Clint Eastwood

When you're going to see a Clint Eastwood movie, you can be pretty sure it'll be a) at least a little violent b) a wee bit of a downer and c) generally understated and brilliant.

But other than those three continuity points, Eastwood is all over the map.

He's most famous for his Westerns, like High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Pale Rider (1985), and of course Unforgiven.

But he's also dabbled in thrillers, like 1971's Play Misty for Me, various action and adventure films, such as Space Cowboys (2000) and several biopics—1988's Bird (about jazz legend Charlie Parker) and 2011's J. Edgar (about the famous FBI Chief).

So why was Unforgiven such a massive movie for Eastwood? Because it marks a huge turning point in Eastwood's career. After this film, he started making huge, enormously successful, multiple award-winning flicks.

Here's a sampler of what came after Will Munny & Co.

• The Bridges of Madison County (1995) 
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
• Mystic River (2003) 
• Million Dollar Baby (2005) 
• Flags of our Fathers (2006) 
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) 
• Gran Torino (2008) 
• Invictus (2009) 
• Hereafter (2010) 
• J. Edgar (2011) 
• American Sniper (2014)

Eastwood picked up Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for Million Dollar Baby, was nominated for the same two categories for both Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima, and was nominated for Best Picture again for American Sniper.

This is in addition, of course, to numerous Golden Globe nominations for the same films, and several major wins for some of the actors in these films (Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank both picked up Oscars for Million Dollar Baby; Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both won for Mystic River; and Hackman won for Unforgiven).

Okay, so Eastwood knows how to make great films, and how to get the best out of his actors…but what holds all these films together?

That's a tough question, but if one thing is for certain, Eastwood, at least since Unforgiven, has explored complicated issues: in particular, the effects of violence and war on the human psyche and human communities.

Unforgiven's interest in the ethics of killing is explored, variously, in American Sniper, Gran Torino (where Eastwood plays a cranky Korean War vet dragged back into a world of violence he wants to leave behind), Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Mystic River, on the other hand, takes the vigilante-style, outlaw-ish, revenge killing motif common in the Westerns and situates it in modern day Boston, whereas Million Dollar Baby looks at a totally different, form of violence: female boxing.

And we're not surprised. After all, you don't get a signature scowl like Eastwood's by directing nice, happy movies about unlikely animal buddies.