Happy 90th Birthday, Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, California. Since then, he's been one of America's greatest living legends.

To celebrate 90 years of this great American actor, director, and human-being, I compiled a list of my personal top five favorite Eastwood films of all time.

Let's count down to my #1 favorite:

5) Hang 'Em High (1968)

Yeah, it's an American film trying to reap the benefits of Clint's spaghetti western fame, but it's also the first major American Western film that Clint starred in that went to a wider release. It was the first fruits of his new stardom in America. To me, it's kind of an indication of just how quickly Clint shot to fame as a movie star.

4) High Plains Drifter (1973)

This is a dark revenge drama of the western variety, but I love the implied paranormal elements. My favorite westerns always instill some kind of supernatural element to the story. For this film, I love the mystery of who the drifter is and trying to figure out his history. All of the questions make you wonder whether he's human or something else.

1) Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

This one combines all of my favorite things. It's hilarious, action-packed, and manages to be a romantic comedy all at the same time. It's Clint fresh off the success of his other famous Westerns. I have seen this one more times than I can count and it never fails to make me laugh.

3) A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

The film community has ruled that the third movie, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, is the greatest of the famous "Dollars" trilogy. This is one of those rare trilogies where all three movies are fantastic, but for my own personal taste, the first film, A Fistful of Dollars, is my favorite. The reason it takes top spot for me actually has a lot of to with Rawhide. After you watch eight seasons of Clint in black and white, I moved on to watch A Fistful of Dollars. As the first movie where he would have starred in color, I love to think about how Americans would have been able to see him in color and would have had the chance to see a character much more ruthless than Rowdy Yates, who he'd been playing for the last six years. I take color for granted now, but it made me think what a treat it is to have color captured on film.

2) The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

I'm a girl, so naturally, I love this romance movie, which Clint both starred in and directed. It's a great change of pace in his career and appears so effortless despite it being so different. It's surprisingly tender and honest.

1) Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

This one combines all of my favorite things. It's hilarious, action-packed, and manages to be a romantic comedy all at the same time. It's Clint fresh off the success of his other famous Westerns. I have seen this one more times than I can count and it never fails to make me laugh.

+ Honorable mentions: Kelly's Heroes (1970), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)... I've got to stop there, or I won't be able to stop myself form including like 16 more!

Those are my favorite Clint movies, but my all-time favorite Clint Eastwood content is, of course, one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Rawhide. There are 8 entire seasons of Clint starring in his breakout role as the lovable idiot ramrod, Rowdy Yates. It's a lot of fun to watch Clint alongside this fantastic cast and, if you have access to Rawhide at all (likely, you'll have to buy the DVDs), then I would urge you to take advantage of that opportunity to discover a truly compelling drama.

These are my current favorites, but there are so many films which he's either starred in, directed, or both that make his career something special. It will be wonderful to see what Clint does next.

x