10 Most Thrilling Clint Eastwood Movies, Ranked

Clint Eastwood would have probably still be a cinematic legend if he had only ever been an actor, as his role as “The Man With No Name” in Sergio Leone’s Western trilogy of A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly would be enough to make him one of the most important movie stars of all-time. Although Eastwood would go on to star in several other great westerns, thrillers, and action movies (including the very popular Dirty Harry franchise), his work behind the camera solidified him as one of the greatest directors of all-time.

Eastwood has tackled a wide variety of areas of interest as a director, as he has created many revisionist Westerns, exhilarating action thrillers, and biographical films centered on real figures in American history. Here are the ten most thrilling Clint Eastwood movies, ranked.

10 ‘The Eiger Sanction’ (1979)

Starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy

The Eiger Sanction is perhaps the closest Eastwood ever got to playing James Bond, as he stars in this underrated espionage thriller as an American professor who moonlights as a powerful spy known for managing to get himself out of some particularly dangerous situations.

The Eiger Sanction is best known for its incredible mountain climbing sequences, in which Eastwood’s character is forced to scale the side of a cliff in order to complete the mission assigned to him by the American government as part of a covert operation. Considering that Eastwood and his team did a majority of their own stunts on set, it's a chilling sequence, especially for those that frequently experience vertigo when films get a little bit too real at times. Those who missed The Eiger Sanction certainly need to check out one of Eastwood’s most underrated films.

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9 ‘Absolute Power’ (1997)

Starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman

Clint Eastwood in Absolute Power — Image via Warner Bros.

Absolute Power was a timely political thriller about corruption and conspiracy that felt particularly relevant amidst the Bill Clinton administration and its resulting scandals in the 1990s. Eastwood stars as a thief who ends up witnessing a crime committed by the President of the United States (Gene Hackman), forcing him to question what power he has to hold the Commander-In-Chief responsible for his crimes.

Absolute Power does a great job at isolating Eastwood’s character and showing that he is fighting against an oppressive system that is determined to silence him. Even for those that are generally not a fan of Eastwood’s personal politics, Absolute Power is a great cat-and-mouse thriller that uses the genius notion of its premise to its advantage. The sheer intensity that Hackman brings to his villainous role makes the film even more exciting than it would have been otherwise.

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8 ‘Sully’ (2016)

Starring Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart

Sully (Tom Hanks) dramatically looking left with his tie blowing in the wind in Sully — Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Sully is based on a incredible true story of how Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and his copilot Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) were able to successfully land a commercial plane filled with passengers on the Hudson River, saving the lives of everyone on board. The plane crash itself is as harrowing as Eastwood’s filmmaking can get, as it was evident that he put in the research to ensure that it felt as accurate as possible.

While the crash itself doesn’t take up the film’s entire running time, Sully does a great job at showing the feelings of anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder that both pilots experience in the aftermath of what has easily been the most intense moments in their professional careers. As always, Eastwood’s visual storytelling, restrained camerawork, and use of sound mixing are simply top notch.

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7 ‘Pale Rider’ (1985)

Starring Clint Eastwood and Carrie Snodgress

The Preacher (Clint Eastwood) rides through the snow on horseback in 'Pale Rider.' — Image via Warner Bros.

Pale Rider made for one of the darker Westerns in Eastwood’s career, proving that he was capable of taking the genre in a revisionist direction when many other 1980s gunslinger films opted to take a more comical approach. Although Eastwood’s character in Pale Rider is technically there to protect an innocent group of villagers, he’s not above using extreme flashes of violence in order to defeat his opponents; considering that he literally rides a white horse, some have assumed that it is an extended metaphor for the Biblical depiction of death.

Pale Rider marked a major step forward for Eastwood as a director of Western cinema, as he reflected a more cynical version of America’s frontier era in which innocent people were forced to turn to morally bankrupt bounty hunters in order to protect themselves from even more dangerous threats.

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6 ‘High Plains Drifter’ (1973)

Starring Clint Eastwood and Verna Bloom

Clint Eastwood as The Stranger riding beside Billy Curtis as Mordecai in High Plains Drifter — Image via Universal Pictures

High Plains Drifter is perhaps the most important film that Eastwood ever made, as it was the second film he ever directed, and the first Western. Eastwood stars as a nameless “Stranger” who becomes intertwined within a local community’s plight, and reluctantly tries to protect them from a group of selfish villains.

High Plains Drifter was deeply inspired by the work that Leone had done on the “Dollars trilogy,” but managed to get much more graphically violent with its intense depictions of murder and torture. While certainly not for the faint of heart, High Plains Drifter indicated that Eastwood was not interested in looking back at America’s past with rose-tinted glasses, and was willing to engage with the complexities of history. This bold, introspective approach to the material has been what has differentiate him from other filmmakers that attempt to work in multiple genres.

