Clint Eastwood Didn’t Believe in His Own Movie That Won Him 4 Oscars
The actor’s career had a turning point with the release of his 1992 hit Western movie, and it wasn’t only about Eastwood’s directorial style. Here’s why he thought the Oscar-winning action flick wouldn’t find success.
Despite Hollywood’s constant race for the audiences’ attention, not many directors’ work in the industry can compare to Clint Eastwood’s impact on cinema history.
The director turned 95 a couple of months ago, but hasn’t thought much about retirement yet, recently sharing his thoughts on making at least one more movie sometime in the future.
Quite literally, Eastwood has been more about directing rather than acting in the last several years, boasting of a huge number of directorial works that are now regarded as some of the greatest movies ever made.
However, Eastwood wasn’t that optimistic about his biggest hit to date which went on to become an Oscar winner and the director’s highest-rated film on IMDb.
Clint Eastwood Thought ‘Unforgiven’ Wouldn’t Become Popular Among His Fans
The director was having the time of his life while making commercially and critically successful movies one after another in the 1970s and 1980s.
However, as time passed, Eastwood was looking for a focus change, thinking about stepping away from action-packed movies and centring the story on its characters instead.
“The action-packed movie was fun when I started, let’s say when I was in my twenties or thirties. Sometimes, the material had a good story; sometimes, it had great action, lots of movement and color. But at some point in your life, that’s enough. You look for character studies instead, even if it’s less commercial. When I was making Unforgiven I thought it was going to be unsuccessful”, Eastwood said in an interview to Henry Wilson back in 1998.
‘Unforgiven’ Is Still Clint Eastwood’s Highest-Acclaimed Movie
- On Rotten Tomatoes, Unforgiven holds scores of 96% and 93% from critics and viewers
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 8.2/10
Luckily for Eastwood, Unforgiven not only did debunk his worst expectations, but also reached bigger heights than any other movie he ever directed.
Starring Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, the movie was a massive box office hit, grossing $160 million against its budget of $14 million, eventually becoming one of the frontrunners at the 1993 Oscars ceremony.
The awards season’s outcome wasn’t disappointing either, with Unforgiven sweeping almost all major award ceremonies and taking home 4 Oscars, including for Best Director and Best Picture.
Whatever feelings for the movie Eastwood used to have back in the day, decades later it remains his finest work and highest-rated film on almost all aggregator websites.
