Not only one of Hollywood’s most iconic film stars, Clint Eastwood is also one of tinseltown’s finest directors. Rodney Twelftree looks at his ten best films as director.

In Ridley Scott’s Alien there was one monster. In James Cameron’s Aliens there was hundreds. That calls for a heavily armed team of marines. But who is the best of the best?

Not before or since has the British film industry produced such timeless and brilliant films. The 1940s weren’t just a golden era for Hollywood, there were riches to be found in British film too.

Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood steers clear of the legend audiences know and love but in presenting the beginnings of the myth the film is an original take on the story.

It must be hard making a tension-filled thriller when the audience knows what’s going to happen in the end. That was the task given to the once wonder-child Bryan Singer (the guy that gave us the brilliant Usual Suspects), whose career has, in this reviewer’s eyes, tailed off into commerciality over quality. A string of Superhero hits has gone to the head of Singer, and while talented writer and friend Christopher McQuarrie pens new film Valkyrie, Singer’s endeavour into the true story of Claus von Stauffenberg’s attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler is a laboured and dull affair.

Throughout the decade we were wowed by fantasy, thrilled by action, and frightened by horror, all the while being annoyed by remakes and endless sequels. We had everything turned on its head with numerous twist endings and welcomed new and old Superheroes. New directors entered the scene (Christopher Nolan) and others were finally recognised by mainstream audiences (Peter Jackson, Alexander Payne), while older pros continued to make great movies (Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg).

Director Steven Spielberg takes an intricate and realistic view of the American experience of infamous Omaha beach. It was here that the allied army lost so many men due to badly executed and organised pre-battle planning.

In the eighties, the high-concept movie was in vogue, its number increasing. Thanks largely to blockbusters “Jaws” and “Star Wars”, the eighties saw what was tried and trusted in the decade before it and simply repackaged the thrills for an audience wanting exactly the same entertainment.
The industry was drastically changing from the top down. Huge, multinational conglomerates who, quite rightly, viewed their acquisition as a profitable arm of the company bought a number of studios. United Artists merged with MGM in 1981, while 20th Century Fox was bought by oil …