Legendary Hollywood actor Serge Leone's Spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy, and began his directing career in 1971 with the sultry psychological thriller Play Misty For Me. Astoundingly, already roughly 20 years into his acting career, 1971 marked only the beginning of Eastwood's 50+ years as a film director.
While his filmmaking legacy is mostly associated with Western films, Eastwood has taken on a variety of roles and movie genres as an actor-director. Even so, it's fitting that Eastwood's first Academy Award was for what was tentatively his last Western -- at least until 2021's Cry Macho -- which Eastwood dedicated at the time to his former Western partner-in-crime Serge Leone. Since then, Eastwood's name has been virtually synonymous with the Western genre, though his filmmaking career in the 21st century has covered everything from urban murder mysteries to sports dramas to a Japanese war film.
No doubt, many of Eastwood's most iconic roles -- The Man With No Name, Dirty Harry, etc. -- originate from movies he didn't direct. However, the movies he did direct, many of which he also starred in, draw special fascination for movie lovers, as they each offer a glimpse into the workings of the man's mind. On that note, here is every movie Clint Eastwood has directed, ranked from worst to best:
39. Firefox (1982)
A techno-thriller action film based on Craig Thomas' 1977 novel of the same name, Firefox was shot on a $21 million budget, of which $20 million went to the special effects. With an anomalous rave review from Roger Ebert, who gave Firefox three-and-a-half stars out of four, Firefox largely pandered to the anti-KGB sentiments of Cold War-era Americans to predominantly negative critical reception. While nowhere near the impressive spectacle of its special effects-heavy contemporaries -- Blade Runner, etc. -- Firefox does stand out as one of Eastwood's more aesthetically "out there" films.
38. The Eiger Sanction (1975)
Closely competing with Firefox for Eastwood's worst directed movie, The Eiger Sanction is largely viewed as a misstep in Eastwood's career, not least of all because of the multiple injuries sustained during production, including the death of 26-year-old British climber David Knowles. With the actors -- including Eastwood himself -- performing many of the mountain-climbing stunts themselves in this action thriller, The Eiger Sanction took many dangerous risks that, despite provoking mixed reviews, earned the film praise for its climbing footage and tense action sequences.
37. The Rookie (1990)
Co-starring Eastwood with Charlie Sheen, while also featuring a Lara Flynn Boyle hot off the success of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, The Rookie is a buddy-cop action film that follows the Eastwood-and-Sheen detective duo on their journey to take down a German crime lord in Los Angeles. With strange casting decisions (Puerto Rican Raul Julia and Brazilian Sônia Braga play Germans) and a tired, formulaic plot, The Rookie fared poorly with critics, despite a decent return in the box office.
36. Blood Work (2002)
Based on the Michael Connelly novel of the same name, Blood Work is a 2002 mystery thriller co-starring Eastwood with Jeff Daniels, Wanda De Jesús, and Anjelica Huston. The story follows an FBI agent who, after a heart transplant, investigates a serial killer. Noted for its "lethargic pacing," Blood Work seemed at the time to represent a late-career tiredness in Eastwood's filmmaking stamina -- though, thankfully, this prognosis was wrong, as proven by the massive career-defining hits he'd go on to direct following this film.
35. Jersey Boys (2014)
Based on the 2005 Tony Award-winning jukebox musical, Jersey Boys follows the real-life musical group The Four Seasons, a four-man band comprised of Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi, and Tommy DeVito. Of the original , both Valli and Gaudio ed Eastwood as executive producers on the project while also composing the film's music.
34. Hereafter (2010)
A fantasy disaster drama film co-starring Matt Damon and Cécile de , Hereafter tells three parallel stories about three people affected by death: George (Damon) is a factory worker who can communicate with the dead, Marie (de ) is a French journalist who survives a near-death experience, and Marcus (played by Frankie and George McLaren) is a British schoolboy who loses someone close to him. While praised for its ambitious, thought-provoking plot, Hereafter received overall mixed reviews.
33. Breezy (1973)
The third movie directed by Eastwood, Breezy is a romantic drama involving a teen hippie named Edith Alice "Breezy" Breezerman (Kay Lenz) and the divorced, middle-aged Frank Harmon (William Holden) who engage in an unconventional relationship that draws the ire of Harmon's peers. While Breezy may feel very outdated to modern audiences, the movie is undoubtedly charming in a way that's at once timeless while also serving as a distinct time capsule of the early-to-mid-70s -- an era Eastwood has represented well in other timeless classics, such as Dirty Harry and Play Misty For Me.
32. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
The film adaptation of John Berendt's book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil follows the young journalist John Kelso (John Cusack) as he travels to Savannah, GA to ostensibly cover the city's Christmas celebrations before becoming involved in a murder trial. A box office failure, the film's quirky Southern subject matter mismatched with Eastwood's spare directorial style, resulting in an odd tone that audiences found either unintentionally enjoyable or obnoxiously stilted.
31. Absolute Power (1997)
Playing a jewel thief who witnesses Secret Service agents murdering a woman, Eastwood both directs and stars in the political crime thriller Absolute Power, a movie adaptation of David Baldacci's 1996 novel of the same name. When Eastwood learned the book was being adapted into film by screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride), he expressed interest in making the movie with one caveat: that all the interesting, likeable characters killed off in the book survive in the film.
30. True Crime (1999)
Not to be mistaken with the critically panned Alicia Silverstone True Crime from 1995, Fight Club, Magnolia, and much more -- though it was largely a box office bomb, grossing only $16 million against a $55 million production budget. While Eastwood's failures typically come with praise for his acting, most critics agreed that Eastwood was miscast in this otherwise decent mystery thriller.
