The Man with No Name Art Print

One of the greatest movies of all time, as well as Clint Eastwood’s best work to date (Gran Torino) is now out on dvd. If you haven’t seen this great movie, buy a copy asap. If you have seen the movie, buy a copy asap.

In honor of the movie hitting stores, here’s a little trivia about one of the coolest of all cats and baddest of all asses, Clint Eastwood.

• The future living legend was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, California. He weighed 11 pounds, 6 ounces at birth.

• James Cagney is Clint Eastwood’s favorite film actor.

• Clint Eastwood has 7 children and, unlike a large number of celebrity’s kids, all of his children have beautiful names: Kimber, Kyle, Alison, Scott, Kathryn, Francesca, and Morgan.

• Is a partial owner of the Pebble Beach Golf Country Club in Monterey Peninsula, California.

• As an actor, Clint Eastwood has made a living from perceived violence. However, as a man, he absolutely despises violence and has shown its horrors in recent films such as Unforgiven (1992), A Perfect World (1993), Absolute Power (1997), Mystic River (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Gran Torino (2008).

• When directing, he simply says “okay” instead of “action” and “cut.”

• In 2004 – at the age 74 – Clint Eastwood became the oldest person to win the Best Director Oscar for Million Dollar Baby.

• Gran Torino grossed $30 million during its opening weekend in 2009, making Clint Eastwood the oldest leading man to reach #1 at the box office.

• He wore the same poncho, without ever having washed it, in all three of his “Man with No Name” Westerns.

• Clint Eastwood’s mother lived to be 97 years old.

• He’s an avid collector of western art.

• Ironically, although he often smokes onscreen, he is a lifelong non-smoker off screen.

• He was not nominated for an Academy Award, either as an actor or as a director, until age 62.

• Speaks Italian fluently.

• Clint Eastwood’s first really big break was the television series Rawhide. He got his role on Rawhide while visiting a friend at the CBS lot He caught a studio executive’s eye because he “looked like a cowboy.”

• In the 1990s, he named the following as his favorite Clint Eastwood films: Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Bronco Billy (1980), Honkytonk Man (1982), Unforgiven (1992) and A Perfect World (1993).

• 1950-1954:  Drafted and served in the United States Army, assigned to Special Services.

• Clint Eastwood names racism as the trait he most despises in others.

• He lived with actress Sondra Locke for 14 years although they never married. The made six films together: Any Which Way You Can (1980), Bronco Billy (1980), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), The Gauntlet (1977), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983).

A few trademarks of Clint Eastwood-directed movies:

• He frequently uses shadow lighting.

• At the end, during the credits the camera will move around the location it was filmed in. The scene will then freezeframe for the rest of the credits.

• Most of his movies begin and end with the death of a character.

• Often plays characters who are consumed by regrets over past mistakesand are given one chance to redeem themselves (Unforgiven, In the Line of Fire, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino)

• He refuses to test screen his films before their release. He’s done this with all of the films he’s directed.

• Clint Eastwood has directed 9 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank, Angelina Jolie, and himself – in Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). Hackman, Penn, Robbins, Freeman and Swank won Oscars for their performances in one of Eastwood’s movies.

A Couple of Favorite Clint Eastwood Quotes:
“I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live.”

“I liked the Million Dollar Baby script a lot. Warner Bros said the project had been submitted to them and they’d passed on it. I said, ‘But I like it. They said, ‘Well, it’s a boxing movie.’ And I said, ‘It’s not a boxing movie in my opinion. It’s a father-daughter love story, and it’s a lot of other things besides a boxing movie.’ They hemmed and hawed and finally said that if I wanted to take it, maybe they’d pay for the domestic rights only. After that, I’d be on my own. We took it to a couple of other studios, and they turned it down, much like Mystic River was turned down, the exact same pattern. People who kept calling and saying, ‘Come on, work with us on stuff.’ I’d give it to them, and they’d go, ‘Uh, we were thinking more in terms of Dirty Harry coming out of retirement.’ They might have been a little more interested if I said I wanted to do “Dirty Harry 9″ or something.”

“None of the pictures I take a risk in cost a lot, so it doesn’t take much for them to turn a profit. We don’t deal in big budgets. We know what we want and we shoot it and we don’t waste anything. I never understand these films that cost twenty, thirty million dollars when they could be made for half that. Maybe it’s because no one cares. We care.”

“There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality. I got where I am by coming off the wall. I’ve always considered myself too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing.”

“I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead.”

“Maybe I’m getting to the age when I’m starting to be senile or nostalgic or both, but people are so angry now. You used to be able to disagree with people and still be friends. Now you hear these talk shows, and everyone who believes differently from you is a moron and an idiot – both on the Right and the Left.”

“If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.”

