A Cinema Masterclass by Clint Eastwood- Festival de Cannes
- Thread starter Meanderer
- Start date
Meanderer
Supreme Member
John Wayne Resented Young Upstart Clint Eastwood (LINK)
"Wayne had long considered himself the king of Westerns, but that landscape was changing fast. The anti-hero was increasingly sticking his oar in and dealing with things using more eye raising methods (today, we call this realism), such as shooting first if necessary. Eastwood was becoming a fast rising star in the genre and those were his preferred methods. But did Wayne resent Eastwood’s characters or Eastwood the younger star? "
The dream team?
"In 1971 John Wayne, perhaps showing himself out of touch with changes in Hollywood, turned down the role of a little movie called Dirty Harry. The title role was written for Frank Sinatra who bowed out due to a hand injury. Wayne found playing second fiddle to Frank Sinatra in a movie about a cop using questionable methods unacceptable: “They offered it to Frank Sinatra first, but he’d hurt his hand and couldn’t do it. I don’t like being offered Sinatra’s rejections. Put that one down to pride. The second reason is that I thought Harry was a rogue cop. Put that down to narrow-mindedness because when I saw the picture I realized that Harry was the kind of part I’d played often enough; a guy who lives within the law but breaks the rules when he really has to in order to save others.”
"Did Wayne see Dirty Harry as someone who was sort of agreeable after all, or did he see the dollar signs and success that the movie brought in, quite frankly due to Eastwood? "
"Wayne had long considered himself the king of Westerns, but that landscape was changing fast. The anti-hero was increasingly sticking his oar in and dealing with things using more eye raising methods (today, we call this realism), such as shooting first if necessary. Eastwood was becoming a fast rising star in the genre and those were his preferred methods. But did Wayne resent Eastwood’s characters or Eastwood the younger star? "
The dream team?
"In 1971 John Wayne, perhaps showing himself out of touch with changes in Hollywood, turned down the role of a little movie called Dirty Harry. The title role was written for Frank Sinatra who bowed out due to a hand injury. Wayne found playing second fiddle to Frank Sinatra in a movie about a cop using questionable methods unacceptable: “They offered it to Frank Sinatra first, but he’d hurt his hand and couldn’t do it. I don’t like being offered Sinatra’s rejections. Put that one down to pride. The second reason is that I thought Harry was a rogue cop. Put that down to narrow-mindedness because when I saw the picture I realized that Harry was the kind of part I’d played often enough; a guy who lives within the law but breaks the rules when he really has to in order to save others.”
"Did Wayne see Dirty Harry as someone who was sort of agreeable after all, or did he see the dollar signs and success that the movie brought in, quite frankly due to Eastwood? "