You Got To Work That Clint-orus: Introduction

First, let me begin this entry with a lesson in Best Laid Plans.

Warner Bros. recently put out a Blu-ray box set of ten Clint Eastwood films. It is, by no means, a comprehensive hi-def record of his cinematic oeuvre (it's even lacking in his years with the Brothers Warner--a little under a third of his WB pictures are here), but it's a decent overview all the same. I confess there's even something brutally attractive about the kinds of films in the set. One could easily imagine a collection of Clint's Best, yet a number of real stinkers take up real estate. If nothing else, the variance in quality from film to film mirrors the quality shifts throughout Eastwood's fifty-plus years in film, and I like that some of his least inspired cinematic excursions made the cut. What else could explain the inclusion of Where Eagles Dare, Absolute Power, and, the creme de la crap, the Charlie Sheen-co-starring excretion The Rookie?

That said, seeing The Outlaw Josey Wales, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, Tightrope, Bird, White Hunter Black Heart, A Perfect World, True Crime, and Invictus would make for an even more satisfying survey set, but like the song goes, "You take the good, you take the bad, and there you have The Facts of Life."

It's an good start for Eastwood on Blu-ray, and I thought it'd make a good column--review all ten, in chronological order.

Here's where that whole "Best Laid Plans" lesson comes into play: the United States Postal Service gerried my copy, losing it to the mysteries of Route 66, and so I sit, dick in hand.

Nothing like a good challenge. The game's still on. The catch: I procure the ten films in the set by hook or by crook. When I review 'em is when I see 'em. I'll try to establish some order, but as I'm culling titles from many different sources, the only constant I can promise is Clint himself.

And really, isn't that enough?