When you search for Clint Eastwood’s filmography, even the most seasoned cinephiles can’t help but tip their cowboy hats in awe. With a career spanning decades, the acclaimed actor-director, 94, has become a veritable titan of Tinseltown. The magic began to sparkle on the Hollywood horizon when the Western film Two Mules for Sister Sara marked his ascent, featuring his name alongside Shirley MacLaine—a rare sight indeed!
Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County | Credit: Warner Bros.
And then you might wonder what it takes for him to consistently steal the show, even when sharing the screen with luminaries like Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County? Also note that he was juggling the directing duties of this flick, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The movie was a chef-d’œuvre, garnering universal critical acclaim and making waves in Hollywood circles, with Streep earning an...
Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County | Credit: Warner Bros.
And then you might wonder what it takes for him to consistently steal the show, even when sharing the screen with luminaries like Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County? Also note that he was juggling the directing duties of this flick, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The movie was a chef-d’œuvre, garnering universal critical acclaim and making waves in Hollywood circles, with Streep earning an...
- 8/15/2024
- by Siddhika Prajapati
- FandomWire
Groundbreaking jazz pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal died this weekend, as per reports in the New York Times and other outlets. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2017. He was also nominated for two Grammys, one for his 2013 album “Blue Moon,” and also for his funky 1980s cover of Bobby Womack’s “You’re Welcome, Stop on By,” which was later sampled by multiple hip-hop artists. He was also the recipient of an Nea Jazz Masters Award, and Kennedy Center Legend Award, and was named to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2007. He was 92 years old.
The Pittsburgh-born pianist, who trained in Western classical music, was a noted prodigy in his youth, and began his professional career in his teens. On the road, the young man born Frederick Jones was welcomed by the Muslim community in the Detroit area,...
The Pittsburgh-born pianist, who trained in Western classical music, was a noted prodigy in his youth, and began his professional career in his teens. On the road, the young man born Frederick Jones was welcomed by the Muslim community in the Detroit area,...
- 4/17/2023
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
Who will be included for the special “In Memoriam” segment for Sunday night’s Oscars 2021 ceremony? With last year’s Academy Awards happening over 14 months ago, it means an even larger number of film veterans have died. Producers will hopefully be offering a longer remembrance and not leaving out people for the sake of time.
Superstar actor Chadwick Boseman died late last summer and is a nominee as Best Actor for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Previous Oscar winners from acting categories show who will likely be honored include Sean Connery, Olivia de Havilland, Cloris Leachman and Christopher Plummer. Past acting nominees include Hal Holbrook, Ian Holm, Shirley Knight, George Segal, Cicely Tyson, Max von Sydow and Stuart Whitman.
SEE2021 Oscars presenters: Last year’s winners Renee Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Brad Pitt returning
Almost all of the near 100 people on the list below were Academy members.
Superstar actor Chadwick Boseman died late last summer and is a nominee as Best Actor for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Previous Oscar winners from acting categories show who will likely be honored include Sean Connery, Olivia de Havilland, Cloris Leachman and Christopher Plummer. Past acting nominees include Hal Holbrook, Ian Holm, Shirley Knight, George Segal, Cicely Tyson, Max von Sydow and Stuart Whitman.
SEE2021 Oscars presenters: Last year’s winners Renee Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Brad Pitt returning
Almost all of the near 100 people on the list below were Academy members.
- 4/23/2021
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
It was definitely an evening of “soul” at the second annual Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards, as the Pixar film “Soul” and the Latvian film “Blizzard of Souls” took the top prizes for outstanding original scores for 2020 films.
The “Soul” composing trio of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste won for outstanding original score for a studio film, their second such prize in 48 hours after winning the Golden Globe Sunday night. Should it maintain this momentum through other ceremonies in the weeks to come, “Soul” could be the film to beat at Oscar time.
Batiste, music director for TV’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” contributed the jazz material for the story about an aspiring jazz pianist whose life is cut short by an accident. Reznor and Ross wrote the dramatic score. Reznor and Ross, who were also nominated this year for “Mank,” are best known for their Nine...
The “Soul” composing trio of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste won for outstanding original score for a studio film, their second such prize in 48 hours after winning the Golden Globe Sunday night. Should it maintain this momentum through other ceremonies in the weeks to come, “Soul” could be the film to beat at Oscar time.
Batiste, music director for TV’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” contributed the jazz material for the story about an aspiring jazz pianist whose life is cut short by an accident. Reznor and Ross wrote the dramatic score. Reznor and Ross, who were also nominated this year for “Mank,” are best known for their Nine...
- 3/3/2021
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross now have an Emmy to add to their Oscar and Grammy awards, having won Thursday night for their score for HBO’s “Watchmen.”
The Reznor-Ross team were previously honored with an Academy Award for “The Social Network” and a Grammy for their score for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
Accepting remotely — as did all of this week’s Emmy winners — Reznor said: “We’re very proud to be involved with a show that’s relevant, smart and daring. We were changed and affected by working on this, and it’s great to see it resonate with the world at large.” He thanked creator Damon Lindelof for “providing us such a broad canvas to paint on.”
