The Last Movie I Saw

I was trying to think if, in the history of American movies, anyone has experienced a career trajectory anything like that of Clint Eastwood. I know that there were actors, even fairly big stars, who eventually became directors. But had any of them been arguably the biggest star around, as Eastwood arguably was for awhile in the seventies? And when they moved behind the camera, did any of them become arguably the most respected, even revered, fimmaker of their time, as Eastwood seems to have become over the past decade or so (Martin Scorsese notwithstanding)? What's really amazing about the latter development is that Eastwood's films tend to be kind of old-fashioned in the way they are constructed (though I think his subject matter is often completely contemporary). His movies, going back at least to Unforgiven, look like classics because they embrace a visual and narrative sense of maturity that we (or anyway, I) associate with films of Hollywood's Golden Age of the 30s and 40s, and not so much the post-Star Wars generation of films. Obviously there are non-Eastwood examples of such films still being made, but I can't think of anyone (even Scorsese) who so consistently remains true to that style from film to film to film. Invictus is the latest example, and while I didn't find it quite so compelling as Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby or Letters From Iwo Jima, it is a solid, thoughtful, and adult feature that displays many of the same virtues of those earlier movies. It's only (minor) flaw really, is that it maybe conforms too closely to the cliches of most sports movies, though one could argue that they make more sense in the context of this story, where the whole point is that the South African rugby team was promoted by Nelson Mandela as a symbol of national unity during the period of reconciliation after the collapse of apartheid. Eastwood does well in emphasizing the work aspects of both governance and sport-- keeping the film from falling into the common trap where each is portrayed in over-blown, idealistic, even sacred terms. Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon deserve some credit for that as well, with understated performances in the key roles. I certainly wouldn't call this a great film, but again, it fits very nicely in the lengthening list of quality work that Eastwood has delivered in this latter stage of his career.