No longer 'Dirty'. . . the philosophical Eastwood

Back in the old "make-my-day" days, Clint Eastwood's directorial efforts often were classified as Cro-Magnon. But there has been a very evident evolution, as Eastwood has grown, with age, increasingly philosophical.

Sudden Impact (1983) - The movie that gave America (and its president, Ronald Reagan) the line, "Go ahead . . . make my day," saw Eastwood return to the role he'd already played for three different directors in three different movies - "Dirty Harry" (1971), "Magnum Force" (1973) and "The Enforcer" (1976). But with Eastwood at the helm, Inspector Harry Callahan received newfound depth, and the nature of crime became much more complex.

Bird (1988) - It was Eastwood the piano player's personal love of jazz that sparked this biopic (starring Forest Whitaker) about self-destructive saxophone genius Charlie Parker. But it also sent Eastwood the director into an all-new genre, and aspects of the American story he'd never previously visited.

A Perfect World(1993) - Perhaps the underrated Eastwood movie, it starred Kevin Costner in probably his best performance, as an on-the-lam criminal who kidnaps and befriends a lonely young boy, while eluding a standup U.S. marshal (Eastwood himself). Unlike the vile criminal perpetrators of earlier Eastwood movies, Costner's character is made supremely human, and becomes a genuine figure of tragedy.

Mystic River (2003) - At 73, Eastwood showed he was still growing as an auteur, imbuing this Brian Helgeland-scripted film (from the Dennis Lehane novel) with subtleties and nuances not seen before in his work. Both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Oscars for a film that dredged up troubling questions about the fates we choose, and the destinies thrust upon us.

Letters From Iwo Jima(2006) - While once considered the poster boy for an almost John Wayne-ish Americana, Eastwood told this story of the battle of Iwo Jima invasion from the Japanese perspective, eclipsing his own Americanized version of the same war story, "Flags of Our Fathers.