It’s time to take a look at a great actor and countdown their ten best movies. These are my Top 10 Best Clint Eastwood movies.
Clint has plenty of great movies to choose from, just think of all the classic westerns he has made likes of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly to Unforgiven to name just two. How about the Dirty Harry series of films or maybe some of the war movies such as Kelly’s Heroes, Where Eagles Dare or Heartbreak Ridge.
Then we have the likes of Play Misty For Me, In The Line Of Fire and Absolute Power. With so many great movies to choose from this is going to extremely tough selecting the best ten, but I will give it a go.
Top 10 Best Clint Eastwood Movies
10. Pale Rider (1985)
I simply love the way Eastwood makes his presence felt in town whilst some fellows are beating up a poor undeserving chap. Eastwood again plays on the man with no name type character, this time appearing to be a gun / stick bearing preacher sent to help a small community of gold prospectors.
With a haunting musical score that really hits the spot.
Now I would normally show you the trailer but it is absolutely terrible and is not in any way represenative of the film. I mean for those of us in UK it happens to be the same music as used on the Channel 4 news.
Come on trailer guys, what were you thinking? That music is nowhere to be found in the film and the music that is in the film as I mention earlier is outstanding. I have instead found a great clip that does do the film justice.
I know what you are thinking did he fire six shots or oh wait wrong film! Having mentioned it above you probably now want to see the awful Pale Rider trailer so click here
Hang on I a second is that the news headlines I hear…
9. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
- Starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood
This is a classic war film, no I’ll go way further it’s a outstanding film period! Great acting from both stars, a brilliant story make this a must see movie.
Oh and I simpy adore the music.
Take a look at the trailer
8. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
The first of Eastwoods spaghetti western films with director Sergio Leone and it’s brillant. The man with no name arrives in town and plays the two main familes off against each other.
Great music by the great Ennio Morricone what else do I need say…
Time for the trailer
7. Kelly’s Heroes (1970)
A great war movie filled with plenty of humour and a great soundtrack make this one you can watch over and over again.
Starring Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Don Rickles in a film about a daring heist behind Germans lines.
I should just say that Telly Savalas is exceptionally good as is Eastwood and Sutherland.
Well take a look for yourself, here is the trailer…
6. For A Few Dollars More (1965)
The second of Eastwoods spaghetti westerns and this one sees him joined by Lee Van Cleef as they join forces to collect a big reward.
Again the music by Ennio Morricone and if anything is a little better than A Fistful of Dollars, wow!
Here’s the trailer
Halfway through my top 10 best Clint Eastwood movies countdown, can you guess what will be at number one?
5. Magnum Force (1973)
The second of the Dirty Harry films and one that is kind of brutal and it’s not Inspector Callahan who crosses the line, but don’t worry he will be the one to sort it out in some style.
- Starring Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, David Soul
Brilliant cop action with plenty of memorable and quotable lines throughout. Music comes from Lalo Schifrin and is perfect.
Here is the trailer
4. Unforgiven (1992)
To say they don’t or can’t make westerns like this would be probably a fair statement. Eastwood pretty much single handly kept the western genre going through the eighties and finishes in 1992 with Unforgiven and it’s an absolute gem!
Eastwood is backed up with a outstanding cast including Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman and Richard Harris. Now with those kind of actors in the same film there has to be a good chance of something special occuring. The good news, no the great news is something amazing did happen and this is in my opinion the last great western. Although Tarantino may have something to say on that!
A prostitute is disfigured at the brothel by a cowboy leading to a reward for him being brought to justice aka being shot dead. Enter an ageing William Munny (Clint Eastwood) who goes along for a share of the reward.
I really can’t stress enough how good this film is, great cast, brillantly directed by Eastwood. It looks just perfect and has the right musical score which at times is gentle, reflective and thought-provoking.
Now time for the trailer
3. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Clint Eastwood plays Josey Wales a farmer who’s family are murdered by a band of Union supporters prompting him to seek revenge as an outlaw.
Directed by Eastwood this is another great western which I have seen more times than I can remember.
Trailer time
2. The Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
- Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach
- Directed by Sergio Leone
- Music By Ennio Morricone
My favourite western period, put simply it’s a masterpiece from Eastwood, Leone and Morricone. or in other words great acting, directing and music.
The third and last of Eastwood spaghetti westerns just happens to be the best. The previous two are brilliant but The Good, The Bad And The Ugly really does takes it to the next level.
Simply put it’s a must see movie.
The finale is one of best endings to a film you will ever see, building the tension via intense close-ups of the eyes and that amazing music. Outstanding
Don’t believe me take a look at the trailer
1. Dirty Harry (1971)
So there you have it, my number one Clint Eastwood film is none other than Dirty Harry. Eastwood oozes style right from our first introduction to Dirty Harry.
- Directed by Don Siegel, Music By Lalo Schifrin
- Starring Clint Eastwood and Andy Robinson
Andy Robinson plays a serial killer known as Scorpio and Harry Callahan is the one who will bring him to justice.
Most people will be familar with the line “This is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
Take a look at the trailer
Conclusion: Top 10 Best Clint Eastwood Movies
There you have it, I struggled terribly whittling this down to my favourite ten / top 10 best Clint Eastwood movies. The ones that were in the running to be included in the top ten right until the last moment were Gran Torino, Two Mules For Sister Sara, The Enforcer and High Plains Drifter.
Dirty Harry takes the top spot from The Good The Bad And The Ugly by a whisker. Those two movies a among my absolute favourite movies of all time and I have lost count of the amount of times I have seen them. It’s probably way too many times as I can quote both films practically scene for scene, I should probably get out more!
The good thing about Clint Eastwood is pretty much all his films are good or excellent and well worthy watching with most now available restored on Blu-ray.
What do you think are the top 10 best Clint Eastwood movies?