Six of the seven Emmy music categories were awarded over the first four Creative Arts Emmy installments this week. Also winning Thursday night was British singer-songwriter Labrinth, who was...
The Reznor-Ross team were previously honored with an Academy Award for “The Social Network” and a Grammy for their score for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
Accepting remotely — as did all of this week’s Emmy winners — Reznor said: “We’re very proud to be involved with a show that’s relevant, smart and daring. We were changed and affected by working on this, and it’s great to see it resonate with the world at large.” He thanked creator Damon Lindelof for “providing us such a broad canvas to paint on.”
Six of the seven Emmy music categories were awarded over the first four Creative Arts Emmy installments this week. Also winning Thursday night was British singer-songwriter Labrinth, who was...
- 9/18/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Duane L. Tatro, who composed for nearly two dozen TV series, including such long-running hits as “Dynasty,” “The Love Boat” and “Barnaby Jones,” died Sunday at his home in Bell Canyon, Calif. He was 93.
Tatro’s music accompanied the action on “The FBI,” “Mannix,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Cade’s County,” “Cannon,” “Most Wanted,” “Vega$” and “Matt Houston,” as well as the comedy of “M*A*S*H” and the romantic melodrama of “Glitter,” “The Colbys” and “Hotel.” His first series was the sci-fi thriller “The Invaders” in 1967, and he worked steadily in TV for the next two decades.
He got to compose the series theme for just one show: Quinn Martin’s period detective drama “The Manhunter,” which lasted a single season in 1974-75.
Tatro was born in Van Nuys on May 18, 1927. The son of an inventor, he played saxophone with Stan Kenton’s big band while he was just 16 years old.
Tatro’s music accompanied the action on “The FBI,” “Mannix,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Cade’s County,” “Cannon,” “Most Wanted,” “Vega$” and “Matt Houston,” as well as the comedy of “M*A*S*H” and the romantic melodrama of “Glitter,” “The Colbys” and “Hotel.” His first series was the sci-fi thriller “The Invaders” in 1967, and he worked steadily in TV for the next two decades.
He got to compose the series theme for just one show: Quinn Martin’s period detective drama “The Manhunter,” which lasted a single season in 1974-75.
Tatro was born in Van Nuys on May 18, 1927. The son of an inventor, he played saxophone with Stan Kenton’s big band while he was just 16 years old.
- 8/15/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Lennie Niehaus, who went from Stan Kenton sideman to Clint Eastwood’s movie composer during a nearly 60-year career in music, died Thursday at his daughter’s home in Redlands, Calif. He was 90.
Niehaus’s two dozen films for Eastwood include original scores for the best picture-winning Western “Unforgiven,” the Charlie Parker biopic “Bird” and the popular romantic drama “The Bridges of Madison County.”
The two met in 1953 at California’s Fort Ord, when the two were in the Army during the Korean Conflict. “I used to play jazz jobs at one of the beer clubs on the base, and Clint was tending bar,” Niehaus wrote in an essay about the actor-director for his 1996 American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. “I used to go off post and play in a little jazz club in nearby Santa Cruz on Sunday afternoons, and he would be there.”
Niehaus’s Army service interrupted...
Niehaus’s two dozen films for Eastwood include original scores for the best picture-winning Western “Unforgiven,” the Charlie Parker biopic “Bird” and the popular romantic drama “The Bridges of Madison County.”
The two met in 1953 at California’s Fort Ord, when the two were in the Army during the Korean Conflict. “I used to play jazz jobs at one of the beer clubs on the base, and Clint was tending bar,” Niehaus wrote in an essay about the actor-director for his 1996 American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. “I used to go off post and play in a little jazz club in nearby Santa Cruz on Sunday afternoons, and he would be there.”
Niehaus’s Army service interrupted...
- 6/1/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Lennie Niehaus, the West Coast alto saxophonist, arranger and composer who played with Stan Kenton's band and collaborated with Clint Eastwood on more than two dozen films, has died. He was 90.
Niehaus died Thursday at his daughter's home in Redlands, California, under hospice care, his family announced.
Niehaus first met Eastwood in the 1950s in the U.S. Army when the future Hollywood legend served as his swimming instructor at Fort Ord in Monterey, California. A mutual love of jazz sealed their friendship.
Niehaus had orchestrated scores for movies starring or directed by Eastwood including The Outlaw ...
Niehaus died Thursday at his daughter's home in Redlands, California, under hospice care, his family announced.
Niehaus first met Eastwood in the 1950s in the U.S. Army when the future Hollywood legend served as his swimming instructor at Fort Ord in Monterey, California. A mutual love of jazz sealed their friendship.
Niehaus had orchestrated scores for movies starring or directed by Eastwood including The Outlaw ...
Lennie Niehaus, the West Coast alto saxophonist, arranger and composer who played with Stan Kenton's band and collaborated with Clint Eastwood on more than two dozen films, has died. He was 90.
Niehaus died Thursday at his daughter's home in Redlands, California, under hospice care, his family announced.
Niehaus first met Eastwood in the 1950s in the U.S. Army when the future Hollywood legend served as his swimming instructor at Fort Ord in Monterey, California. A mutual love of jazz sealed their friendship.
Niehaus had orchestrated scores for movies starring or directed by Eastwood including The Outlaw ...
