I have been after this documentary about the directing career of Clint Eastwood for some time, and finally got to see if off HULU here recently!- and it does not disappoint."The Eastwood Factor" does delve into Clint's overall life and acting career a little bit, but mostly focuses on his career as a filmmaker- beginning with "Play Misty For Me", which came out in the early 1970s- all the way through to "Invictus", which I believe he was working on around the time this documentary got made-?? It focuses on not only where he sorta learned his craft from- especially filmmakers like Don Siegel and Sergio Leone- but also how he sorta begot other actor- directors- like Mel Gibson, for instance.It was interesting how he said his directing career kinda came about- as he was working on the set of film after film as an actor- he was like, okay, they're doing it wrong- they're taking too long, etc.. Then he was like, you know, why don't I just direct the movies I star in-??? LOL And it's been a match-made-in-heaven ever since. I can't think of any other actor who has had the consistent long-range and versatile success as a filmmaker as Eastwood has had in his 40-plus years as a director. Redford, Beatty, Gibson, Costner, etc.. all have had minimal-to-mediocre success in varied forms throughout their directing careers (and many actors have never directed anything), but like film critic Roger Ebert said- Eastwood would've been known as a filmmaker, even if his John Wayne-esque iconic screen stardom had never happened...

Eastwood Factor, The (2010)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Ninety-minute documentary on the career of legend Clint Eastwood focuses in on his directorial work at Warner. As with most documentaries by Schickel, he lets the act himself tell the story so we get Eastwood going one-on-one with the camera and discussing his films, his way of shooting things and other bits of trivia including his golf game. This isn't the first time director Schickel has made a film on Eastwood but this one here is certainly the more detailed of the two. If one is looking for something to cover his entire career then you're not going to find it here but if you're looking for something covering his Warner years then you're not going to be disappointed. It goes without saying but films like UNFORGIVEN, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, MYSTIC RIVER and his WW2 double-feature are all covered but you can also hear Eastwood discuss these films on countless other releases. I think the best thing about this documentary is that we get to hear his discuss films like HONKEYTONK MAN, PALE RIDER, FIREFOX, WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART and BRONCO BILLY. It's interesting hearing the director look back at some of his lesser known works and discuss why he made them and how he feels about them today. The documentary also covers some more interesting grounds including Eastwood taking us on a trip to some of his sets and how they look today. Another trip includes a costume warehouse where many of his most famous outfits remain including stuff from DIRTY HARRY, PALE RIDER and UNFORGIVEN. I thought the documentary did a good job at jumping back and forth through these films, although I'm sure someone is going to have a favorite film that doesn't get talked about as much as he would like. That's just a part of documentaries like this as they're not always going to cover the films you want covered but that just comes with the territory. For the most part this film hits all the right notes and will be a must see for fans of Eastwood.

This is a decent but completely unremarkable retrospective of Clint Eastwood movies -- at least of his work at Warner Brothers. It's told in the form of clips from his appearance in WB products, ranging in age from an early appearance of the TV show MAVERICK on through last year's INVICTUS.Despite a graceful narration from frequent collaborator Morgan Freeman, however, it is little more than a collection of clips and interviews with Eastwood in which he says pretty much what he has always said: that he makes movies he likes to see.His career has thus been a treat for those of us who like middle-brow movies, movies with strong plots that tell stories about people whom he makes us care about -- despite occasionally being just the sort of people who think we shouldn't sympathize with. So an occasional puff piece like this is a welcome time-waster.

Just caught the premiere of this on TCM. There have easily been better overviews of Eastwood's career (the 2000 American Masters documentary 'Out Of The Shadows' is an excellent example) and it's easy to tear apart Richard Schickel's often sloppy style. But just to focus on a technical/aesthetic aspect of this production - who the hell was in charge of actually assembling the clips from the films? Eastwood's filmography includes films produced in just about every aspect ratio from full-frame to scope - and it's a TOTAL crap-shoot here whether a scene from a film will be properly letter-boxed or miserably pan-and scanned - or something in-between! (sometimes in a montage using scenes from the same film!) There were scenes from DIRTY HARRY that were pan-and-scanned, slightly letter-boxed and in full letterbox (it's a scope film) while others like A PERFECT WORLD (also scope) were in total, horrendous pan-and-scan - ruining not only the composition of the shots - but the beauty and impact of the scenes shown. These are just two of numerous examples throughout this production. This kind of oversight was simply inexcusable - especially from a man (Schickel) who is entrusted with how contemporary audiences see Clint's cinematic legacy. Next time hire somebody (like me!) who knows and cares that the examples shown are presented and represented correctly! Amateurish hack work beyond belief!