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5 ‘Mystic River’ (2003)

Starring Sean Penn and Tim Robbins

Mystic River is one of the greatest murder mystery thrillers ever made, proving that Eastwood’s creative genius was not restrained to the western genre. Sean Penn won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Jimmy, a Boston criminal who becomes outraged when his daughter (Emmy Rossum) is found murdered. Although his childhood friend, detective Sean Levine (Kevin Bacon), offers to help look into the case, Jimmy begins to suspect that his other friend Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) is responsible because he has not been honest about his whereabouts during the night in question.

Mystic River looks at how paranoia and vengeance can lead to violent situations that spiral out of control, and deals with intense issues like police corruption, generational conflict between families, sexual abuse, and other topics relating to mental health and the lack of treatment.

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4 ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ (1976)

Starring Clint Eastwood and Chief Dan George

Clint Eastwood directing The Outlaw Josey Wales — Image via Warner Bros.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is both an epic Western and a great war film, as Eastwood starred in the titular role of a Confederate soldier who seeks vengeance upon those who served the Union in the aftermath of the war’s conclusion in 1865. Unlike other popular revenge films like John Wick or the Kill Bill duology, Wales’ anger isn’t directed at just one person; he simply wants to become a one-man army.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is one of Eastwood’s most action-packed films, but it also marked one of the rare instances where he wasn’t playing a clear-cut hero. Eastwood’s ability to give charismatic performances that forced his audiences to second guess whether or not they should actually be rooting for him is one of the reasons why has continued to make interesting films for well over six decades.

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3 ‘American Sniper’ (2014)

Starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller

Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle aiming a rifle over a wall of sandbags in American Sniper — Image via Warner Bros.

American Sniper is the biggest hit of Eastwood’s career when it came to the box office, as he took over the project from Steven Spielberg and ended up turning it into one of the biggest R-Rated movies ever made. American Sniper is based on the true story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), an American soldier who broke records with the amount of confirmed kills he racked up amidst his experience in the Gulf War conflicts.

American Sniper is a harrowing depiction of the challenging decisions that soldiers are faced with in the thick of combat, and does a good job at examining the realities of post traumatic stress disorder. It also marked Eastwood’s first collaboration with Cooper, who also produced the film, and would go on to co-star with him in the underrated crime thriller The Mule a few years later.

2 ‘Play Misty For Me’ (1971)

Starring Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter

Jessica Walter plays a deadly fan in Play Misty for Me (1971). — Image via Universal Pictures

Play Misty For Me was a very interesting directorial debut for Eastwood, as it was an intense psychological thriller that teetered on the edge of being pure horror at points. Eastwood stars as a popular radio DJ who is obsessed with a psychotic fan (Jessica Walter), who begins stalking him. While obviously the notion of radio stations and DJs is now somewhat antiquated, the concept of a fan feeling like they are “owed” something by the figure that they admire is particularly relevant when considering the ways in which celebrity culture has evolved.

Although she is best known for her more comedic performances on Arrested Development and Archer among many other films and shows, Walters is absolutely terrifying in Play Misty For Me, as there is never any doubt that she poses a serious threat to Eastwood’s character’s life and reputation.

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1 ‘Unforgiven’ (1992)

Starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman

Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven — Image via Warner Bros.

Unforgiven is one of the greatest Westerns ever made, and certainly among the darkest films that ever took home the Academy Award for Best Picture. Eastwood has played his fair share of morally dubious characters, but Unforgiven saw him in even darker territory with the role of William Munny, a former gunslinger who is brought out of retirement by his former partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) in order to take down the corrupt sheriff known as “Little Bill” (Gene Hackman).

Unforgiven shows the true inability of violent men to redeem themselves, as is evidenced by a shocking final bar shootout in which Munny ruthlessly murders many people. It is without any doubt the single most cynical film that Eastwood has ever directed, and serves as a searing deconstruction of the ways in which Western films mythologize violent people who shouldn’t be praised as heroes.

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KEEP READING: The 10 Most Uplifting Drama Movies, Ranked

Gulam

Gulam
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Dollars trilogy was the best ever made by Clint Eastwood

2024-10-13 08:35:55
Fazri

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Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the war film Heartbreak Ridge (1986), the action film In the Line of Fire (1993)

2024-10-13 03:07:01
LALIT

LALIT
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How can u miss the good the bad the ugly of Eastwood?

2024-10-11 02:58:53