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“Invictus” means “unconquered.” The poem of that name, by 19th century Scotsman William Ernest Hensley, is said to be Nelson Mandela’s favorite. As the title of Clint Eastwood’s new film, which opened last week in the U.S., the word has a dual significance. Mandela, played to perfection by Morgan Freeman, claims that it helped carry him through his 27 years of incarceration at the hands of the Apartheid. When Mandela writes out the verses and gives them to Springbok team captain Francois Pienaar --- another perfect portrayal, this by Matt Damon--- they become the symbol and inspiration for the South...

Clint Eastwood’s Invictus: A Colossal Bore South Africa is plagued with astonishing levels of crime and poverty, its peoples segregated and suspicious of one another. But the new Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus says that’s all okay, because the country’s rugby team won a few games in 1995. Coming off last winter’s excellent and far more challenging Gran Torino, Invictus is shockingly pedestrian and cliché-ridden. Its level of racial naivety makes it a sort of Driving Mr. Damon, with Morgan Freeman accepting a demotion from his usual roles as God or the president of the United States. This time he merely...

South Africa is plagued with astonishing levels of crime and poverty, its peoples segregated and suspicious of one another. But the new Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus says that’s all okay, because the country’s rugby team won a few games in 1995. Coming off last winter’s excellent and far more challenging Gran Torino, Invictus is shockingly pedestrian and cliché-ridden. Its level of racial naivety makes it a sort of Driving Mr. Damon, with Morgan Freeman accepting a demotion from his usual roles as God or the president of the United States. This time he merely plays a saint — Nelson Mandela....

Clint Eastwood is better known for his fists than his fashion sense, but that didn't stop GQ magazine from naming him a man of the year. Eastwood joins Barack Obama, Tom Brady, the three stars of "The Hangover" and "Star Trek" actor Chris Pine on five special covers for the December issue (www.gq.com), which hits newsstands Tuesday. Eastwood talks politics, love, religion, diet and women in a wide-ranging interview with deputy editor Michael Hainey, who calls the 79-year-old the "patron saint of late bloomers." Eastwood gained fame for his acting in the spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, but won his...

President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded US actor and director Clint Eastwood one of France's top honours, hailing him as a cinema legend and a symbol of the type of America that the French adored. It is unusual for a foreigner to be elevated to the rank of commander of the French Legion of Honour but Eastwood, who went from playing tough guy roles like Dirty Harry to directing highly praised films, said he saw France as his second home. "My wife chastised me saying if that was true, why don't I speak French," he told friends and officials gathered at the...

On this day in 1931, actor Clint Eastwood is born in San Francisco. With his father, he wandered the West Coast as a boy during the Depression. After four years in the Army Special Services, Eastwood came to Hollywood, winning small roles. For eight years, he played Rowdy Yates in the popular TV western series Rawhide and later starred in three low-budget “spaghetti” westerns: Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More, (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), all of which became hits.

Clint Eastwood has cast his son in an untitled Nelson Mandela biopic he has signed up to direct, reports say. The Hollywood Reporter said Scott Eastwood will join Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in the real-life story of how Mandela united South Africa. It is not the first time that the younger Eastwood has starred in a film directed by his father.

Actor Clint Eastwood sees nothing funny about political correctness. The "Dirty Harry" actor told Germany's Der Spiegel that modern society lives in a state of fear over the possibility of being labeled racist for telling jokes based on ethnicity or nationality. "People have lost their sense of humor," he told the magazine. "In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.

London, February 27 (ANI): Acting legend Clint Eastwood , 79, apparently believes that political correctness has rendered modern society humourless, for he accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive. The Dirty Harry star insists that he should be able to tell harmless jokes about nationality without fearing that people may brand him "a racist". "People have lost their sense of humour. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth or you will be insulted as a racist," the Daily Express...

