American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series)
Selected Book Details
- Hardcover
- Edition: Lrg
- Author: Marc Eliot
- Publisher: Thorndike Press
- Release Date: December 2009
- ISBN-10: 1410421686
- ISBN-13: 9781410421685
- List Price: $31.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryAs an actor, he seduces us with his tough-guy charm. As a director and producer, he amazes us with his artistry and technical savvy. As a Hollywood icon, Clint Eastwood, one of film's greatest living legends, represents some of the finest cinematic achievements in the history of American cinema. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
A Swift and Thorough Biogrpahy of Clint
Rating:
Eliot does a good overall job giving us Clint Eastwood the young actor with the struggles and conflicts that future legends must endure to make it. I learned a lot more about Rawhide especially in how the network used his contract to keep him from taking movie work even during hiatus. That struggle led to Clint doing Spaghetti Westerns, something the network figured wouldn't compete with his Rowdy Yates persona. Although Eliot doesn't address it, the reader can surmise that the network conflict gave him an opportunity of a lifetime. Maybe Clint never would have clicked in a conventional Hollywood career.
I had always considered Don Siegel a mentor to Eastwood, and although that is mostly true in Eliot's account, Clint was always itching to direct himself and other than their first pairing it was Clint that chose Siegel rather than the other way around. By their last teaming, they were no longer on the same page and their friendship was hurt as a result.
Eliot also has another contention that I had never heard. Eastwood was resistant to working with other big name actors, especially actresses, because he didn't like to be overshadowed. His pairing with Burt Reynolds was a power struggle between them both and Blake Edwards. Eliot suggests that his all-star cast in UNFORGIVEN was an all-out attempt at Oscar nominations. To me it didn't seem like Clint cared about such things back then making weak efforts like THE ROOKIE, and PINK CADILLAC. But in the last ten years it does seem like nearly every movie is directed squarely at the Academy so maybe Eliot is on to something.
I always heard that Eastwood shoots are lean, but I was surprised at how many movies, even long ones, that he shot in 30 days. It's one of the reasons he can make so many films at an advanced age.
I think Eliot has written the most thorough biography of Clint Eastwood yet, better than Clint Eastwood: A Biography by Richard Schickel and Clint: The Life and Legend by Patrick McGilligan when it comes to his overall life although Schickel does a better job on the actual films. The downside is that he spends too much time on his private life especially the Sandra Locke saga.
A man with the Eastwood name
Rating:
As a fan of Clint Eastwood since `Rawhide' days, but still knowing very little about him, this book made for interesting reading. With that said, I cannot vouch for accuracy, but readability and style. The structure of the book is good and pleasingly laid out, making it easy and interesting to read. Each chapter starts with a black and white picture and Eastwood quote. Eliot deals with Clint's 3 personas: 1. The man with no name, 2. Dirty Harry, 3. The good natured red neck...all loners.
There is much written about Clint's myriad affairs and dalliances. There is some biographical information, and his time in the army is touched upon where he spent his hitch as a swimming instructor. There are some mentions of his love of jazz and piano playing.
Much of the book is written about his films and the surrounding events and happening with each of them. The book ends with his successful `Grand Torino' at age 78, after 50 years in the television and motion picture business.
Many pages have footnotes to further explain incidents or information about a person mentioned. The author uses many quotes from other articles and sources both of Eastwood's and his contemporaries.
The index is a bit difficult to deal with. For example you go to look up a movie title and they for the most part are not there, but you have to know to look under Eastwood, Clint (motion pictures) or else the name of the co star and the information will be listed there just not under a title itself.
Marc Eliot has written an interesting examination about one of the more private men in Hollywood .
Superficial attempt at biography with errors and spoilers
Rating:
I am not a big fan of celebrity biographies, but I've enjoyed many Clint Eastwood movies, was impressed with his apparent growth as an artist and his continued productivity. So I got Marc Eliot's purported biography.
It really isn't very good.
Most of the content seems to deal with Eastwood's very active sex life, which apparently included hundreds of women in addition to his wife. Seven children by five women - also including his wife. Lucky Clint - but no so lucky for the reader. It gets boring very, very fast.
Since Eastwood has never been much for interviews or talking about his creative process, there's not much here about Eastwood as an artist.
Eliot seems to have done his research with gossip magazines.
As for Eliot's "critical" analysis of Eastwood's films, forget about it. First of all, Eliot finds it necessary to describe the ending of every Eastwood movie. Talk about spoilers. His plot analyses sometimes contain errors and Eliot projects his beliefs of what Eastwood intended on Eastwood himself. His "analysis" of "Dirty Harry" is hilarious. He imbues the movie with all kinds of sub-texts and alleged deep thinking on Eastwood's part. I remember seeing the movie in Manhattan and I doubt that anyone in the cheering audience at the Upper East Side theatre I saw it would give any credence to Eiot's silly, trite politically correct pretend explanation.
