I was wondering if Eastwood had never done the spaghetti westerns he would of never done dirty harry I am not familiar with his westers as dirty harry also can I hear from recommendations oh his best westerns to watch?
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Good question. Eastwood was a television actor at that point. He had done film roles but not major ones. After the US release of the Dollars films in America in 1967. He became hot property with MGM pairing him with Richard Burton in WHERE EAGLES Dare and HANG EM HIGH his first post dollars western.
If Clint hadn’t done the Dollars movies his career would have moved slower, he would not have got the Burton gig. He may have got HEH. His career launch pad would be Dirty Harry. Remember a lot of Clinton’s major role casting was down to luck. James Coburn and Charles Bronson said no to the Dollars films and John Wayne and Lee Marvin said no to Dirty Harry.
Eastwood was offered James Bond in the 70s!
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I would agree that Clint’s career development would have been slower without the SW’s.
He had some luck but also made his own luck by putting his early earnings into buying the Malpaso film company.
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Good point. But just think on this:
The earnings he made from the Spags helped form Malpaso. So if Clint didn’t make them. How do you think it would impact on the company history?
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I agree with what’s been said so far, Eastwood definitely got catapulted to the forefront thanks to his work with Leone and the Dollars Trilogy. He certainly had the screen presence to rise in the ranks had he turned down the films, but, as everyone else had said, it would’ve taken him longer. Plus, the gritty tough guy image he evoked in his US Westerns and the Dirty Harry films were thanks to the look he gave The Man With No Name, so another benefit for having done the SW’s.
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The Dollars films not only speeded things up for Clint I think they also had a huge impact on the kinds of roles he was subsequently offered and which shaped his ongoing screen persona.
His character of Rowdy Yates in Rawhide (the part he was famous for back then) was much more affable and sympathetic. Hollywood is notoriously unimaginative and would almost certainly have offered him further affable, sympathetic roles based on that success. The taciturn, ruthless loner of the Dollars films meant he was viewed in a completely different light and offered very different parts.
In that regard, yes, I think the Spaghetti Western did give him his career. At least in the way it panned out and the screen persona he developed. But Clint is a very talented guy with a strong screen presence so he would have been successful no matter what I believe. That success just would have taken a different path.
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