a fair share of duds mingling with the greats.

With the release of Juror #2 this week, it seems an opportune time to celebrate Clint Eastwood’s career behind the camera. His body of work as director is studded with gems, many of which I regularly revisit. What follows is a countdown of my personal favourites, not necessarily what I consider his greatest films. If it were the latter, I’d have included Charlie Parker biopic Bird (1988) and Oscar-winning female boxing drama Million Dollar Baby (2004) in the list. But as much as I admire those films, I am less keen on them than this lot.