"Clint: The Man and the Movies" by Shawn Levy

Talks on movies, the culture of cinema, and filmmaking.

CLINT: The Man and the Movies

From the acclaimed film critic and The New York Times bestselling biographer of Paul Newman, the definitive biography of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, the most prolific and versatile actor-director in the history of the medium and an imposing icon of American culture.

C-L-I-N-T. In one short, sharp syllable, an emblem of American manhood and morality and sheer bloody-minded will, on screen and off, for more than sixty years. Whether he's facing down bad guys on a western street (Old West or new, no matter); staring through the lens of a camera; or accepting one of his thirteen Oscars (including two for Best Picture); he is as blunt, curt, and solid as his name, a star of the old school stripe and one of the most accomplished directors of his time, a man of rock and iron and brute force: Clint. 

To tell the story of Clint Eastwood is to tell the story of nearly a century of American culture. No Hollywood figure has so completely and complexly stood inside the changing climates of post-World War II America. At age ninety-five, he has lived a tumultuous century and embodied much of his time and many of its contradictions. 

We picture him most immediately as he has appeared to us on screen: squinting through cigarillo smoke in A Fistful of Dollars or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; imposing rough justice at the point of a .44 Magnum in Dirty Harry; sowing vengeance in The Outlaw Josey Wales or Pale Rider or Unforgiven; grudgingly training a woman boxer in Million Dollar Baby; standing up for his neighbors despite his racism in Gran Torino. Or we feel him present, powerfully, behind the camera, creating complex tales of violence, morality, and humanity such as Mystic River, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima,and American Sniper.But his roles, however well-cast and convincing, are two-dimensional in comparison to the whole life. And the films he makes as an artist are, too, mere pieces of the man. As New York Times bestselling author Shawn Levy reveals in this masterful biography--the most complete portrait yet of Eastwood--the reality is richer, knottier, and more absorbing. Clint: The Man and the Movies is a saga of cunning, determination, and conquest, a story about a man ascending to the Hollywood pantheon while keeping a gimlet eye on its ways and habits and one foot firmly planted outside its door. 

Shawn Levy's books include the bestsellers Rat Pack Confidential, Paul Newman: A Life, and The Castle on Sunset, as well as books about Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, the rise of women in stand-up comedy, and the worlds of movies, fashion, and paparazzi in 1950s Rome.  A New York native, he makes his home in Portland, Oregon, where he served as film critic for The Oregonian and KGW-TV.  Clint is his twelfth book, and he's currently working on his thirteenth, a biography of David Lynch for Clint publisher Mariner Books.   

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Scott Adlerberg is the author of the novels Spiders and Flies, Jungle Horses, Graveyard Love, Jack Waters, and The Screaming Child. He has written many short stories and contributes pieces regularly to sites such as CrimeReads, Mystery Tribune, and Criminal Element.  Every summer, he hosts the Reel Talks film commentary series in Bryant Park in Manhattan.  He was born in New York City and lives in Brooklyn.