Acting legend Clint Eastwood , 79, apparently believes that political correctness has rendered modern society humourless, for he accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive. The Dirty Harry star insists that he should be able to tell harmless jokes about nationality without fearing that people may brand him "a racist" Snip

London, February 27 (ANI): Acting legend Clint Eastwood , 79, apparently believes that political correctness has rendered modern society humourless, for he accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive. The Dirty Harry star insists that he should be able to tell harmless jokes about nationality without fearing that people may brand him "a racist". "People have lost their sense of humour. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth or you will be insulted as a racist," the Daily Express...

Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood laments the loss of old-fashioned humour in today's society - insisting he should be able to tell harmless jokes about nationality without fear of people branding him a "racist". The Dirty Harry star, 79, is adamant that modern culture has become humourless, and accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive. He says, "People have lost their sense of humour. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth or you will be insulted as a racist. "I...

There were plenty of snubs in this year’s Oscar nominations. Although the blockbuster “The Dark Knight” picked up eight nominations, tying “Milk” for the third-highest total, the Batman sequel failed to snag either a Best Picture or a Best Director nomination. Heath Ledger was given a posthumous Supporting Actor nomination, as anticipated, for his intense portrayal of The Joker. However, other “Dark Knight” nods were in technical categories such as visual effects, art direction and cinematography. Still, the Academy reserved its coldest shoulder for Clint Eastwood and his latest film, “Gran Torino.” Eastwood was on most Oscar-watching lists and was...

Review of Gran Torino and Eastwoods libertarian-conservative views. Kennedy family not happy with the way Caroline was treated. Should be glad she wasn't treated like a Kopechne Anonymous emails being sent around about RNC chairman candidates.

To my Conservative Friends: I have been receiving emails and phone calls over the past week from my Conservative and liberal friends alike saying to me - "Mike - You gotta see Gran Torino!!" So, in the middle of the snow storm on Saturday night, I trekked out to see the film I had heard so much about... The film is about a man named Walt Kowalski, a 70-something, cranky Korean War Vet who lives in a mid-west neighborhood that has been steadily changing to a Black/Asian community. Walt, living alone now after his wife's death, is one of the...

My wife and me have been anxiously waiting to see the movie since the trailers have been airing on TV. It looked to be a classic Clint movie and it was and even more. Clint plays his traditional moody character who despises most people and distributes justice in typical Clint fashion. It's set in Detroit with all it's melting pot character and Clint take full advantage of the opportunity to disparage every ethnic group. If your sensitive to racial eptithets this movie will surely offend you. The ending, however, departs from the typical Clint formula. I don't want to ruin...

At 78, perhaps the only actor in the history of American cinema to convincingly kick the butt of a guy 60 years his junior, the hard-headed, snarly mouthed Clint Eastwood of the 1970s comes growling back to life in "Gran Torino." Centered on a cantankerous curmudgeon who can fairly be described as Archie Bunker fully loaded (with beer and guns), the actor-director's second release of the season is his most stripped-down, unadorned picture in many a year, even as it continues his long preoccupation with race in American society. Highlighted by the star's vastly entertaining performance, this funny, broad but...

Clint Eastwood has joked that he turned down an offer to be John McCain's running mate before the presidential candidate had the chance to ask him, and compared actual VP candidate Sarah Palin to Angelina Jolie. The multiple Oscar winning actor and director told People magazine: "I was at a function, and a bunch of political types were there. And John McCain was there. He came up to say hello. I said, 'Look, don't even ask it. I will not be your vice president. I have to be on the top of the ticket'. Aside from turning down the job,...

Clint Eastwood got a makeover! He's softened his Dirty Harry style to adopt a look that's more When Harry Met Sally. He is so not afraid of his feminine side! Above, Clint models his pastel pink McCain cap in a photo with Cindy McCain at a campaign event.

That's all: http://images.johnmccain.com/images/photos/0603_1.jpg

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Clint Eastwood is one of our most famous Republicans. Did you talk politics with him on the set? ANGELINA JOLIE: Actually, we don't disagree as much as you'd think. I think people assume I'm a Democrat. But I'm registered independent and I'm still undecided. So I'm looking at McCain as well as Obama. Clint can teach me about things domestically and I'm more aware of some things internationally. So it was less a debate and more things we found interesting. But for the first few weeks I was just too nervous to get into any deep conversation!

