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The Bridges of Madison County
Tuesday, February 9 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinees | The Essential Clint Eastwood
1995/color/135 min. | Scr: Richard LaGravenese; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood
A photojournalist and a farmer's wife share a four-day romance.
Dirty Harry
Friday, February 12 | 7:30 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1971/color/102 min./Panavision | Scr: Harry Julian Fink, R. M. Fink, Dean Riesner dir: Don Siegel; w/ Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santori, John Vernon
In the first and best of a cycle of seventies vigilante films that critic Pauline Kael dubbed "a stunningly well-made genre piece," Eastwood plays a driven San Francisco cop who flaunts the law in his pursuit of "Scorpio," a crazed serial sniper. Eastwood's terse, righteous Harry became an iconic character that spawned five sequels. "Raymond Chandler's famous description of his private eye applies to Harry Callahan as well as it did to Philip Marlowe: 'He is neither tarnished nor afraid… He is a relatively poor man or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character or he would not know his job… He will take no man's insolence without due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man.'"—Richard Schickel, Clint Eastwood.
Tightrope
Friday, February 12 | 9:25 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1984/color/117 min. | Scr/dir: Richard Tuggle; w/ Clint Eastwood, Geneviève Bujold
In this nocturnal thriller, a cop with a taste for S&M pursues a psychopath who is killing hookers into the sexual underworld of New Orleans. Eastwood is compelling as a flawed man and single father who turns to a female self-defense instructor for help. "A throwback to the great cop movies of the 1940s—when the hero wrestled with his conscience as much as with the killer… Tightrope may appeal to the Dirty Harry fans, with its sex and violence. But it's a lot more ambitious than the Harry movies…Think how unusual it is for a major male star to appear in a commercial cop picture in which the plot hinges on his ability to accept and respect a woman. Eastwood continues to change and experiment, and that makes him the most interesting of the box-office megastars."—Roger Ebert.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Saturday, February 13 | 7:00 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1976/136 min./color/Panavision | Scr: Philip Kaufman, Sonia Chernus; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke
In this epic road movie set in post-Civil War America, Eastwood plays a taciturn Confederate rebel who journeys through the monumental landscapes and changing seasons of the West in search of the Union scum that massacred his family. Released during the bicentennial, Josey Wales is a mélange of classic western motifs and "New Hollywood" anti-authoritarian politics; according to Eastwood, the film is "a saga… rather than just having a mysterious hero appear on the plains and get involved with other people's problems; you can see how Josey Wales gets to where he is."
Pale Rider
Saturday, February 13 | 9:25 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1985/color/115 min./Panavision | Scr: Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress
In this haunting tale set in Gold Rush-era California, a preacher man with no name mysteriously appears astride a white horse to defend a small community of prospectors against a greedy mining company. "Much like his allegorical protagonist in Pale Rider, director/star Eastwood rode to the rescue when the Hollywood Western genre was at its lowest ebb… After Heaven's Gate, the major studios wanted nothing to do with sagebrush sagas, but Eastwood, having known nothing but success with oaters, went into the production of Pale Rider regarding the project as a safe gamble. 'It's not possible,' Eastwood remarked in an 1984 interview, 'that Josey Wales could be the last Western to be a commercial success. You can still talk about sweat and hard work, about the spirit, about love for the land and ecology in the Western, in the classic mythological form.'"—Turner Classic Movies.
A Perfect World
Tuesday, February 16 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinees | The Essential Clint Eastwood
1993/color/138 min./Panavision | Scr: John Lee Hancock; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern
Set in the 1960s, a story about the relationship that develops on the road between an escaped convict and the young boy he has kidnapped.
Bronco Billy
Friday, February 19 | 7:30 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1980/color/116 min. | Scr: Dennis Hackin; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Scatman Crothers
A shoe salesman turned Wild West performer, Billy takes his show on the road with a troupe of misfits including a disbarred doctor, a draft dodger, a one-handed embezzler, and a stranded heiress. A charming and uplifting endorsement of the American Dream and a personal favorite of the director. "Both a satirical self-portrait and a fond evocation of a lost ideal. Through Billy's naive belief in the Western code of honor, Eastwood pays tribute to exactly the kind of Western that his own revolutionary, searingly cynical work with Sergio Leone had destroyed."—Dave Kehr, The New York Times.
Honkytonk Man
Friday, February 19 | 9:40 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1982/color/122 min. | Scr: Clancy Carlile; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood, Verna Bloom
An alcoholic Depression-era country singer with little talent travels to Nashville, his nephew and grandpa in tow. Unfashionable and unappreciated in '82, Honkytonk remains Eastwood's most unconventional film and features his most audacious performance. "One of the most heroically oddball superstar vehicles ever contrived. Only Eastwood could have the audacity to play a comparatively odious and untalented country singer dying of consumption on a picaresque pilgrimage to a Nashville audition…during which the singer nearly coughs himself to death. The whole thing veers wildly in quality, but few lovers of American cinema could fail to be moved by a venture conceived so recklessly against the spirit of its times."—Time Out.