Niehaus died Thursday at his daughter's home in Redlands, California, under hospice care, his family announced.
Niehaus first met Eastwood in the 1950s in the U.S. Army when the future Hollywood legend served as his swimming instructor at Fort Ord in Monterey, California. A mutual love of jazz sealed their friendship.
Niehaus had orchestrated scores for movies starring or directed by Eastwood including The Outlaw ...
Jazz musician, television actor and developmental research psychologist Roger V. Burton died Nov. 30 at his home in Santa Monica. He was 90 years old.
Burton began as a professional jazz trombonist at the age of 11, playing in big bands and on studio film soundtracks. Earning himself the nickname “Schoolboy” for doing homework between set breaks, he started college at University of Southern California at the age of 16 and graduated with a BA and Bm in music, as well as an Ma in Sciences.
His musical history includes playing with Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Andre Previn, Johnny Ray, Frankie Laine, the Lennie Niehaus Octet, The Ink Spots, the Chuck Cabot Band, and the Dick Pierce Band. He was a regular on Ernst Gold studio recordings for films as well as The Hoagy Carmichael Show on NBC.
After taking lessons from friend and jazz legend Charles Mingus, Burton switched to the bass...
Burton began as a professional jazz trombonist at the age of 11, playing in big bands and on studio film soundtracks. Earning himself the nickname “Schoolboy” for doing homework between set breaks, he started college at University of Southern California at the age of 16 and graduated with a BA and Bm in music, as well as an Ma in Sciences.
His musical history includes playing with Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Andre Previn, Johnny Ray, Frankie Laine, the Lennie Niehaus Octet, The Ink Spots, the Chuck Cabot Band, and the Dick Pierce Band. He was a regular on Ernst Gold studio recordings for films as well as The Hoagy Carmichael Show on NBC.
After taking lessons from friend and jazz legend Charles Mingus, Burton switched to the bass...
- 12/5/2018
- by Margeaux Sippell
- Variety Film + TV
Clint Eastwood's mint juleps 'n' murder epic is an easygoing pleasure. Kevin Spacey, John Cusack and a host of great performances guarantee interest, but maybe I have to go to the book to really understand what's going on. A solid 'A' for this one, Clint. The Savannah tourism board must bless you in their nightly prayers. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Blu-ray The Warner Archive Collection 1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 155 min. / Street Date September 27, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 21.99 Starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jack Thompson, Irma P. Hall, Jude Law, Alison Eastwood, Paul Hipp, The Lady Chablis, Dorothy Loudon, Anne Haney, Kim Hunter, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Herd, Jo Ann Pflug. Cinematography Jack N. Green Original Music Lennie Niehaus Written by John Lee Hancock from the book by John Berendt Produced by Clint Eastwood, Arnold Stiefel Directed by Clint Eastwood
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Clint Eastwood...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Clint Eastwood...
- 9/5/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Disney continues its Blu-ray releases of the animated movies from their 1990s "Renaissance" with Pocahontas and its sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, thrown in for fun. The three-disc collection features the two films on one Blu-ray and individually on two DVDs. Both are quality projects but look completely different in comparison to each other. Each received a nice facelift and restoration to make them look better than they ever have before.
Pocahontas shows us how the young Native American Princess meets Englishman John Smith. The two engage in a romantic relationship which brings to mind Romeo and Juliet. Her Indian tribe and his group of settlers clash over the land with tragic consequences.
This was the first Disney movie based on an actual historical figure. It does a great job of keeping true to the spirit of the actual incidences it's based on. That's not to say...
Pocahontas shows us how the young Native American Princess meets Englishman John Smith. The two engage in a romantic relationship which brings to mind Romeo and Juliet. Her Indian tribe and his group of settlers clash over the land with tragic consequences.
This was the first Disney movie based on an actual historical figure. It does a great job of keeping true to the spirit of the actual incidences it's based on. That's not to say...
- 9/5/2012
- by feeds@themoviepool.com (Eric Shirey)
- Cinelinx
Disney continues its Blu-ray releases of the animated movies from their 1990s "Renaissance" with Pocahontas and its sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, thrown in for fun. The three-disc collection features the two films on one Blu-ray and individually on two DVDs. Both are quality projects but look completely different in comparison to each other. Each received a nice facelift and restoration to make them look better than they ever have before.
Pocahontas shows us how the young Native American Princess meets Englishman John Smith. The two engage in a romantic relationship which brings to mind Romeo and Juliet. Her Indian tribe and his group of settlers clash over the land with tragic consequences.
This was the first Disney movie based on an actual historical figure. It does a great job of keeping true to the spirit of the actual incidences it's based on. That's not to say...
Pocahontas shows us how the young Native American Princess meets Englishman John Smith. The two engage in a romantic relationship which brings to mind Romeo and Juliet. Her Indian tribe and his group of settlers clash over the land with tragic consequences.
This was the first Disney movie based on an actual historical figure. It does a great job of keeping true to the spirit of the actual incidences it's based on. That's not to say...
- 9/5/2012
- by feeds@themoviepool.com (Eric Shirey)
- Cinelinx
He’s one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars, a respected director, and an accomplished musician, too. Glen salutes the finest scores of Clint Eastwood...
