Clint Eastwood Clint: The Life & Legend of Clint Eastwood by Patrick McGilligan
In the opening lines of this authoritative debunking of a Hollywood legend, Patrick McGilligan explains that Clint Eastwood is "not so much secretive, more selective" when it comes to revealing details about his past. During the four years he spent researching and writing Clint, the author discovered that almost every major event in the actor's life had been misrepresented at one time or another. Faced with the results of McGilligan's investigations, the reader can only conclude that "selective" is a rather generous appraisal of Clint's self-mythologising.
The book opens long before the birth of its subject: starting with the earliest Eastwoods to settle in America, McGilligan traces a solidly bourgeois lineage for the star, deflating Clint's oft-repeated claim that he had a tough, working class upbringing. In the ensuing chapters, the author meticulously details Eastwood's career and personal life, delving beneath the public image of the star to reveal an unpleasant man obsessed with amassing power and chasing women.
Whilst this kind of revelatory biography can often leave a bad taste in the mouth, in this case the author is no muck-raking hack, but a well respected film biographer and historian who happened to discover that "I was struck by how many people I encountered who really hated Clint and made no bones about it". The result of McGilligan's combination of scholarship and curiosity is a book which will enthrall and shock Eastwood's fans in equal measure. Review by John Oates More details |