Unforgiven
Saturday, February 20 | 7:00 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1992/color/132 min./Panavision | Scr: David Peoples; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris
In this dark, violent film—a primal morality tale in the form of a classic Western—a prostitute, angered by the release of a sadistic cowhand who has mutilated the face of another working girl, raises $1,000 as a reward for anyone who will avenge this atrocity. Nominated for nine Academy Awards and winner of four, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Hackman). "The film deals with violence and its consequences a lot more than those I've done before. In the past, there were a lot of people killed gratuitously in my pictures, and what I liked about this story was that people aren't killed, and acts of violence aren't perpetrated, without there being certain consequences. That's a problem I thought was important to talk about today, it takes on proportions it didn't have in the past, even if it's always been present through the ages."—Clint Eastwood.
White Hunter, Black Heart
Saturday, February 20 | 9:25 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1990/color/114 min. | Scr: James Bridges, Burt Kennedy, Peter Viertel; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, Charlotte Cornwell
Eastwood crafts a semi-comic high adventure from a fictionalized account of larger-than-life director John Huston, whose work on a film shooting in Africa is compromised by his obsession with hunting and killing an elephant. "In a daring departure from his usual roles, Eastwood doesn't so much impersonate Huston as offer a commentary on him and on macho bluster in general. Thanks to the beautifully structured script by Viertel, Bridges, and Kennedy—which also has a lot of interesting things to say about colonialism and Hollywood, both separately and in conjunction with one another—the film is a devastating portrait of self-deceiving obsession."—Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader.
Million Dollar Baby
Tuesday, February 23 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinees | The Essential Clint Eastwood
2004/color/132 min./Panavision | Scr: Paul Haggis; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman
In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, boxing trainer Frankie Dunn has been unwilling to let himself get close to anyone for a very long time-until budding pugilist Maggie Fitzgerald walks into his gym.
Bird
Friday, February 26 | 7:30 pm
The Essential Clint Eastwood
1988/color/161 min. | Scr: Joel Oliansky; dir: Clint Eastwood; w/ Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Samuel E. Wright, Keith David
Drugs, alcohol, race, and racism were lifelong companions to alto-sax player Charlie Parker, defining the ups and downs of this gifted musician, but Eastwood's ambitious film goes beyond tragedy to celebrate an artist who was hailed as a jazz original and whose improvisations changed the face of American jazz. Eschewing the chronology of a typical bio-pic, the film uses fragments from Parker's life to depict the professional, legal and emotional conflicts-in particular, the volatile relationship with his white common-law wife-that dogged him until his death at thirty-four. A labor of love for aficionado Eastwood, who accessed restored master tracks of Parker's solos, Bird stirs with great musical performances while brilliantly evoking the jazz milieu of post-war New York. "In Bird, Eastwood shows talents that were never even hinted at in his earlier pictures. He has succeeded so thoroughly in communicating his love of his subject, and there's such vitality in the performances, that we walk out elated, juiced on the actors and the music. The young Forest Whitaker's brilliance is the force that holds the scattered pieces of Bird together. Only rarely in movies do characters achieve this sort of palpability, and then only when presented to us by a remarkable performer. And this is a remarkable performer giving a gentle, exuberant, charismatic performance… The image of Bird standing dead still on the bandstand, with only his fingers moving over the buttons of his horn, is hauntingly definitive, yet somehow shadowy and enigmatic, like a figure drawn in smoke."—Hal Hinson, Washington Post.
Program Notes
Friday and Saturday screenings begin at 7:30 pm unless otherwise noted. There is a ten-minute intermission between features on a double bill. All programs are subject to change. Films are in 35mm unless otherwise indicated. Foreign-language films are subtitled in English. Many films are unrated and may not be appropriate for younger viewers. If a film is listed as "sold out," a standby line will form one hour before the screening. Any cancellations or seats that become available will go to people waiting in this line. Please note that there is no guarantee that everyone in the standby line will be accommodated.
The Leo S. Bing Theater is equipped with a DTS digital sound system courtesy of Universal Pictures, an SDDS digital sound system courtesy of Sony Cinema Products, and Dolby digital sound.
The 2009–2010 film program is made possible by the generosity of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Time Warner Cable in partnership with Ovation TV.
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Ticket Prices
$10 general admission.
$7 museum members, seniors (62+), students with valid ID.
$5 second film only of a double-feature; no advance purchase.
$2 Tuesday matinees.
$1 Tuesday matinees, seniors (62+).
Where to Buy
Buy tickets at the museum box office (tel. 323 857-6010) or online. Many programs sell out so try to purchase in advance.
Included
Your film ticket covers both films in a double bill, except where noted, and includes entrance to the museum galleries as well.
Film Department
Tel. 323 857-6177
Ian Birnie, Director
Bernardo Rondeau, Program Coordinator
Pauline Posner, Volunteer
If you would like to subscribe to the Film Department’s e-mail newsletter, please send a message to film@lacma.org.
Help secure the future of film at LACMA! Join Film Club and receive priority ticketing, priority admission, and advance notice of upcoming films.
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