One of the most well respected actors and directors working today, Clint Eastwood has an enviable body of work to his credit. He is also quite vocal about his love of music, particularly jazz, which underpins much of directorial efforts, and country and western, which marked his debut album in 1959, Cowboy Favourites.
Whilst the album was far from a success, he has written a number of excellent pieces for films over the years including Honkytonk Man, City Heat, Heartbreak Ridge, A Perfect World, The Bridges Of Madison County, Qui, Absolute Power, True Crime, Space Cowboys, the piano compositions for In The Line Of Fire, and the excellent song that plays out during the credits of Gran Torino.
Having penned numerous songs to accompany projects over the years,...
One of the most well respected actors and directors working today, Clint Eastwood has an enviable body of work to his credit. He is also quite vocal about his love of music, particularly jazz, which underpins much of directorial efforts, and country and western, which marked his debut album in 1959, Cowboy Favourites.
Whilst the album was far from a success, he has written a number of excellent pieces for films over the years including Honkytonk Man, City Heat, Heartbreak Ridge, A Perfect World, The Bridges Of Madison County, Qui, Absolute Power, True Crime, Space Cowboys, the piano compositions for In The Line Of Fire, and the excellent song that plays out during the credits of Gran Torino.
Having penned numerous songs to accompany projects over the years,...
- 8/31/2010
- Den of Geek
Million Dollar Baby
Encouraged by the positive reaction to Mystic River, Clint Eastwood continues his exploration of the tragic side of human existence in Million Dollar Baby, a film that enters a murky area of the soul where a man can hide out from his God even as he seeks His mercy. On the surface, the film is a simple boxing story about a hellcat from the Ozarks and the grizzled Irish Catholic trainer who takes her on. Under Eastwood's painstakingly stripped-down direction -- his filmmaking has become the cinematic equivalent of Hemingway's spare though precise prose -- the story emerges as that rarest of birds, an uplifting tragedy.
Million Dollar Baby may appeal to a narrower range of moviegoers than the usual Eastwood film. The film lacks the propulsive energy of Mystic River, which, after all, was a crime tale, and the story rarely leaves the gym or boxing ring. While the film should achieve above-average results in urban markets, critical reaction and possible Oscar nominations may add substantially to the boxoffice.
Paul Haggis' screenplay is drawn from a story in "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner," a collection of short stories based on the experiences of longtime cutman and fight manager Jerry Boyd, writing at age 70 under the pen name of F.X. Toole. What one must get used to is a writing style that favors stereotypes and familiar plots. It is the force of the personality Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman bring to these gym rats that causes them to emerge as convincing archetypes in a story of almost mystical heroism.
Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) is an emotionally closed, sour individual. Estranged from his only daughter -- the movie never gets to the bottom of how he earned her scorn -- he holes up in his downtown L.A. gym, surrounded by fighters and Scap (Freeman), an ex-boxer who runs the place. Frankie is not on good terms with God, either. He attends Mass nearly every day but does so mostly to argue with the exasperated priest (Brian O'Byrne).
When Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank), an emotionally scared hillbilly, asks him to train her, his answer is curt: At 31, she is too old, and he doesn't train "girlies." Nonetheless, she works out at his gym for a year, getting occasional tips from Scrap, before wearing Frankie down to where he grudgingly takes her on. The rocky road taken by fighter and trainer leads to a championship match. Here the story takes an abrupt turn into tragedy that forces the two to confront the true meaning of love and the strange way fate can deliver redemption.
The film has few characters. Jay Baruchel stands out as a mentally challenged man with delusions of becoming a boxer. Maggie's trailer-trash family threatens to overwhelm the movie with cliches. Otherwise, Million Dollar Baby is a three-character drama.
Clearly, Maggie becomes the daughter Frankie lacks, but theirs is a combative relationship in which they are never on the same page until the end. Similarly, Frankie and Scrap bicker like an old married couple, yet beneath the surface is a compelling symbiosis. Frankie was cutman on Scrap's last fight, where he lost an eye. Frankie can never forgive himself for not finding a way to stop the brutal bout, and Scrap knows how quickly Frankie would fall apart were he to ever leave.
What happened to Scrap has made Frankie overly cautious. He tells all his fighters to protect themselves, but what he really wants to protect is himself. Thus, he never puts his boxers into title fights, which drives them to managers who will. When he finally does agree to a title fight, his worst fears are confirmed.
The film is told in a voice-over narration by Scrap in which the poetry and homilies are a bit self-conscious. Director Eastwood keeps individual scenes simple and quick, like Maggie's fights. Once he gets the emotional impact he's after, he cuts and moves quickly on.
Similarly, Eastwood's music (orchestrated by Lennie Niehaus) is paired down, often to a lonesome guitar that reflects the characters' melancholy. Henry Bumstead's sets look old and worn. You can smell the stale sweat. Tom Stern's cinematography is straightforward in muted colors as the film plays nicely with light and shadows.
