Clint : The Life and Legend

Rating:
Summary: McGilligan"s Eye is jaundiced
Review: By his own words the author identifies himself as a typical, Hollywood, hate-America, far-left limousine liberal who never misses a chance to tell you how much he hates Ronald Reagan - As if the reader should care. Small wonder, then, that he also hates Clint Eastwood.
And there is the problem. If a politically motivated biographer detests the politics of his subject, can he be fair? Probably not, so that makes his biography nearly worthless. Clint may be a liar, a thief, a wife-beater, a backstabber, a miser, and a pill-popping narcissist, to name the lesser character defects the author ascribes to him, but how reliable is the source? If the author had had the wit to keep his mouth shut about his own beliefs he would have done a more credible hatchet job. Megalomania will out.
The author attributes Clint's good press to either smoozing with reporters(male) or sleeping with them (female). Maybe the author should try that himself; It's the only way he'll ever get a good review for this book.

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Summary: Author definitely has a grudge against Clint
Review: I have to agree w/ 2 other reviewers on this board that basically stated that this author has a grudge against Clint. The tone of the book is very negative toward Clint and does not provide a balanced approach to his life. As a prior reviewer stated, the author would have us believe that all Clint movie-goers are idiots that wouldn't know a good movie if they saw one--nevermind that obviously, Clint has a huge fan base or his movies wouldn't have been so successful, nor would he be considered a Hollywood Icon. The author takes every chance possible to take a dig at Eastwood. I was very disappointed with the tone and negativity of the book. I did not think he did a good job at all in painting a real picture of Clint Eastwood. According to this author, Clint doesn't have a single good quality or trait. I find that impossible to believe.

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Summary: Eastwood sues author Patrick McGilligan
Review: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Clint Eastwood has dropped a libel lawsuit over an unauthorized biography in exchange for the removal of passages from the book, including claims that the "Unforgiven" star beat his wife, attorneys for both sides said on Thursday. Eastwood, 74, sued author Patrick McGilligan and St. Martin's Press over "Clint: The Life and Legend" in federal court in San Jose, claiming the book contained false and defamatory statements. The book was previously published in the United Kingdom by HarperCollins.The offending material included statements by a former associate who said in a tape-recorded interview that he had seen Eastwood abuse his former wife, Maggie Eastwood.The former associate later recanted the claim and McGilligan and his publisher agreed to remove the statement from future editions, the attorneys said.
Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed due to a confidentiality statement, the attorneys said.
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This book sucks. I have read a number of articles over the years that make Clint out to be a great guy, and a lot of them mention andy of his good qualities such as his affection for animals and kids, but this book never mentions any of that. I found that very strange.
He's quick to point out any negative feeling anyone has ever had for a particular movie and sometimes he follows it up with 'well, some people like it'. He got some of his facts wrong in Clints early years. Its kind of obvious he's never seen some of these films. He should watch some of the movies before he reviews them.
Let's give him some of his own medicine:
Remove the "Mc" from Patrick McGilligan and you get Gilligan from Gilligan's Island! Perhaps the abuse he took as a child from such a ridiculous name warped his mind over the years. There isn't even a photograph of the author on the book jacket which suggests he's an ungly man with an ugly psyche.

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Summary: Dirty McGilligan
Review: Patrick McGilligan's "unauthorized" biography of film giant Clint Eastwood is dedicated to "Mom." If Mrs. McGilligan bothered to read the book, she might have said "Thanks, but no thanks," and request that her name be removed from such a seamy book. Of course, McGilligan could argue that it isn't his book that's offensive, but the life of its subject. I think it's a little of both.

If McGilligan is correct, Eastwood's public image is a sham. Widely praised for his loyalty, the Eastwood in McGilligan's book banishes lifelong friends from his circle should they dare ask for even a tiny crumb of the pie they helped bake. Producers, directors, editors, writers, all of them working for comparative peanuts, become "non-persons" in the eyes of Clint the squint, and they are exiled from his Malpaso production company and from the film industry itself because, they insist, the big man is vindictive, and uses his considerable influence to deprive them of their right to make a living. But the macho icon is also a coward who loathes confrontation and never fires anyone directly, letting others do his dirty work for him. Rich beyond mere tabulation, Dirty Harry's Republican alter ego slams welfare and brags that he worked for "every crust of bread" he ever ate, yet never pays for a meal, insisting on being "comped" wherever he goes. And as a filmmaker, his legendary habit of delivering films ahead of schedule and under budget is nothing but carelessness and a wiliness to accept subpar work to keep his budgets low and his percentages high.

He's also a womanizer whose relationships produced numerous illegitimate children, an opportunist who used his brief reign as Mayor of Carmel for his own financial gain, and a father in name only.

Then there's that temper. Anyone who dares park in his unmarked space on the Warner lot will know holy terror as Eastwood vandalizes their vehicle with a golf club, hammer, or a pickup truck. Good luck if you sue him in court, especially with a judge who asks for his autograph.

As someone who always thought highly of Eastwood personally no matter what I thought of his films (most of which I admire), I found this account of his life rather disturbing, but the book is disturbing in ways that have more to do with McGilligan than Eastwood. The punctuation is often a mess with periods appearing outside quotation marks, and the spelling is often questionable, with the author spelling tires as "tyres" when describing the ludicrous climax of The Gauntlet. Maybe the guy is English and doesn't always Americanize his language but the biographical notes describe him as living in Missouri, so that may not be an excuse.

