THREE CLINT CLASSICS on 4K

Clint Eastwood is one of our quintessential Americana filmmakers and actors. His movies, especially as a director, typically feature themes of justice and moral dilemmas. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is honoring the director by releasing three of his classic films on 4K for the first time with Dirty Harry (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), and Pale Rider (1985). These films have stood the test of time not only showcasing his strengths as an actor, but also as a director with Josey Wales and Pale Rider. He would go on to win four Academy Awards for the films Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.

DIRTY HARRY (1971)

Clint Eastwood created an iconic character with Harry “Dirty Harry” Callahan. He’s a San Francisco police officer brought in to investigate a serial killer known only as “Scorpio” A woman is killed in her pool by a long range rifle, and the killer leaves behind a note detailing his next moves. It’s up to Harry to track him down and stop him before its too late.

Dirty Harry was loosely inspired by the Zodiac killer, and even David Fincher paid homage to this film in his film, Zodiac. It’s easy to see how this character has stood the test of time thanks to Eastwood’s portrayal playing him as a slick, cool, almost silent character who plays by his own rules. This type of anti-authority character, especially for a cop, was really ahead of its time, and became the template for the standard cop movie moving forward. He’s been parodied and quoted countless times in pop culture in the decades since its release.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Commentary by Richard Schickel
• Generations and Dirty Harry – NEW
• Lensing Justice: The Cinematography of Dirty Harry – NEW
• American Masters Career Retrospective: Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows
• Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso
• Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Fighting for Justice
• Interview Gallery

• Dirty Harry’s Way
• Dirty Harry: The Original

THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976)

Eastwood starred and directed The Outlaw Josey Wales, which is a revenge story set during the Civil War. He plays another anti-hero, anti-authority type of character. Eastwood was originally only tapped to star in the film after getting the story greenlit, but its original director was let go due to creative differences and Eastwood took over. The film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1996. Eastwood called it an “anti-war” film with Roger Ebert and Orson Welles also praising it.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Commentary by Richard Schickel
• An Outlaw and an Antihero – NEW
• The Cinematography of and Outlaw: Crafting Josie Wales – NEW
• Clint Eastwood’s West
• Eastwood in Action
• Hell Hath No Fury: The Making of The Outlaw Josie Wales
• Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Reinventing the West

Official Synopsis: With 1985’s Pale Rider, Clint Eastwood returned to the western genre with a vengeance as the movie became the highest grossing western of that decade. Eastwood, who also directed the hit film, plays a nameless stranger who rides into a small California gold rush town (and becomes known as the “Preacher”) where he finds himself in the middle of a feud between a mining syndicate and a group of independent prospectors.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• The Diary of Sydney Penny: Lessons from the Set – NEW
• Painting the Preacher: Bruce Surtees and Pale Rider – NEW
• Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Reinventing Westerns
• Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story
• The Eastwood Factor

Here’s a video I made for TikTok