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Lakeshore EntertainmentA Malpaso/Ruddy Morgan production
Credits:
Director-music: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriter: Paul Haggis
Based on Rope Burns by: F.X. Toole
Producers: Albert S. Ruddy, Tom Rosenberg, Paul Haggis
Executive producers: Gary Lucchesi, Robert Lorenz
Director of photography: Tom Stern
Production designer: Henry Bumstead
Music orchestration: Lennie Niehaus
Co-producer: Bobby Moresco
Costumes: Deborah Hopper
Editor: Joel Cox
Cast:
Frankie Dunn: Clint Eastwood
Maggie Fitzgerald: Hilary Swank
Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris: Morgan Freeman
Danger Barch: Jay Baruchel
Big Willie Little: Mike Colter
Billie The Blue Bear: Lucia Rijker
Father Horvak: Brian O'Byrne
Shawrelle Berry: Anthony Mackie
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 132 minutes...
Million Dollar Baby may appeal to a narrower range of moviegoers than the usual Eastwood film. The film lacks the propulsive energy of Mystic River, which, after all, was a crime tale, and the story rarely leaves the gym or boxing ring. While the film should achieve above-average results in urban markets, critical reaction and possible Oscar nominations may add substantially to the boxoffice.
Paul Haggis' screenplay is drawn from a story in "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner," a collection of short stories based on the experiences of longtime cutman and fight manager Jerry Boyd, writing at age 70 under the pen name of F.X. Toole. What one must get used to is a writing style that favors stereotypes and familiar plots. It is the force of the personality Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman bring to these gym rats that causes them to emerge as convincing archetypes in a story of almost mystical heroism.
Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) is an emotionally closed, sour individual. Estranged from his only daughter -- the movie never gets to the bottom of how he earned her scorn -- he holes up in his downtown L.A. gym, surrounded by fighters and Scap (Freeman), an ex-boxer who runs the place. Frankie is not on good terms with God, either. He attends Mass nearly every day but does so mostly to argue with the exasperated priest (Brian O'Byrne).
When Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank), an emotionally scared hillbilly, asks him to train her, his answer is curt: At 31, she is too old, and he doesn't train "girlies." Nonetheless, she works out at his gym for a year, getting occasional tips from Scrap, before wearing Frankie down to where he grudgingly takes her on. The rocky road taken by fighter and trainer leads to a championship match. Here the story takes an abrupt turn into tragedy that forces the two to confront the true meaning of love and the strange way fate can deliver redemption.
The film has few characters. Jay Baruchel stands out as a mentally challenged man with delusions of becoming a boxer. Maggie's trailer-trash family threatens to overwhelm the movie with cliches. Otherwise, Million Dollar Baby is a three-character drama.
Clearly, Maggie becomes the daughter Frankie lacks, but theirs is a combative relationship in which they are never on the same page until the end. Similarly, Frankie and Scrap bicker like an old married couple, yet beneath the surface is a compelling symbiosis. Frankie was cutman on Scrap's last fight, where he lost an eye. Frankie can never forgive himself for not finding a way to stop the brutal bout, and Scrap knows how quickly Frankie would fall apart were he to ever leave.
What happened to Scrap has made Frankie overly cautious. He tells all his fighters to protect themselves, but what he really wants to protect is himself. Thus, he never puts his boxers into title fights, which drives them to managers who will. When he finally does agree to a title fight, his worst fears are confirmed.
The film is told in a voice-over narration by Scrap in which the poetry and homilies are a bit self-conscious. Director Eastwood keeps individual scenes simple and quick, like Maggie's fights. Once he gets the emotional impact he's after, he cuts and moves quickly on.
Similarly, Eastwood's music (orchestrated by Lennie Niehaus) is paired down, often to a lonesome guitar that reflects the characters' melancholy. Henry Bumstead's sets look old and worn. You can smell the stale sweat. Tom Stern's cinematography is straightforward in muted colors as the film plays nicely with light and shadows.
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Lakeshore EntertainmentA Malpaso/Ruddy Morgan production
Credits:
Director-music: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriter: Paul Haggis
Based on Rope Burns by: F.X. Toole
Producers: Albert S. Ruddy, Tom Rosenberg, Paul Haggis
Executive producers: Gary Lucchesi, Robert Lorenz
Director of photography: Tom Stern
Production designer: Henry Bumstead
Music orchestration: Lennie Niehaus
Co-producer: Bobby Moresco
Costumes: Deborah Hopper
Editor: Joel Cox
Cast:
Frankie Dunn: Clint Eastwood
Maggie Fitzgerald: Hilary Swank
Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris: Morgan Freeman
Danger Barch: Jay Baruchel
Big Willie Little: Mike Colter
Billie The Blue Bear: Lucia Rijker
Father Horvak: Brian O'Byrne
Shawrelle Berry: Anthony Mackie
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 132 minutes...
- 2/2/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Blood Work
"Blood Work", Clint Eastwood's 23rd film as a director -- and 44th as a star -- takes us into the familiar territory of a cop-crime thriller. Only it gives us a quick sucker punch when Eastwood's character suddenly collapses with a heart attack. Brian Helgeland's screenplay is based on the first novel in Michael Connelly's mystery series featuring Terry McCaleb, a veteran FBI profiler forced into retirement by a heart transplant. This allows Eastwood, the ultimate movie cowboy, to play age and fragility in a character up against not only a master criminal but also his own mortality.
