The genius of Clint Eastwood was not just limited to being an actor. Along with this, he also ventured into the territory of film direction. At the moment, Eastwood has 30 plus movies under his belt. While some did wonders at the box office, others did not so much. But even in the highs and lows of Hollywood, there is one movie that the legendary actor is most proud of.
The movie being 2006’s Letters from Iwo Jima, which was made as a companion to Flags of Our Fathers. Eastwood directed both films himself, but he takes greater pride in one over the other.
Clint Eastwood’s Most Significant Directorial Project
Clint Eastwood‘s debut movie Play Misty for Me was released in 1971, after which he delved deeper into the craft and created several well-acclaimed movies. This helped him gain an impressive 11 Academy Award nominations; he even took four of them home. His first win came from Unforgiven, released in 1993, for which he won two Oscars: Best Picture and Best Director.
Not only this but his 2005 film Million Dollar Baby was nominated for seven Academy Awards and took home four of them. While both of these movies are well-acclaimed and loved by fans and critics alike, they weren’t the movies that Eastwood was the proudest of.
In a past chitchat with NHK, the actor himself revealed that he considered his 2006 film Letters from Iwo Jima his most pivotal cinematic achievement. He first talked about Flags of Our Fathers and added that it was while working on this movie that he got the idea of making Letters from Iwo Jima.
This movie was undoubtedly his most daring move as a filmmaker, as it detailed the iconic WWII battle between the United States and Imperial Japan from the Japanese perspective.
Both movies were released in the same year. While Flags of Our Fathers focused on the American soldiers‘ war experience, Letters from Iwo Jima was filmed completely in Japanese. Not only this, but the actor even went to great lengths to ensure that this film got made.
The concept of the movie was quite fresh, and not a lot of information was available for Eastwood to research. So, he went to meet the governor of the prefecture in charge of Iwo Jima and told him:
This is a story that has to be told from a Japanese point of view. And I think there’s an awful lot of relatives and people left over from that era who would love to imagine what it must be like to be in that situation. (To this the Governor replied) All you have to do is go to the Iwo Jima Association, which is a group of people, relatives of people who died there. (Eastwood said) I think this is very important for the next generation to know.
Interestingly, Eastwood was fortunate to meet writer Iris Yamashita, who, despite being American-born and not fluent in Japanese, completely devoted herself to extensive research.
This worked out in her favor as not only did she write a stellar screenplay, but it also earned her an Oscar nomination.
A $10 Million Movie That Changed Clint Eastwood’s Life
It may come as a shock to many, but Clint Eastwood’s earlier successes like the Dollars Trilogy didn’t initially launch him to Hollywood fame. While the movies gained huge popularity and were even quite successful, the actor had to earn his way to get noticed by big studios.
In an interview with The New York Times, he added that the world of Tinseltown has “a stigma against television actors and another against people who make films in Europe.” He further revealed:
Even though I’d made three pictures that were very successful financially, the studios wouldn’t consider me for parts. It wasn’t until ‘Hang ‘Em High,’ which was made here, connected that the calls started coming.
But things started to change for him after he got on board the American western Hang ‘Em High. While the movie did not do exceptionally well at the box office and earned only $10 million, it did wonders for Eastwood’s cinematic career and trajectory in the United States.
After this, he started getting recognized by major studios, and his acting career gained huge momentum. Today, Eastwood is not only a well-acclaimed actor but also a legendary director with several awards to solidify his status.