Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood is Hollywood's elder statesman and its conscience. He is the standard by which other films and filmmakers are judged. He represents both classical Hollywood and an entirely modern, uncompromising and unfussy directorial presence.

There are those who adore him as a cowboy, a superstar, the rugged, unyielding yet introspective face of American machismo. There are those who read him as a great American auteur fashioning uncompromising, fascinating, intellectual films about his country, about life, about whatever the hell takes his fancy.

No single figure in all of Hollywood, operates so freely outside of the strictures of commercial pressure. And yet, or perhaps that is because, he makes hit after hit.

Separation of actor and director is almost impossible. They are intimately related, cross pollinating, but he has become in the latter half of his career to be view as one of the great American artists. While drawing connections from his wider work as an actor, and those who have influenced him, it is his identity as a director that this book will celebrate.

This is not a career - it is a landscape.

Auteur

Ian Nathan, who lives and works in London, is one of the UK's best-known film writers. He is the author of nine previous books, including Alien Vault, the best-selling history of Ridley Scott's masterpiece, Terminator Vault, Tarantino, Tim Burton, The Coen Brothers and Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth. He is the former editor and executive editor of Empire, the world's biggest movie magazine, where he remains a contributing editor. He also regularly contributes to The Times, The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, Cahiers Du Cinema and the Discovering Film documentary series on Sky Arts.