With Eastwood's direction its customary smooth and efficient self backed by his usual handpicked crew of top professionals, "Blood Work" fits snugly into the "classic" Eastwood mode -- an entertaining suspense thriller populated by hard-edged characters who brighten up a somewhat mechanical plot. Warner Bros. Pictures can anticipate solid boxoffice returns here and overseas.
If Sherlock Holmes had his seven-percent solution, then detective McCaleb has a fistful of pills he swallows daily to keep his new heart ticking. As a man with a new but tenuous lease on life, Eastwood walks through this movie gingerly. Yet the rolling gait is that of a man used to macho action. He is struggling to come to terms with his new self, happy to be alive yet flummoxed by the go-slow approach dictated by his condition.
Nothing could drag him from his boat docked in San Pedro Harbor until a determined Graciela Rivers Wanda De Jesus) shows him a photo of her murdered sister. The heart harvested from her late sister is now beating in McCaleb's chest. She asks him to use his skills to solve her sister's murder.
McCaleb's cardiologist (Anjelica Huston) has a fit. Sure enough, the stress of his new case adversely impacts his health, but he pushes himself to solve the case.
McCaleb is decidedly old-school and low-tech. He takes taxis, and his only phone is a pay phone on the marina dock. Eventually, he enlists a neighbor, a beach bum named Buddy (Jeff Daniels), to chauffeur him to his appointments, turning the two into, in Buddy's words, "Starsky and Putz".
Helgeland's script moves gracefully through a series of Southern California locales and vivid characters as red herrings crop up here and there. McCaleb is seemingly in confrontation with everyone -- a couple of hotheaded suspects; a jealous, bitter police detective (Paul Rodriguez in an against-type performance); his doctor, of course; a mysterious stranger tailing him; and sometimes even an old pal in the sheriff's office, Detective Jaye Winston (Tina Lifford), whose manner suggests that sparks once flew between the two.
The retired FBI man carries no badge, a fact he must fudge in interviews with witnesses and suspects. He must also engage in physical confrontations and gunplay that no one 60 days removed from heart-transplant surgery is likely to endure. But this is, after all, crime fiction.
In this regard, the film's surprise ending may satisfy some while disappointing others over its unlikelihood. It comes damn close to "the butler did it." But, clearly, "Blood Work" is designed more to examine character than to solve a mystery. McCaleb is a neat twist on the usual tough-guy heroes in American crime tales. Indeed, for once in a cop movie we see an obnoxious detective, an unsympathetic doctor and crime victims who fight back.
Few directors cast movies as well as Eastwood. Here he again has the right actors in unusual roles, and the actors respond with dynamic performances. Eastwood effectively employs Lennie Niehaus' cool jazz stylings over opening and end credits, while debuting cinematographer Tom Stern's atmospheric camera and Henry Bumstead's intriguing design create a Southern California where blood seems to be everyone's work.
BLOOD WORK
Warner Bros. Pictures
A Malpaso production
Credits:
Director-producer: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Based on the novel by: Michael Connelly
Executive producer: Robert Lorenz
Director of photography: Tom Stern
Production designer: Henry Bumstead
Music: Lennie Niehaus
Co-producer: Judie G. Hoyt
Costume designer: Deborah Hopper
Editor: Joel Cox
Cast:
Terry McCaleb: Clint Eastwood
Buddy Noone: Jeff Daniels
Dr Bonnie Fox: Anjelica Huston
Graciela Rivers: Wanda De Jesus
Jaye Winston: Tina Lifford
Detective Arrango: Paul Rodriguez
Detective Waller: Dylan Walsh
Raymond: Mason Lucero
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
With Eastwood's direction its customary smooth and efficient self backed by his usual handpicked crew of top professionals, "Blood Work" fits snugly into the "classic" Eastwood mode -- an entertaining suspense thriller populated by hard-edged characters who brighten up a somewhat mechanical plot. Warner Bros. Pictures can anticipate solid boxoffice returns here and overseas.
If Sherlock Holmes had his seven-percent solution, then detective McCaleb has a fistful of pills he swallows daily to keep his new heart ticking. As a man with a new but tenuous lease on life, Eastwood walks through this movie gingerly. Yet the rolling gait is that of a man used to macho action. He is struggling to come to terms with his new self, happy to be alive yet flummoxed by the go-slow approach dictated by his condition.
Nothing could drag him from his boat docked in San Pedro Harbor until a determined Graciela Rivers Wanda De Jesus) shows him a photo of her murdered sister. The heart harvested from her late sister is now beating in McCaleb's chest. She asks him to use his skills to solve her sister's murder.
McCaleb's cardiologist (Anjelica Huston) has a fit. Sure enough, the stress of his new case adversely impacts his health, but he pushes himself to solve the case.
McCaleb is decidedly old-school and low-tech. He takes taxis, and his only phone is a pay phone on the marina dock. Eventually, he enlists a neighbor, a beach bum named Buddy (Jeff Daniels), to chauffeur him to his appointments, turning the two into, in Buddy's words, "Starsky and Putz".