There are also more substantial errors. McGilligan has Ronald Reagan appropriating Dirty Harry's famous "Make my day" speech from Sudden Impact in March 1983, nine months before the film is released. And he gets other dates wrong: In his world, Paint Your Wagon opened a year later than it did, and Escape from Alcatraz debuts in the Christmas season of 1979 when, in fact, it opened the previous June. One can excuse errors here and there, but release dates can be easily verified, and McGilligan makes them consistently. If he can't get a film's release date right, how much faith can we have in his account of incidents from Eastwood's life, incidents at which the author was not present?

If nothing else, this book's sloppy research suggests McGilligan suffers from one of the same personality flaws for which he frequently reprimands his subject. Eastwood, he says, is always happy with the first draft of the screenplays he stars in and/or directs, never requesting and always resisting rewrites (perhaps because they require shelling out cash, something the miserly multi-millionaire is loathe to do). McGilligan's book reads like a first draft that never made it to the proofreader. Perhaps a quote from the Bible is in order here: "Judge not lest ye be judged."

McGilligan's book is certainly an improvement over Richard Shickel's earlier look at the Hollywood titan. McGilligan is fairly thorough, offering more information about Eastwood's ancestry than we might even want to know about our own, and providing a more subjective view of the star's contribution to the cinema. Thankfully, he never fawns over Eastwood the way "critic" Schickel did in his "authorized" bio, but one may be tempted to wonder if he went too far in the opposite direction.

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Summary: ...
Review: This book is must reading for anyone who is curious about Clint Eastwood or for anyone who enjoys entertaining and enlightening detective work.

If you see Eastwood walking down the street, don't ask for an autograph... run!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fascinating!
Review: This guy really knows his subject. After reading this book, you will know Clint backwards and forwards. Want to know what it's like to be Clint Eastwood? Get this book.

People who think Clint is some kind of god are posting negative reviews. But this sounds like a really honest biography. If you like Dirty Harry, the westerns, and so on, this is the book for you!

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Summary: Pretty Hot Stuff....Eastwood Must Be Furious
Review: This is a warts and all biography that is several notches above the tell all/Kitty Kelley genre. The author has a genuine feel for Eastwood's films and his work as a director. Credit is given where credit is due. But that's not the good stuff. When the author digs into Eastwood's personal life, what emerges is a selfish, shallow man who, worst of all, shows no loyalty whatsoever to his old friends. Eastwood seems to have nailed every waitress, starlet and car hop that crossed his path, but that, tho fun, is no reason to discredit the man. It's when you read how he double crossed old friends, fired them, cut them out of deals, etc, that your stomach really turns. Beneath that sombrero and cigar beats the heart of Sammy Glick! In a way this book is as merciless (and readable) as Mommy Dearest. And Clint comes off just a tad better than hanger-weilding Joan Crawford. He didn't beat his kids, you've got to give him that. But when you read what he did to Sondra Locke, who was suffering from breast cancer at the time, it's almost as bad. Eastwood is probably furious about this book, but it is needed, especially when you consider the white wash that Richard Schickle, little more than a paid flack and lackey, published a few years ago. THIS is the definitive Clint Eastwood book. Read it and weep.

Rating:
Summary: Clint the Monster
Review: This is to modify the review I submitted an hour ago:

I guess I should not have included my website address ..., but in case that's permissible, I accidentally left out the w's ... so it's http://www.garyfranklin.com.

Probably not important.

In any case, It's a very readable account of what really makes Hollywood work ... including its ugly underbellies. I know, because I was - until semi-retirement - a major TV/radio critic, and talked to Clint Eastwood often. He got free publicity on major stations (KABC-TV and KCBS-TV and KFWB) ... and we got promotable access to a super-star and his film-making activities (including the Cannes film festival, 1985). Eastwood knew how to charm the pliable press ... and to select interviewers carefully. But his flacks were a pain in the butt. I couldn't put this new book down ... and read it during one 24 hour period.

The most disturbing aspect in CLINT: an anti-semitic remark .. to the effect he couldn't win an Oscar because he isn't Jewish.

I will have a full review of the book and Eastwood's latest film (Blood Work), on my website this Tuesday, 9/3.

gsf

Rating:
Summary: Clint the Monster
Review: When you consider the horrible direction performed by Clint Eastwood over the years (The Eiger Sanction, Blood Work, Tightrope, Breezy, The Outlaw Josey Wales), this book has a lot of credibility. He does not have much of a legacy as an actor, either. You can always expect the same one-dimensional performance. The reasons for this lack of talent are revealed by McGilligan. Clint started life as a "nice guy" and then slid into a greedy career killer destroying friends and lovers. It takes a lot of time, energy, and commitment to become a great director. The author proves that Clint has none of these traits, except to use movies to make a fast buck. Judging from the testimony of many people close to Clint, he is a failure in career, family, and the way he has handled his life.

As negative as this all sounds, somehow McGilligan writes objectively with a refreshing, entertaining style. This makes the book a very enjoyable read.