Clint Eastwood: Riding High

Rating:
Summary: Little information of actual interest or insight.
Review: I have very little interest in the personal lives of artists (be they actors, directors, writers, painters, poets, and so forth) unless it reflects in their work. Andy Milligan is a good example of this, but Clint Eastwood is not. Quiet and distant in the public eye, Eastwood has managed to create cultural icons of Godzilla proportions with the characters of The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry Callahan, yet he has also shown himself to be both a brilliant and sensitive director with films such as Bird, White Hunter, Black Heart, The Bridges of Madison County, and the Oscar winner Unforgiven. But Douglas Thompson does not shed any light whatsoever on the artist or business man (although he does let us know what Mayor Clint did for his beloved city of Carmel by the Sea), instead the author focuses on Eastwood's sketchy history of womanizing and the legal troubles stemming from his acrimonious break-up with longtime companion/lover, Sondra Locke. Only a slim, trim 199 pages in length, Clint Eastwood: Riding High is a quick read, but you will not come away with any greater understanding of this unquestionably unique Hollywood talent and legitimate Living Legend.