Helgeland's script moves gracefully through a series of Southern California locales and vivid characters as red herrings crop up here and there. McCaleb is seemingly in confrontation with everyone -- a couple of hotheaded suspects; a jealous, bitter police detective (Paul Rodriguez in an against-type performance); his doctor, of course; a mysterious stranger tailing him; and sometimes even an old pal in the sheriff's office, Detective Jaye Winston (Tina Lifford), whose manner suggests that sparks once flew between the two.
The retired FBI man carries no badge, a fact he must fudge in interviews with witnesses and suspects. He must also engage in physical confrontations and gunplay that no one 60 days removed from heart-transplant surgery is likely to endure. But this is, after all, crime fiction.
In this regard, the film's surprise ending may satisfy some while disappointing others over its unlikelihood. It comes damn close to "the butler did it." But, clearly, "Blood Work" is designed more to examine character than to solve a mystery. McCaleb is a neat twist on the usual tough-guy heroes in American crime tales. Indeed, for once in a cop movie we see an obnoxious detective, an unsympathetic doctor and crime victims who fight back.
Few directors cast movies as well as Eastwood. Here he again has the right actors in unusual roles, and the actors respond with dynamic performances. Eastwood effectively employs Lennie Niehaus' cool jazz stylings over opening and end credits, while debuting cinematographer Tom Stern's atmospheric camera and Henry Bumstead's intriguing design create a Southern California where blood seems to be everyone's work.
BLOOD WORK
Warner Bros. Pictures
A Malpaso production
Credits:
Director-producer: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Based on the novel by: Michael Connelly
Executive producer: Robert Lorenz
Director of photography: Tom Stern
Production designer: Henry Bumstead
Music: Lennie Niehaus
Co-producer: Judie G. Hoyt
Costume designer: Deborah Hopper
Editor: Joel Cox
Cast:
Terry McCaleb: Clint Eastwood
Buddy Noone: Jeff Daniels
Dr Bonnie Fox: Anjelica Huston
Graciela Rivers: Wanda De Jesus
Jaye Winston: Tina Lifford
Detective Arrango: Paul Rodriguez
Detective Waller: Dylan Walsh
Raymond: Mason Lucero
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/5/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Space Cowboys'
Following Brian De Palma bravely into outer space, Clint Eastwood has come up with a sometimes entertaining but, more often than not, awkward comic drama that can't quite get a handle on its own intentions. While Eastwood's "Space Cowboys" does achieve liftoff, unlike De Palma's "Mission to Mars", which ignobly crashed and burned, one gets the feeling space movies suit neither filmmaker's style or temperament.
What may puzzle many is the degree of sentimentality the actor-director lavishes on his heroes, which may have something to do with age. For in "Space", a geriatric version of "Armageddon", he treats us to scene after scene that kids or dramatizes the fact that he and his co-stars -- Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner -- are no longer youngsters.
The film is very much tailored for these veteran actors, and, naturally, the old guys have ample opportunity to show the movie's young hotshots a thing or two. But what will Eastwood's loyal fans think of him as a senior citizen? And how will younger audiences respond to a movie whose heroes are all candidates for the retirement home? Warner Bros. has a tough sell on its hands.
In a disorienting black-and-white prologue, set in 1958, the movie introduces most of the film's main characters as their early selves, all played by young performers but given voice by the older actors. The personalities and conflicts are established among Team Daedalus, a group of Air Force test pilots pushing the envelope on America's most experimental jet aircraft. When NASA abruptly takes over the space program, their jobs are terminated by an obnoxious officer and -- salting the wounds -- a chimpanzee is designated the nation's first astronaut.
Cut to present day, where the officer, now a NASA bureaucrat (James Cromwell), must reluctantly reassemble Team Daedalus for a priority mission. An old Soviet satellite has failed, and for reasons kept deliberately vague, it is crucial to the United States and Russia that its antiquated guidance system gets repaired. Oddly enough -- and again vagueness will pay off at the climax -- its guidance system is identical to the one designed by Eastwood's character for a now obsolete American satellite. And he is the only Man Alive who knows how to repair the damn thing.
Most of the movie's midsection is taken up with old hostilities -- between Eastwood and Jones and between Cromwell and the entire Team Daedalus -- along with endless age jokes. The oldsters train alongside young-stud astronauts but find ways to outperform -- or at least outthink -- the kids.
This section also contains a strong contender for this year's most unnecessary scene -- the four old guys shot Buck Naked from the back getting a short-arm inspection by a female doctor. An even greater clinker in Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner's screenplay bestows inoperable cancer on Jones, which sets him up for a noble sacrifice in space.
"Space"'s elegiac lament for departed youth, a staple theme of many westerns, fits strangely with the movie's futuristic space hardware and techno-lingo. And Eastwood's directing style is something of a throwback to science fiction of the 1950s.
Having learned much of his trim, suspenseful craftsmanship from his "Dirty Harry" director, Don Siegel, Eastwood takes a no-nonsense approach to outer space. It's just another lonesome prairie to him. Thus, his outer space has none of the touchy-feely mysticism of "Star Trek", the hip B-movie thrills of "Star Wars" or the space opera grandeur of "2001: A Space Odyssey".
