40 Years Later, Clint Eastwood’s Only 1980s Western Is Even More Impressive Because of the Major Record It Broke
40 Years Later, Clint Eastwood’s Only 1980s Western Is Even More Impressive Because of the Major Record It Broke
By Ashley Land
Published 1 day ago
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Since his breakout role as The Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood has established himself as the king of the Western genre in the latter half of the 20th century. From his Dollars Trilogy movies to Unforgiven, his exploration of the revisionist side of the genre is nothing short of iconic. Surprisingly, he only made one Western film during the 1980s, but it shattered a key career record, further entrenching his status in the genre.
In 1965, Clint Eastwood teamed up with director Sergio Leone for A Fistful of Dollars. Based directly on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, the film showed the overlap between the Wild West’s gunslinger mythology and that of the Japanese Samurai, casting its hero as a wandering bounty hunter with a code of honor. After the film’s success, the profile of both director and star soared, leading to two of the most memorable careers of the second half of the 20th century. Despite moving into genres like crime thriller and comedy, Eastwood’s Hollywood career was forever defined by his Westerns. However, as he began to go deeper into genres like war and action, he took a break from his signature genre during the ’80s, only turning in a single gunslinger film: Pale Rider.
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Why Eastwood Took A Step Back From Westerns
Audiences Turned Their Backs On The Genre
Image via The Malpaso Company
Image via Constantin Film
| The Best Movies Directed By Clint Eastwood (CBR) | IMDB Rating |
| #1 – Unforgiven | 8.2 |
| #2 – Gran Torino | 8.1 |
| #3 – Million Dollar Baby | 8.1 |
As the 1980s rolled around, both Eastwood and Hollywood took a different approach to cinema, opting for lighter, more mainstream stories. Since the mid-’70s, the Western genre has run out of steam, losing the iconic status it once had as genres like science fiction, thriller, adventure and comedy took over. As directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have noted, the tone of 1980s cinema is almost a complete inverse of the prior decade, which had been known for darker, grittier stories. As the ’80s changed, Eastwood moved with it, as can be seen in his comedy work, like Any Which Way You Can, and lighthearted dramas, like Bronco Billy, City Heat and Pink Cadillac. Although the star had some good films of the decade, it’s widely seen as his career slump save for a handful of great projects.
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With the greater success of the Dirty Harry films and Eastwood’s closer ties to Warner Brothers, it makes sense that he tried to diversify his career. When examining his directorial career, his range is even more impressive than as an actor, turning in everything from heartfelt dramas to epic modern war movies. Naturally, his efforts to avoid being too typecast as a cowboy had him leave behind his Western-heavy ’70s career for a more diverse one, even if his box office draw suffered because of it. It wouldn’t be until the ’90s that he firmly made his career comeback, but that trend started with Pale Rider.
The abysmal box office failures of films like Heaven’s Gate told studios one thing: the days of successful Western films were over. As major franchises took over, even actors and directors who’d built their brand around the Old West turned to new genres. For Eastwood, this was no different, both in front of and behind the camera. As much as movies like Silverado tried to honor the heyday of the genre, growing production costs and declining sales hurt Westerns considerably.
