'Clint: A Retrospective' Reviewed by The Columbus Dispatch

Admirer takes affectionate look at the actor-director who became a box-office and critical favourite

How many movie stars can be immediately identified by their first names? Arnold, Groucho and Marilyn come to mind. Add nicknames to the mix, and the list expands to Bogie and the Duke. And then there's Clint - as in Eastwood, of course. Perhaps more than that of any other actor, his handle is instantly recognisable - carrying with it associations of the idealized American man of action warding off interlopers with an Old West six-shooter or a .44 Magnum.

In Clint: A Retrospective, author Richard Schickel examines the career of the actor and director, which includes an astonishing 65 films (not to mention 217 episodes of television's Rawhide) in the past 55 years.

Of course, not all of those movies have been as fondly recalled as A Fistful of Dollars, Dirty Harry or the masterwork Unforgiven. Schickel, a longtime film critic and historian, explains that Eastwood's philosophy, more intuitive than carefully strategised, boils down to working as often and efficiently as possible.

So viewers might not connect with some efforts (Paint Your Wagon, Bronco Billy, City Heat, Pink Cadillac, The Rookie), but the odds are pretty fair that they'll devote a Friday or Saturday night to others (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Sudden Impact; In the Line of Fire; Million Dollar Baby; Gran Torino).

Such an approach would surely kill most showbiz careers - or, at the least, keep the performer from achieving the kind of rarified air in which Eastwood finds himself (he is both a critical and public favorite).

Schickel, who has been friends with Eastwood for decades, attributes the performer's lasting appeal to a finely tuned instinct for projects (not a writer, Eastwood relies on scripts already making the rounds in Hollywood) as well as his reputation for being a cost-conscious and, thus, studio-friendly filmmaker.

The author is also unapologetically opinionated, whether extolling the virtues of his friend ("There has always been, I think, a tacit acknowledgment among a substantial portion of his audience that he is one of them - a working-class guy with no need to elude that identity," Schickel writes) and defending those box-office misfires the critic deems worthwhile (The Beguiled and Honkytonk Man, to name a couple).

Each short chapter in the book is dedicated to one of Eastwood's films - eventually encompassing his entire filmography. The entries are quick but dense with background material. Eastwood and Schickel provide the only perspectives, but the book doesn't pretend to be more than an affectionate celebration of a legitimate icon.

Ample space has also been reserved for glossy photographs from the films or their behind-the-scenes machinations. Ultimately, Clint: A Retrospective resembles a particularly handsome scrapbook of sorts - but also doubles as a valuable reference guide.

"I've often thought that Clint came to his present eminence from further back in the pack than most anyone else in the race," Schickel writes. "There was nothing overnight in his stardom."

Now, Eastwood's fans feel as if they're on a first-name basis with the star - not bad for a performer who became internationally famous for playing the 'Man With No Name'.

- Review by Nick Chordas