Hi everyone - being a relative newbie, I could yet not resist this one: yesterday I saw 'Unforgiven' by Clint Eastwood for the first time. To start: I found it a stunningly good movie. It's been labelled as 'the very last western', or if you will, a revisionist version of trad western fare. I'd agree with both comments; but at the same time it's not out of step with tradional storytelling. What makes it special for me is the deep humanity in it all. Women of low standing are heroines; Clint stays true to the one woman that once saved...

The actor says he was surprised at his removal from the state parks board in the wake of his opposition to a toll road. But he says he holds no hard feelings toward Schwarzenegger. After Clint Eastwood learned last week that his friend Arnold Schwarzenegger no longer wanted him on the state parks commission, he spoke with Bobby Shriver, the governor's brother-in-law, who had also been dropped. Somewhat incredulous, they joked about it, each saying the other should be more offended. "I talked to him the day we were not reappointed, or as Donald Trump would say, 'You're fired,' "...

SACRAMENTO - In his first direct responses, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended dumping his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood from the state Parks and Recreation Commission - a step critics allege was taken in retaliation for their opposition to a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Park. Led by Shriver and Eastwood, the appointed and unpaid commission has been an outspoken opponent of the toll road, claiming that super highways have no place in state parks. There also are worries that it could irreparably damage a renowned surfing area called Trestles. In an interview with the Orange County...

A response to Governor Schwarzenegger's state parks proposals is first, then the Associated Press story that inspired it follows. I hope Mr. Schwarzenegger will reconsider. ************** THE TERMINATOR NEEDS TO CUT ELSEWHERE! The news of Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent proposals in California to build a toll road through a state park and to close 48 state parks due to "budgetary" considerations is very disappointing despite the fact that I live in Illinois! His firing of his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood from the State Parks Commission will garner the story national attention, which it deserves. California is not...

Take your pick. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger either felt the need for “fresh legs” on the state Park & Recreation Commission or was in the mood for political payback. Whatever his true sentiments, his staff notified his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood on Monday that they were no longer needed as state park commissioners. Shriver, 53, a Democrat and brother of First Lady Maria Shriver, and Eastwood, 77, a Republican and former mayor of Carmel, were first appointed to the advisory commission by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. Three years later, Schwarzenegger reappointed both of them to four-year terms....

Clint Eastwood: Ann Coulter, others, 'masochistic' by Mark Silva Clint Eastwood, actor, producer and himself a smalltown mayor, sees a sense of masochism in the Republicans who say they cannot support John McCain's bid for the White House. In an interview with FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto live from Pebble Beach, Calif., at the site of the AT&T National Pro-Am Golf Tournament aired this evening, Eastwood talks politics. Eastwood has this to say about Ann Coulter’s claim that she would vote for Hillary Clinton over John McCain: "Conservatives, often times, are very masochistic. They say, 'I’d rather not show up...

Clint Eastwood's pair of films about the famous battle on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima have spurred former residents to campaign for the island's name to be officially changed. The site of the battle was a barren volcanic outpost that was home to only around 1,000 people before the war. Before 1944 it was always known as Iwo To. It only became known as Iwo Jima because Japanese officers who arrived to fortify the island after its residents were evacuated got the name wrong. That's perhaps not quite so surprising when you consider that Iwo To and Iwo Jima...

Clint Eastwood's, "Letters From Iwo Jima," is a brilliantly made film that is up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards this Sunday. It has already won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Nonetheless, it is a terribly misleading film.

For those Forum Members who have expressed an opinion on the movie Letters from Iwo Jima, please allow me to share how I re-acted to this film. For lack of a better way to begin, let me say, What “Nice Guys” the Japanese Soldiers Were. It was obvious to me that the Japanese soldiers who fought the Americans on Iwo Jima were not the same soldiers who fought the Americans on Bataan, or were they? As a survivor of the Bataan Death March, I can tell you for certainty, the Japanese depicted in “Letters From Iwo Jima” were in no...