Pale Rider Framed Art Print

“Macho was a fashionable word in the 1980s. Everybody was kind of into it, what’s macho and what isn’t macho. I really don’t know what macho is. I never have understood. Does it mean somebody who swaggers around exuding testosterone? And kicks the gate open and runs sprints up and down the street? Or does handsprings or whatever? Or is macho a quiet thing based on your security. I remember shaking hands with Rocky Marciano. He was gentle, he didn’t squeeze your hand. And he had a high voice. But he could knock people around, it was a given. That’s macho. Muhammad Ali is the same. If you talked with him in his younger years, he spoke gently. He wasn’t kicking over chairs. I think some of the most macho people are the gentlest.”

“The Americans who went to Iwo Jima knew it would be a tough fight, but they always believed they’d win. The Japanese were told they wouldn’t come home – they were being sent to die for the Emperor. People have made a lot out of that very different cultural approach. But as I got into the storytelling for the two movie – Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) – I realised that the 19-year-olds from both sides had the same fears. They all wrote poignant letters home saying: “I don’t want to die.” They were all going through the same thing, despite the cultural differences.”

(About President George W. Bush) “You’ve got to admire somebody who stands up for what they believe regardless of how the polls go. A lot of presidents do everything by the polls. They do a focus group then all of a sudden they say, “OK, that’s what I’m going to be for because that’s where focus group is leading me.”

“At this particular time in my life, I’m not doing anything as a moneymaker. It’s like I’m pushing the envelope the other way to see how far we can go to be noncommercial. But I’m definitely not going for the demographics of 13- to 15-year-olds. I didn’t know if Mystic River would go over at all. I had a hard time getting it financed, to tell you the truth. But I just told Warners the same thing I did with Million Dollar Baby: ‘I don’t know if this is going to make any money. But I think I can make a picture that you’d be proud to have in your library.’”

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Every year, when the Oscar nominations are announced, I’m left scratching my head. I swear, I don’t think the committee actually watches all of the movies. How Gran Torino could not be nominated for best movie is absolutely ridiculous. Not only was it one of the best 3 movies of the year, it’s one of the best ever.

I’m also pretty sure they didn’t even watch Eagle Eye, or Shia LaBeouf would have gotten a nod.

The biggest surprise of all, though, is the fact that Clint Eastwood wasn’t nominated for his outstanding performance in Gran Torino. This was this Hollywood legend’s best performance ever and to snub him is so pathetic I’m at a loss for words.

Below is the list of the nominees (in bold is my personal pick and in parentheses are my beefs…for what they’re worth! If there are no words in bold, it only means I don’t much care either way.):

BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
(Gran Torino should have been nominated.)

BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
(Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino, should have been nominated and should have won.)

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
(Shia LaBeouf, Eagle Eye, and Bee Vang, Gran Torino, should have been nominated)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
(Ahney Her from Gran Torino should have been nominated and should have won – she was exquisite!)

DIRECTOR
David Fincher
Ron Howard
Gus Van Sant
Stephen Daldry
Danny Boyle
(Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino AND Changeling should have been nominated and should have won)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Courtney Hunt – Frozen River
Mike Leigh – Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin – In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black – Milk
Andrew Stanton – WALL-E

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eric Roth and Robin Swicord – Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt
Peter Morgan – Frost/Nixon
David Hare – The Reader
Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir

ANIMATED
Bolt
Kung Fun Panda
WALL-E

The Oscars will be held on February 22nd and will be hosted by Hugh Jackman.

The picture at the top of the post are from the Berlin premiere of Benjamin Button. To see more, click HERE.

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It doesn’t get much better than this. One of my favorite-ist actors and directors, Clint Eastwood directed one of my favorite-ist actresses ever, Angelina Jolie, in Changeling. It opens tomorrow in theaters and if I had a tent I’d probably go camp out just to be near them when they hit town.

I have a feeling the performances, settings, clothes, story – everything – is going to be remarkable.

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Whoa.  Not good.

Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood are having a little bit of a tit for tat.  It’s fast becomming a “He said..then he said…” spectacle.

Apparently, Spike Lee took exception to the representation of “African American” men in Eastwood’s films, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima.” It’s his right, of course, to have opinions about other director’s work. Just as other directors may take exception to his films. For example, maybe they question the way their race is represented in his films. However, Spike Lee didn’t just think the thoughts, he voiced them. As a fan of both men, I wish Lee had gone to Eastwood – face to face, man to man. If he thought something was unfair, I personally think he should have had his say – to Clint Eastwood. There wasn’t any need, in my opinion, to speak out publicly on the subject.

Eastwood’s response: Again, words that would have been better directed (excuse the pun) at the individual, not the public. “The story is ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go: ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.” Referring to Lee, he added: “A guy like him should shut his face.”

As you can guess, that went over pretty well.

