From TV Cowboys to becoming one of the world's most memorable movie stars, no one can blend characters with charisma perfectly like Clint Eastwood.The classic image of "Anonymous" he created, widely known for Sergio Leone's "Dollar Trilogy", has become an indelible symbol in popular culture.His signature squinted eyes and smiled, crossed the boundaries of generations and became an eternal classic.Even so, Eastwood could have lived on his actor status for the rest of his life, but he chose to keep breaking through himself.
In 1978, he starred in the relaxed and humorous road comedy "Every Which Way But Loose", in which he plays a truck driver and bar fighter, traveling around the country with a fellow orangutan named Walt.This film not only proves his versatility, but also shows his adaptability to different types of works.As a director, he proved himself to be one of the most creative and restless souls in the industry with his rich and diverse portfolio.
Over the past fifty years, Eastwood has been involved in almost all types of film creation, without any intention of stopping.2024’s Juror #2 is an amazing court moral drama that is a highlight of his career for any director, not to mention it also appears on Warner Bros.Incredibly, the 94-year-old legend is still able to contribute such a stunning work, which fully proves that he has always been one of the most productive directors in the American film industry.
Estwood's directorial career began in 1971's Play Misty For Me, a psychological thriller set on the beach and the musical style is full of jazz.The film stars Jessica Walter, whose performance has earned her wide acclaim.This film laid the foundation for Eastwood's calm and composed style as a director. Although the later "High Plains Drifter" was considered his second directorial work, in fact, he directed a short film before his next official feature film, but unfortunately this short film is now hard to find.
In the same year, Eastwood collaborated with Don Siegel in its third work - The Beguiled.The film is based on Thomas P. Cullinan's 1966 novel A Painted Devil, which tells the story of a wounded Northern Army soldier John McBurney and several young women while recovering from a women's convent in Mississippi.His appearance was like a storm, disrupting the originally peaceful life of the house.However, he did not realize the consequences of his actions.Perhaps you are more familiar with Sofia Coppola's 2017 remake, who cleverly changed the narrative perspective in the new version and gave a new interpretation of the story.
Released at the same time as Higgle's version of The Beguiled, there is also a documentary short film directed by Eastwood, "The Beguiled: The Storyteller", which lasts only 12 minutes.However, information about this short film is extremely scarce, and only a few lucky viewers have shared their impressions.It is a pity that this rare short film has never been commercially released and has not been included in the additional content of the home media.One Letterboxd user recalled that he had watched the short film through the Chicago Film Society, which was added as an additional screening of the 35mm film of Coogan's Bluff, which Higgle and Eastwood collaborated with for the first time, was mainly about the behind-the-scenes footage of filmmaking.We know it exists because of a photo of Eastwood holding a script.
The Storyteller is a part of Eastwood's directorial career, because he rarely gets involved in non-featured works.In addition to the short film, he has directed an episode of Steven Spielberg's TV series Amazing Stories, the final episode of Martin Scorsese's PBS documentary series The Blues, and Diana Krall's music video Why Should I Care.Although most of Eastwood’s work can be found through streaming, PVOD or physical media, the short film is still a difficult gap to fill.I hope that one day in the future, Universal Pictures will re-release it so that more viewers can appreciate it.
Currently, The Beguiled is available for viewing on Prime Video.