Dirty Harry has finally succumbed to the endemic moral pathology of Hollywood. The best evidence of this is the New York Times’ A.O. Scott’s rating of “almost perfect” for Clint Eastwood’s new film “Letters from Iwo Jima.” Following suit, most of the major media reviews acknowledged it as a masterpiece and contender for many Academy Awards...

Michael Medved, on his radio show just now, gave Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" 4 stars - the highest rating.

I've been very popular lately! Important people have been calling ME! So far, the major callers have been The Governator and Mr. Clint Eastwood! I feel so special!

Some men (and women) whom the gods would destroy, they first raise high for all to see. These men (and women) have been so successful, have amassed such wealth, and have acquired so many playthings -- the grand houses on Lily Pond Lane, Chateaux en Provence, estates in Scotland surrounded by rushing streams rich with trout, or vast glass and steel condos looking out over Central Park, that they yearn for things that wealth cannot buy. These are men (and women) like George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg. Besotted with their wealth they forget that they are ordinary men (and...

Critics are already calling Clint Eastwood's new movie, Flags of Our Fathers, the most important film of the year. It's a Second World War epic about the six soldiers who raised the US flag on the island of Iwo Jima, the six who live on through the now famous photograph that has become the most abiding image of the fight in the Pacific. As made by one of Hollywood's best-known Republicans, you might expect a stirring slice of patriotism, yet this is anything but an ode to America.

This is not intended as a full-scale review, just some impressions from seeing the movie tonight. First, as you likely know, it deals with the three men (a Navy corpsman and two Marines) of the six flag raisers who survived Iwo Jima. Clint Eastwood directed this pic, which traces the first flag-raising---which, of course, was thought to be "the" flag-raising---then the second, captured for all time in Joe Rosenthal's photo. The main plot line is that the nation was broke, and would have to sue for peace with the Japanese (right) if we didn't generate more money, quickly, through war...

Legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood was greeted by a packed room of journalists, applauding him as he entered the ball room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles to talk about his latest film, Flags of our Fathers. Wearing a pressed powered blue suit, Eastwood stood at the front of the room and allowed reporters to take pictures. After a few photos he laughed and said, "Okay, that's enough of that. Well, thank you for coming here at this ridiculous hour. At least it was for me." And after surveying all the mics and recorders, "I keep feeling...

I know how to fight. Like most American boys – and perhaps a few girls – I learned the very basics of fighting on the playground in elementary school. I’m not talking about specific fighting techniques, those would come much later: I’m talking about lessons learned about fighting that would shape my – and many others’ – understanding of fighting whether it be in a schoolyard, an alleyway, a boxing ring, or a battlefield.

Combination trailer for Clint Eastwood's two new movies about Iwo Jima at the link. Doesn't show a whole lot about either movie, but it does look like your typical light hearted Clint Eastwood fare. :)

This weekend once again offered “Back to the Future” but since I had just reviewed that a month ago I decided to pick another (but it didn’t stop me from watching BTTF again). Forrest Gump was also on a few times over the weekend but the movie selected for today’s reviewed was shown on Saturday morning on one of the cable channels This weekend’s selection is 1970’s Two Mules for Sister Sara, starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley McLain. I grew up watching this movie and like so many movies you saw on TV growing up, you’re a bit surprised when...

A RETIRED social worker was jailed yesterday for seven days for refusing to pay a £53.71 increase in her council tax. Sylvia Hardy, a 73-year-old spinster, had refused all offers of help from well-wishers. She was making a stand in the hope of forcing the Government to reconsider an unjust tax, she said. Bag in hand, she marched to the court from her Exeter home accompanied by a small crowd of banner-waving supporters. Hundreds more were waiting to wave her off. Hardy, only the second council tax protester to be jailed, was compared by supporters to Emily Pankhurst, the...

