Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Rob Doorack (R) on February 14, 2005 at 07:45:20

In Reply to: Re: Eastwood's "first major movie role"? posted by rico on February 14, 2005 at 00:40:14:

>>Eastwood ... said that "Where Eagles Dare" was his first major motion picture<<

Well, he may hace said that but his filmography says otherwise. He'd already played the lead charactor in five movies before Where Eagles Dare. Perhaps he meant "big budget movie" rather than "movie where he played the lead role."

>>most people even today don't consider the spaghetti westerns as "major"<<

That's a pretty bizarre statement. Most film buffs consider Sergio Leone's three westerns to have been enormously important. Major box office hits in the US and Europe, they transformed Eastwood from the guy who played a secondary character on a TV show into a movie star who could get equal billing with Richard Burton. Leone's unsentimental, violent reinvention of the Western genre and his use of widescreen closeups were tremendously influential on other directors too. It's arguable that Sam Pekinpah would never have convinced a studio to back The Wild Bunch if Leone's trilogy hadn't revived the Western genre. Eastwood's own direction shows a great Leone influence - for example, take a look at Unforgiven which is dedicated to Leone.