Eastwood made his name as a cowboy in TV's Rawhide and then in Sergio
Leone's Dollars trilogy. An acting career exploring various shades of
macho solitude was sealed by the role of "Dirty" Harry
Callahan, the maverick detective who made fascism seem righteous and a
disavowal of emotion appealing. Throughout a workmanlike,
under-rated directorial career, cowboys and cops have predominated,
Clint's own scowl of battered decency turning nicely grizzled. Since
the deservedly Oscar-winning Unforgiven, there has been little of
interest, but as an actor at least he remains an intriguing link to a
bygone conception of complex heroism.
