Bird to Unforgiven: Ranking the Best Movies Directed by Clint Eastwood

Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood is one of the most prominent filMMAkers and actors with 40 credits to his name in a filMMAking career of over five decades. More than half of them are counted among the world’s best, underlining the prodigious talent of the nonagenarian as a director who is widely loved as a defining symbol of the Western genre as an actor. Thus, any list of the best movies directed by Clint Eastwood will appear like any genuine film enthusiast’s handy guide to some of the must-watch gems in the History of cinema.

There is perhaps no need to explain the iNFLuence Clint Eastwood has had on the Western genre. Just the very mention of Eastwood in a spaghetti Western brings to the mind a vivid image of church bells ringing at a distance as a slender, poncho-draped figure wearing Stetson strides confidently but calmly through a dusty town towards the screen. But this is not about Eastwood the actor. Iconic though he is in that department, he has perhaps made an equal, some may say greater, impression with the thought-provoking movies he directed. In fact, he is one of the rare movie stars in the world who has achieved immense critical and commercial success also as a director.

The most popular movies by Clint Eastwood are character-driven and incredibly fleshed out so as not to leave out any necessary details while ensuring that viewers are able to form their own imagination for parts of the story. There is always a raw authenticity in his movies, where realism is the binding force and human interactions carry forward the narrative.

It is indeed interesting that though Clint Eastwood acted in some of the finest action films of his time, most of those he directed straddle a wide range of genres other than action. These include everything from inspirational biopics to epic war sagas and even romantic drama. And the handful of Westerns he directed (and acted in) are worthy tributes to Sergio Leone whose Dollars trilogy — A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) — is considered the benchmark of the Western genre and made Eastwood a global star.

In his career, Clint Eastwood has received 11 Oscar nominations and won four — two each for Best Director and Best Picture. Of his nominations, only two are for Best Actor and both for films directed by him, which is also a testimony of his mastery behind the camera.

As we take a look at some of the famous movies directed by Clint Eastwood, it becomes clear that he will always be counted among the greatest filMMAkers in the History of cinema. His movies have received praise from both critics and audiences, reflected in their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, respectively. To arrive at the best movies from the many gems he directed, we have included only those titles that are rated 7 or more on IMDb and 75 per cent or above on Rotten Tomatoes (RT). For a structured reading, movies are ranked according to IMDb.

The Best Live-Action Princesses We Love in Movies and TV Shows

Lifestyle

The Most Popular Movies and TV Series Adapted from Wattpad Stories

Lifestyle

15 most popular movies directed by Clint Eastwood