Aim for the Heart: The Films of Clint Eastwood

by Howard Hughes

Overview

Clint Eastwood is one of the world's most popular action stars, who has matured into a fine American producer-director. Entertaining, illuminating and packed with information, up to and including "The Changeling", this is the first book to cover his full life in the movies, from his beginnings in 1950s B-movies and in TV's "Rawhide" to "Gran Torino" showing how as both actor and filmmaker Eastwood aims for the heart of the drama, whatever the story. Howard Hughes follows Eastwood's craft through over 50 movies. He looks at his launch into superstardom in Sergio Leone's 1960s spaghetti westerns. Back in America, he built on his success as western hero with such films as "High Plains Drifter" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales", winning an Oscar for "Unforgiven" in 1992. He blasted his way through the seventies and eighties as Inspector Harry Francis Callahan, the last hope for law enforcement in San Francisco. He also monkeyed around in two phenomenally popular films with Clyde the orang-utan, which brought tough-guy Eastwood to a whole new audience and made him the biggest box office star of his generation.
"Aim for the Heart" also looks at Eastwood's more unusual roles, including "The Beguiled", "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Million Dollar Baby". Since 1970, he has enjoyed parallel success as director-producer of his own Malpaso Productions, with "Bird", "Mystic River" and "Letters from Iwo Jima", demonstrating formidable directing credentials. "Aim for the Heart" covers all Eastwood's movies of many genres in detail, and Eastwood's story is illustrated with film stills, glimpses behind the scenes, and rare poster advertising material. "Aim for the Heart" also includes the most comprehensive credits filmography has ever compiled on Eastwood's work, as star and director.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845119027
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.84(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Filmwriter Howard Hughes is the author of the Filmgoers' Guides: 'Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns'; 'Crime Wave: The Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Crime Movies', and 'Stagecoach to Tombstone: The Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Westerns', all I.B. Tauris.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments * Clintessence: The Appeal of The Man With No Name * Universal Casting: The Early Films * Ridin' Easy: Rawhide* Part One: The Westerns * A Fistful of Dollars (1964, For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1966), Hang 'Em High (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Joe Kidd (1972), High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Pale Rider (1985), Unforgiven (1992) *

Part Two: The Cops *Coogan's Bluff (1968), Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), The Gauntlet (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), Tightrope (1984), City Heat (1984), The Dead Pool (1988), The Rookie (1990), In the Line of Fire (1993), A Perfect World (1993) * Part Three: The Lovers * The Witches (1967), Paint Your Wagon (1969), The Beguiled (1971), Play Misty for Me (1970), Breezy (1973), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) * Part Four: The Comedies * Every Which Way But Loose (1978), Bronco Billy (1980), Every Which Way You Can (1980, Pink Cadillac (1989) *Part Five: The Dramas *Honkytonk Man (1982), Bird (1988), White Hunter Black Heart (1990), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Space Cowboys (2000), Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004) * Part Six: The Thrillers * Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Absolute Power (1996), True Crime (1999), Blood Work (2002) * Part Seven: The War Movies * Where Eagles Dare (1969), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Firefox (1982), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Editorial Reviews

An exhaustive work, fine as a reference resource for someone who needs a little more information than the Internet Movie Database can provide.” — The Weekly Standard

Praise for Howard Hughes:
 
On Stagecoach to Tombstone:
 
"Hold your horses for next month's release of Stagecoach to Tombstone: The Filmgoer's Guide to Great Westerns, author Howard Hughes' detailed tome on 27 classic films." - Newsday.com
 


"Written with panache and fresh insight…buy it!" – Dave Worrall, Cinema Retro

"A deftly written collection of essays, full of fascinating insight, this will be a must for fellow travellers on the sagebrush trail." – Howard Maxford, Film Review

On Once Upon a Time in the Italian West:
 
"Howard Hughes has written a well-researched, detailed, no-nonsense and above all enthusiastic guide to twenty of the best Italian Westerns from A Fistful of Dollars to My Name is Nobody. He has aimed for the heart, and unlike the bad guy in Fistful, he has hit it."—Christopher Frayling, author of Spaghetti Westerns

From the Publisher