Eliot also makes a major mistake in the plot of "The Unforgiven".
On the whole, if what you want is a collection of factoids about Clint Eastwood that you could garner from gossip and entertainment trade magazines over the decades, you'll be happy. If you want insight into Eastwood the artist, you won't find it here. Eliot is a passable writer, even if he gets his facts wrong occasionally, and that quality keeps this book from being a total disaster. But not by much.
Jerry
Rebel with a Cause and Warts
Rating:
Rebel with a Cause and Warts
Does anyone NOT like the iconic Clint Eastwood we see on the screen? The man of few words and plenty of action. The tall rugged man who smites the evil doers and then rides off into the sunset. The John Wayne of the Vietnam generation. But is this the real Clint Eastwood? Marc Eliot examines the man and the legend in his informative American Rebel biography. He cracks the screen persona to let us see the real man of Carmel, California, and what we find is a talented shrewd businessman who is more like Dirty Harry and The Man with No Name than we could have realized. An actor who grew in his trade to become an academy awarded director and producer. All the while building a business empire following his instincts. Still, he is flawed in his own personal life leaving lovers and children in his wake as he stormed through Hollywood to become probably the most famous actor of the last 50 years.
Marc Eliot is able to bring all this complexity about Clint Eastwood to the printed page in a format easily read and comprehended. I liked how he followed Mr. Eastwood's life through his movies. How he showed the phenomenal growth of Mr. Eastwood in his trade while at the same time lagging in personal development in regard to family and female friends. How Clint Eastwood took daring chances with his career and almost always came out on top. Mr. Eastwood is more than just a man, he is an American icon. Yet, he is someone to have a beer with while sitting around shooting the breeze. A complex man yes, but a simple man who, like John Wayne, is able to represent what is good and honorable about America. To Clint Eastwood the good guy always wins.
Marc Eliot does a good job of presenting Clint Eastwood in toto, warts and all. He does it by following Mr. Eastwood cinematic career starting as a bit player in Hollywood through his grumpy old man heroism in Gran Torino. He examines Eastwood on multiple levels and in the end finds a complex man who has grown not only through his trade but also through his personal life to the man we know today. A great actor, a terrific businessman, and the patriarch of a complex extended family. But best of all, Mr. Eliot points out that Clint Eastwood has no intention of slowing down. He is as busy as ever and intends to stay that way.
Strong Recommend. Excellent biography of an American movie icon and business genius. Well written and allows us to see Clint Eastwood on many different levels. Mr. Eastwood is a complex man that Marc Eliot is able to simplify on the written page. Good job Marc Eliot.
Mixed bag which concerns itself more with Clint's personal life than his films...
Rating:
I'm always interested in anything about Clint Eastwood, so I was very happy when this book came out. Unfortunately, it's a mixed bag. It has several factual errors and the author seems to have an agenda. Marc Eliot seems more interested in the sordid aspects of Clint's personal life, and quite often skims over his actual films to obsess (and obsess) about Clint's many girlfriends, especially the Sondra Locke story. Clint is not a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination, but this book often reads like a sleazy, tabloid story in which the author is more interested in the salacious rather than the substance of Eastwood's remarkable, diverse, and epic career (which is still going strong, and going stronger now more than ever).
The factual errors that I found were the following:
1. Unforgiven was not shot in less than a month, as stated by the author, but in 52 days.
2. Clint's character in The Eiger Sanction wasn't a member of the clergy, but an art professor/dealer.
3. Sergio Leone, at first, wasn't enthusiastic about Eastwood in the lead for A Fistful of Dollars. Leone wanted Charles Bronson and/or James Coburn, but Coburn was too expensive, and Bronson couldn't make heads or tails of the script, which was in badly translated English. While Leone liked Clint, he eventually had to warm up to him, but Leone did.
Eliot writes that Clint's career is on the decline in several spots in the book. Clint has had a few films bomb, but he's never been really that down and out like Eliot portrays him as. Everytime Clint was down, he got back up right away. It seems that Marc Eliot is reluctant to admit that Clint is really a great film artist, even though Eliot does mention that Clint outshines his contemporaries by miles.
Overall, this book is decent, but it hardly touches on Clint's actual filmmaking. While Clint's personal life should be touched upon, here it's an obsession of the author, and it negates the impact of the book.
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