Clint Eastwood: A Biography by Richard Schickel
Now what red blooded male hasn't watched and enjoyed the wide ouvre of Eastwood's work, from his time on Rawhide to the spaghetti westerns to Dirty Harry and eventually to his later and more mature works like Unforgiven. He is without doubt one of the most popular actors of the twentieth century, with a huge range of works. No actors can say they never made a bad film, but Eastwood gets close! His early move from acting to acting/directing and finally to directing have all been done in a timely manner and have ticked all the right boxes.
I picked up this 1996 paperback edition for $2 in a second hand book store and it sat on my desk for some time before I started to read it. Schickel is a film critic and writer of biographies for the likes of Cary Grant, James Cagney and Marlon Brando, but I had never read any of his books before this. The book comes in at just under 600 densely printed pages and is not the sort of book that you read from cover to cover in one go. It was a case of picking it up and reading a chapter, than putting it aside till the next read. But I did see it through from front to back and did enjoy the read, with certain provisos.
The blurb reads as follows
From the moment The Man With No Name first fixed the screen with his murderous squint, from the first time audiences heard Dirty Harry Callahan growl "Make my day," Clint Eastwood has been an icon of American manhood in all its coolness and ferocity. But that icon is also an actor of surprising subtlety, a filmmaker of vast intelligence and originality--and an intensely private man who eludes the stereotypes with which his fans and critics try to label him.
In this in-depth biography, the distinguished film critic Richard Schickel talks with Eastwood's family, friends, and colleagues--and, above all, with his notoriously reticent subject--to produce a portrait more astute and revealing than any we have ever had.
Following Eastwood from his unstable childhood through his turbulent love affairs, assessing films from A Fistful of Dollars to the Oscar-winning The Unforgiven, and locating the subversive streak of rage and solitude that runs through all his work, Clint Eastwood is candid and endlessly fascinating, an unerring closeup of one of our brightest stars.
My main criticism is the syncophantic nature of the work. Indeed, Schickel must have made Clint Eastwood's day as the book is so positive that it says just about nothing negative about the star. I also feels that the book goes into too much detail about the background and making of EVERY film. It does get pretty tedious in places, especially when going into long discussions to refute any critics who dare to criticise the films under discussion.
Being a good actor and being a good person are two different things. Eastwood is certainly a fine actor but is he a good person? Therein lies another discussion. His womanising, his grab for as much money as possible in his films, his more recent comments on "political correctness" and his support, albeit hot and cold, for MAGA make me think he would not be amongst my guests and dinner any time soon.
Would I recommend the book for a read - probably not.