Chirac shoots from hip for Yes voteBy John Thornhill Published: April 15 2005 21:17 | Last updated: April 15 2005 21:17Jacques Chirac outgunned Clint Eastwood on Thursday night, but only just. The French president's much-hyped intervention in the European constitutional debate attracted 7.4m television viewers, while the Hollywood star drew 6.4m for his film, Pale Rider, on a rival channel.But if the two lead actors' styles varied, their promised plotlines seemed similar: “A small town is terrorised by a gangster and salvation comes in the form of a gun-toting preacher.”Seeking to reassure his live audience of anxious young voters,...

It's Clint Eastwood's half-billion-dollar baby -- a sweeping development plan for Monterey Peninsula's fabled Del Monte Forest. So far the ``baby'' is garnering both jeers and plaudits. In one corner: environmental activists and the California Coastal Commission staff. In the other: the Pebble Beach Co. and Monterey County's elected officials. And both sides are digging in for the long haul. The Pebble Beach Co., owned by Eastwood, golfer Arnold Palmer, ex-baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and other investors, wants to build a championship 18-hole golf course and driving range in the area's signature Monterey pine forest. The 150-acre development would also...

Knotted Knickers Some people who call themselves conservatives got their knickers in a knot about Clint Eastwood's film "Million Dollar Baby." They object to it ending with an assisted suicide. Dearly beloved, it's a story, a work of fiction. It is not a legal argument, a polemic or a piece of political advocacy. A story is a story is a story. Some stories have happy endings, and some have sad endings. The purpose of fiction is nothing more lofty or low than simple entertainment. Now that we have disposed of the silly people alarmed by works of fiction, let's address...

Life League Pans 'Million Dollar Baby' "Hollywood continues to pound the American public with the message that the lives of the disabled are not worth living; that such a life is a commodity that can be taken at one's own whim," said Shannon Flanagan, college outreach director of American Life League's Rock for Life. "Last night's Oscar success for the pro-euthanasia movie 'Million Dollar Baby' is just another example of the Culture of Death seeping into our everyday lives." The highly controversial movie carried off four Oscars at the 77th Annual Academy Awards. "This movie has been hailed as a...

Well, Oscar Night is upon us again. And if Chris Rock is nearly right, I might be the only straight white man who watches the Oscars for both the pretty women almost dressed plus the primetime fun of making rude comments as the awards are handed out. I think I seen about every Academy Awards when I've been able to since my folks got a television set in 1955. It was always in the back of my mind to one night walk up and accept one of those small golden guys. I tried the acting route, even obtaining a SAG...

Eastwood up next on the O'Reilly Factor. Nothing follows.

Clint Eastwood made my day. It happened during a recent interview with The New York Times in which the actor-director said he was baffled by the controversy surrounding his latest film, "Million Dollar Baby." What Eastwood finds frustrating is that a movie that isn't really political has had to endure political fallout from right-wing talk show hosts who insist that the film — in a plot twist already revealed elsewhere — pushes liberalism by promoting assisted suicide. Given that Eastwood is the former Republican mayor of Carmel, Calif., and a movie star who once played hard-nosed Police Inspector Harry Callahan,...

Regarding Clint Eastwood movies: Some things never change. He doesn't do middle class. He prefers a well-told story to fashionable technical experiments. He's not afraid of corniness. And his characters will fight to maintain decency in indecent times. His films operate in a moral universe that's more particular to movie genres than to the real world. To do right in an Eastwood cop flick, you have to do a little wrong. There is also suffering, punishment, hurt sometimes meted out with a hefty side of sarcasm (Eastwood is the most unheralded comedian in Hollywood). These traits are constant. But some...

Clint Eastwood's ''Million Dollar Baby'' has scored seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Alejandro Amenabar's ''The Sea Inside'' has come away with two, including Best Foreign Language Film. What links both movies? The message that it's kind to help a paralyzed person die. To our knowledge, few critics have picked up on the films' shared ''right-to-die'' message. Had the plot been racial or homophobic killing, however, we'd be hearing an outcry (if the movie ever got made at all). Why the silence? We think it's because much of society believes it's the right thing to do, to...