The Comedy Films of Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood is not exactly known for his comedies. The tough guy who speaks in the Marilyn Monroe whisper is much more famous for playing dirty cops, western heroes with no name and old men. But flip through Clint Eastwood’s resume and you will see that he did make the occasional foray into the world of funny movies. Sometimes the humor was dark, sometimes the humor was silly and on at least a few occasions sometimes the humor was harder to find than a fact on Fox News.

Kelly’s Heroes

“Kelly’s Heroes” is like “The Dirty Dozen” with a little less testosterone and a little more Donald Sutherland. Sutherland and Eastwood in the same war movie almost seems about as likely as Jane Fonda and John Wayne in the same war movies, but it did happen. Eastwood, it must be admitted, represents the tough foundation upon which unlikely comedic elements ranging from Sutherland’s anachronistic hippie to the Don Rickles’ Don Rickles. Keep an eye on Rickles here and you’ll see why he would make an infinitely better Maggio than Frank Sinatra. An incredibly diverse cast looks to Eastwood for guidance and in this movie you can also steal a glimpse into Clint’s surprisingly versatile and long directing career.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Action comedy is tough. Usually, there is too much action or too much comedy and not enough melding. Anyone intent on making an action comedy should study “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” for a lesson in how to expertly combine the two genres to create magic. Jeff Bridges gets the best lines, but Eastwood’s hold on the comedy underpinning keeps this from becoming a flat out action movie.

Every Which Way but Loose

Little bit of trivia: Clint Eastwood’s first movie role was a lab tech involved in an unfunny joke about a mouse hiding in his pocket. Two movies later had Clint in a Francis the talking mule flick. The man knew well enough the difficulties of being upstaged by an animal actor when he took the role in a movie co-starring an orangutan. At the time of “Every Which Way But Loose” only Burt Reynolds could make an argument about being a bigger worldwide star than Eastwood. Write this down and keep it in your back pocket: Burt Reynolds would have been so upstaged by that ape that you might well forget he was in even this comedy movie. Nobody ever forgot that it was Clint Eastwood pretending to shoot that primate.

Also by Timothy Sexton:

Why Does Clint Eastwood Taste Better With Marinara?

Eastwood’s “Hereafter” Pulled from Japanese Theaters After Tsunami


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