Spike Lee’s response? “First of all, the man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation either,” he said. “He’s a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn’t personally attack him. And a comment like ‘a guy like that should shut his face’ – come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there.”

Now it’s stooped to name-calling. Not cool. These are educated men, here!

Here are the facts: almost 900 of the 30,000 marines that stormed the Japanese island were African-American. Eastwood explained that he wasn’t going to alter history for the sake of a film:

“I’m not in that game. I’m playing it the way I read it historically, and that’s the way it is,” he said.

“When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‘Bird,’ I use 90% black people.” Bird was, of course, his 1998 film about jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker. Eastwood brought up the fact that even then, Spike Lee complained – “He was complaining when I did Bird (a biopic of Charlie Parker). Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that’s why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else.”

Truth, more than anything, hits the hardest, doesn’t it?

Spike Lee’s next film is “Miracle at St. Anna.” It’s about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division that fought in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. Clint Eastwood’s next project (The Human Factor) is about Nelson Mandela and his journey to help South Africa overcome the damages of apartheid.

About casting this film, Clint Eastwood said, “I’m not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy.”
Touche’!

*In an AOL poll, the question was asked, “Whose side are you on?” After voting, I saw that 92 percent are on “Team Clint” and 8 percent are on “Team Spike.”

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Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston Photo Enlargement
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Sadly, one of my all-time favorite actors recently died. He did, however, get to live a long, rewarding life and make a huge impact on the entertainment world – whether he was battling apes or delivering the 10 Commandments. Of course I’m referring to the one and only, larger than life Charlton Heston. When I was really, really young….and my interest was beginning to be held by the male population, Charlton Heston (along with Clint Eastwood) were early crushes. While most girls my age were enthralled by celebrities of our own generation (Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson, Mark Hamil…) – I was much more attracted to the tough guys from the past. Besides, around my house, that’s the sort of thing my dad always had on. Old movies and the Rockford Files. (I liked him, too!)

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen the Planet of the Apes movies – each and every one of them. I love this series! Campy? Sure. But I can’t get enough of the whole experience – from the UNBELIEVABLE music to the first sign of an ape… I’m glued to the screen right till the end. Each and every time.

We’ve lost a great, great actor and person. Damn dirty death!

I would like to say this (although I try to keep political and social opinions off of most of my blogs…especially my entertainment ones) – I wish people would quit harping on Charlton Heston’s views on guns/gun control. This is America, and everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. They’re free to express themselves as well as their opinions. If someone, today (with the world as it is now) doesn’t agree with Mr. Heston’s views on guns – they have to remember that he came from a different generation than the rest of us. The world when Charlton Heston was growing up – and even the one he lived in as an adult in his 30s and 40s – was vastly different from the one we face today! We have no way of knowing what his opinions would be if he were a 35 year old man in the 2008. He might have had the same opinions (which would have been his right) or he might have had complete opposite opinions (also his right).

I’d just rather concentrate on his entire life – not a tiny portion of it.

Charlton Heston Photo Enlargement
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Shop MTV is coming out with an AMAZING-sounding collection for Charlton Heston fans: The Hollywood Collection: Charlton Heston – For All Seasons.

From the website:
Expected Release Date: May 6, 2008
Order this item now and we will ship it to you as soon as it is available.

This documentary video, part of The Hollywood Collection, features the life and work of actor and political conservative Charlton Heston.

After growing up in a rural part of Michigan, Heston migrated to the urban landscape of Chicago to attend a high school for the dramatic arts. He attended Northwestern University, where his talent and passion for acting increased with his participation in school theater productions. Then he moved onto the Broadway stage and eventually to the movie soundstages in Hollywood.

Heston, known best for his epic film roles as such biblical characters as Moses in Cecil B. De Mille’s The Ten Commandments and as the title character in William Wyler’s Oscar-winning production of Ben-Hur, speaks openly in this video about his career, family, and his politics. This video also shows movie footage, including a rare 1942 student film of a young Heston. There are also interviews with family, co-workers, and friends, including Gregory Peck.

Sign me up!

More Charlton Heston Pictures, Posters and Prints:

Charlton Heston Photo
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Charlton Heston Photo Enlargement
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The Omega Man Poster
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Ben-Hur Photo
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Julius Caesar Poster
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Planet of the Apes Photo
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Charlton Heston Photo
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I love that a lot of today’s fashion features throwbacks to the golden age of Hollywood’s glamour and mystique. Click HERE to read about a business that makes gorgeous silk hankies. You won’t believe how lovely these little beauties are!

By the way – this has absolutely, totally NOTHING to do with fashion or glamour, but did you catch High Plains Drifter last night? Clint Eastwood’s a big, big favorite of mine, and this movie’s one of his best. Something about the characters, the scenes…everything, I just love it. I only watched a little of it, though, because my beloved St. Louis Cardinals were playing, and God knows they need all the support they can get this year!

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