I have been after this documentary about the directing career of Clint Eastwood for some time, and finally got to see if off HULU here recently!- and it does not disappoint.
"The Eastwood Factor" does delve into Clint's overall life and acting career a little bit, but mostly focuses on his career as a filmmaker- beginning with "Play Misty For Me", which came out in the early 1970s- all the way through to "Invictus", which I believe he was working on around the time this documentary got made-?? It focuses on not only where he sorta learned his craft from- especially filmmakers like Don Siegel and Sergio Leone- but also how he sorta begot other actor- directors- like Mel Gibson, for instance.
It was interesting how he said his directing career kinda came about- as he was working on the set of film after film as an actor- he was like, okay, they're doing it wrong- they're taking too long, etc.. Then he was like, you know, why don't I just direct the movies I star in-??? LOL And it's been a match-made-in-heaven ever since. I can't think of any other actor who has had the consistent long-range and versatile success as a filmmaker as Eastwood has had in his 40-plus years as a director. Redford, Beatty, Gibson, Costner, etc.. all have had minimal-to-mediocre success in varied forms throughout their directing careers (and many actors have never directed anything), but like film critic Roger Ebert said- Eastwood would've been known as a filmmaker, even if his John Wayne-esque iconic screen stardom had never happened...
"The Eastwood Factor" does delve into Clint's overall life and acting career a little bit, but mostly focuses on his career as a filmmaker- beginning with "Play Misty For Me", which came out in the early 1970s- all the way through to "Invictus", which I believe he was working on around the time this documentary got made-?? It focuses on not only where he sorta learned his craft from- especially filmmakers like Don Siegel and Sergio Leone- but also how he sorta begot other actor- directors- like Mel Gibson, for instance.
It was interesting how he said his directing career kinda came about- as he was working on the set of film after film as an actor- he was like, okay, they're doing it wrong- they're taking too long, etc.. Then he was like, you know, why don't I just direct the movies I star in-??? LOL And it's been a match-made-in-heaven ever since. I can't think of any other actor who has had the consistent long-range and versatile success as a filmmaker as Eastwood has had in his 40-plus years as a director. Redford, Beatty, Gibson, Costner, etc.. all have had minimal-to-mediocre success in varied forms throughout their directing careers (and many actors have never directed anything), but like film critic Roger Ebert said- Eastwood would've been known as a filmmaker, even if his John Wayne-esque iconic screen stardom had never happened...