A Year of Eastwood

Do you suffer from Netflixation? Every time you receive that red envelope in the mail - do you feel pressure to stop everything to watch that movie and get the DVD back in the mail - just to get another red envelope in a few days? After a while, you realize that you've seen just about every movie you've ever wanted to see ... and a few you didn't even want to. Soon you find yourself clicking on movies just to keep that queue filled.

To ease my anxiety and fill up my queue, I've decided to focus on an American Icon and watch as many of his films as I can in one year. I've decided to focus on Mr. Clint Eastwood. His tough-guy personna exemplifies the American swagger and his career has spanned many decades with several signature films that, like it or not, reflect the mood of our country during the last 50 years.

Eastwood started out as a TV star on "Rawhide," before he became a movie star in Spaghetti Westerns. He was pegged to return to TV as Two Face on the Batman series but it was cancelled before he began work. In the 70's, Dirty Harry became an icon in American cinema as a symbol of our country's frustration with the justice system. In the 80's, Eastwood became active in local politics and was elected mayor of Carmel, California. Today, Eastwood has won multiple Oscars directing films and continues to act as he approaches 80 years old.

Of course, he's had his share of bombs over the years as well - and I plan to focus on a few of those along the way. I'll post my thoughts on each Eastwood film of the week and feel free to post your own comments as well.