Younger viewers may be mystified by such laconic characters and stripped-bare efficiency in a space movie. But it's refreshing to see a movie refuse to treat the nuts and bolts of space travel with awe. And as with most of his films, Eastwood's actors deliver clipped, on-target performances that resonate without muss or fuss.
Eastwood's longtime collaborators -- camerman Jack Green, designer Henry Bumstead, editor Joel Cox and composer Lennie Niehaus -- support him with their usual all-pro work.
SPACE COWBOYS
Warner Bros.
In association with
Village Roadshow Pictures/Clipsal Film
A Malpaso and Mad Chance production
Producers: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Lazar
Director: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriters: Ken Kaufman & Howard Klausner
Executive producer: Tom Rooker
Director of photography: Jack N. Green
Production designer: Henry Bumstead
Music: Lennie Niehaus
Costume designer: Deborah Hopper
Editor: Joel Cox
Color/stereo
Cast:
Frank Corvin: Clint Eastwood
Hawk Hawkins: Tommy Lee Jones
Jerry O'Neil: Donald Sutherland
Tank Sullivan: James Garner
Ethan Glance: Loren Dean
Roger Hines: Courtney B. Vance
Sara Holland: Marcia Gay Harden
Bob Gerson: James Cromwell
Eugene Davis: William Devane
Running time - 130 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
What may puzzle many is the degree of sentimentality the actor-director lavishes on his heroes, which may have something to do with age. For in "Space", a geriatric version of "Armageddon", he treats us to scene after scene that kids or dramatizes the fact that he and his co-stars -- Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner -- are no longer youngsters.
The film is very much tailored for these veteran actors, and, naturally, the old guys have ample opportunity to show the movie's young hotshots a thing or two. But what will Eastwood's loyal fans think of him as a senior citizen? And how will younger audiences respond to a movie whose heroes are all candidates for the retirement home? Warner Bros. has a tough sell on its hands.
In a disorienting black-and-white prologue, set in 1958, the movie introduces most of the film's main characters as their early selves, all played by young performers but given voice by the older actors. The personalities and conflicts are established among Team Daedalus, a group of Air Force test pilots pushing the envelope on America's most experimental jet aircraft. When NASA abruptly takes over the space program, their jobs are terminated by an obnoxious officer and -- salting the wounds -- a chimpanzee is designated the nation's first astronaut.
Cut to present day, where the officer, now a NASA bureaucrat (James Cromwell), must reluctantly reassemble Team Daedalus for a priority mission. An old Soviet satellite has failed, and for reasons kept deliberately vague, it is crucial to the United States and Russia that its antiquated guidance system gets repaired. Oddly enough -- and again vagueness will pay off at the climax -- its guidance system is identical to the one designed by Eastwood's character for a now obsolete American satellite. And he is the only Man Alive who knows how to repair the damn thing.
Most of the movie's midsection is taken up with old hostilities -- between Eastwood and Jones and between Cromwell and the entire Team Daedalus -- along with endless age jokes. The oldsters train alongside young-stud astronauts but find ways to outperform -- or at least outthink -- the kids.
This section also contains a strong contender for this year's most unnecessary scene -- the four old guys shot Buck Naked from the back getting a short-arm inspection by a female doctor. An even greater clinker in Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner's screenplay bestows inoperable cancer on Jones, which sets him up for a noble sacrifice in space.
"Space"'s elegiac lament for departed youth, a staple theme of many westerns, fits strangely with the movie's futuristic space hardware and techno-lingo. And Eastwood's directing style is something of a throwback to science fiction of the 1950s.
Having learned much of his trim, suspenseful craftsmanship from his "Dirty Harry" director, Don Siegel, Eastwood takes a no-nonsense approach to outer space. It's just another lonesome prairie to him. Thus, his outer space has none of the touchy-feely mysticism of "Star Trek", the hip B-movie thrills of "Star Wars" or the space opera grandeur of "2001: A Space Odyssey".
Younger viewers may be mystified by such laconic characters and stripped-bare efficiency in a space movie. But it's refreshing to see a movie refuse to treat the nuts and bolts of space travel with awe. And as with most of his films, Eastwood's actors deliver clipped, on-target performances that resonate without muss or fuss.
Eastwood's longtime collaborators -- camerman Jack Green, designer Henry Bumstead, editor Joel Cox and composer Lennie Niehaus -- support him with their usual all-pro work.
SPACE COWBOYS
Warner Bros.
In association with
Village Roadshow Pictures/Clipsal Film
A Malpaso and Mad Chance production
Producers: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Lazar
Director: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriters: Ken Kaufman & Howard Klausner
Executive producer: Tom Rooker
Director of photography: Jack N. Green
Production designer: Henry Bumstead
Music: Lennie Niehaus
Costume designer: Deborah Hopper
Editor: Joel Cox
Color/stereo
Cast:
Frank Corvin: Clint Eastwood
Hawk Hawkins: Tommy Lee Jones
Jerry O'Neil: Donald Sutherland
Tank Sullivan: James Garner
Ethan Glance: Loren Dean
Roger Hines: Courtney B. Vance
Sara Holland: Marcia Gay Harden
Bob Gerson: James Cromwell
Eugene Davis: William Devane
Running time - 130 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/31/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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