Eastwood is a marvel; he has more juice on the fastball at 86 than most film makers have in their 30s and 40s. Obviously, you know him (and I don’t), but it’s no secret that Clint learned a lot from his two mentors, Sergio Leone and Don Seigel. Both men spent much of their careers working on B-list films with limited resources and tight budgets before achieving success and getting a crack a bigger films later in their careers. They knew how to “put everything on the screen” and stay within their limited budget, while keeping the production on track.
Clint is also a throw-back to some of the great directors from Hollywood’s Golden Era, including John Ford. Eastwood’s westerns and police dramas have a very spare, lean narrative with very little wasted time and energy. I know that Joel Cox has edited every Eastwood film for 30 years, but you can look at the finished product and tell that a lot of it is “edited in the camera” making it even easier for a pro like Cox to do his job.
The great irony, of course, is that it took Hollywood over 30 years to appreciate Eastwood’s talent. I’m hoping someday a film historian will write a book on the Eastwood company and the talented technicians and actors who have been a big part of his success.
I believe as film editor, Joel Cox has one of the easiest jobs in Hollywood. And it’s what you touched on in your previous comment....Eastwood does most of the editing before he shoots the scene. Joel Cox has one of two maybe three takes to choose from.That’s it. Whereas as editor for someone like director Stanley Kubrick will shoot every scene 20 or 30 times. His movie Eyes Wide Shut took well over a year to finish.
One of the scenes I was in, in the movie Changeling, Clint didn’t like what was on the storyboard with 50/50 shots. So he changed shots of the scene completely. He talked it over with his crew, then called in the actors. He had all this intricate blocking in the police station with actors and extras moving at precise moments. We did one walk through rehearsal and nailed it in three takes.
Eastwood would film more in a week than most directors would film in a month.