The Directors: Clint Eastwood Trivia Quiz

Answer: Play Misty for Me

Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) is a late night disc jockey who picks up Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walters) for what he thinks is a one night stand. He learns that she is a dedicated fan and calls into his show regularly to request "Misty". But afterwards she begins to stalk him. She comes to his home uninvited, and at various times tries to kill him and his girl friend. "Play Misty for Me" (1971) was the inspiration for such later films as "Fatal Attraction" (1987) and "Misery" (1990). Walters had a Golden Globe nomination.

Eastwood had this to say about his first directing experience: "After 17 years of bouncing my head against the wall, hanging around sets, maybe influencing certain camera set-ups with my own opinions, watching actors go through all kinds of hell without any help, and working with both good directors and bad ones, I'm at the point where I'm ready to make my own pictures. I stored away all the mistakes I made and saved up all the good things I learned, and now I know enough to control my own projects and get what I want out of actors."

Eastwood changed the filming site from Los Angeles to Monterey County where he lived and utilized bars, restaurants, and radio studios in the area.

Answer: Outlaw

Josie Wales (Clint Eastwood) is a Missouri farmer who is attacked by Union renegade soldiers who kill his wife and child. Seeking revenge, he joins a group of Confederate renegades. Even after the Civil War concludes, Josie continues his quest thus being labeled an outlaw. This revisionist western clocked 95% with Rotten Tomatoes. The musical score received an Oscar nomination.

The production was a tense endeavor. Philip Kaufman, the screen writer, was the first director but he and Eastwood had different visions of the film. Kaufman felt that the central character was mad and unprincipled while Eastwood perceived Josie Wales as a anti-war hero. Kaufmann was not pleased when Eastwood hired Sondra Locke, his girl friend, in a lead role and his son Kent in a minor uncredited part without his permission. Eastwood convinced Robert Daley, the producer, to fire Kaufman and appoint Eastwood as the director. The Director's Guild was outraged and invoked the Eastwood rule prohibiting an actor from firing the director and becoming the director himself.

In an interview Eastwood later said: "As for 'Josey Wales', I saw the parallels to the modern day at that time. Everybody gets tired of it, but it never ends. A war is a horrible thing, but it's also a unifier of countries... Man becomes his most creative during war. Look at the amount of weaponry that was made in four short years of World War II - the amount of ships and guns and tanks and inventions and planes and P-38s and P-51s, and just the urgency and the camaraderie, and the unifying. But that's kind of a sad statement on mankind, if that's what it takes."

Answer: Sudden Impact

In "Sudden Impact" Harry Callahan breaks up a robbery in progress but one of the toughs uses a waitress as a hostage. Callahan points his Magnum 44 at him and says, "Go ahead punk... Make my day".

The Harry Callahan franchise got off to a fast start but the public began to tire of the ruthless enforcer. Rotten Tomatoes shows the pattern: "Dirty Harry"(1971) 95%; "Magnum Force" (1973) 81%; "The Enforcer" (1976) 79%; "Sudden Impact" (1983) 57%, and "Dead Pool" (1988) 54%.

The project was originally planned as a vehicle for Sondra Locke. However, there was some concern if she could carry the film. Her boy friend, Clint Eastwood, was recruited to reprise his Harry Callahan character and fold the plot into that franchise. Sondra Locke is a gang rape victim who is tracking down the attackers and killing them. Callahan is tasked with tracking down this serial killer but instead he falls in love with her.

Answer: Local prostitutes

Eastwood's swan song to the western genre "Unforgiven" became the third western to be named Best Picture along with "Cimarron" (1931) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990). Eastwood accepted both the Best Picture and Best Director statuettes while Gene Hackman was awarded Best Supporting Actor. Joel Cox won Best Screenplay.

Big Whiskey, Wyoming is in control of Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), the town marshal, who uses both force and compromise to maintain an equilibrium in the western town. The prostitutes are unhappy about their treatment by the sleazy customers, Quick Mike (David Mucci) and "Davey-Boy" Bunting (Rob Campbell). They put the word out on the grapevine that they will give a substantial award to whoever will dispose of these two.

The first to arrive is English Bob (Richard Harris), a noted gunfighter, who Daggett promptly beats up and puts on a stage coach out of town. Will Munny,(Eastwood) a retired gunfighter, now an unhappy pig farmer, is recruited by the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvet) to try for the money. Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) joins them and they head for Big Whiskey. The climatic scenes are violent and bloody and Logan is killed. They collect the money but Munny returns to Big Whiskey to confront Daggett for a showdown.

Answer: Meryl Streep

Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep), a Italian war bride, has settled on a farm in Illinois with her husband and two children. They are all away to the Illinois State Fair. Into her life comes Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood), who is in the area to create a photo essay on covered bridges. They have a brief four-day love affair. When her husband returns, we see her in his pick-up truck and Kincaid's vehicle near by. Her hand wavers as she must decide between her lover or her steady but dull husband.

Meryl Streep is arguably the finest film actress of our era who has a fine ear for believable foreign accents and dialects. She was Polish in "Sophie's Choice" (1982), Danish in "Out of Africa" (1985), nailed Margaret Thatcher's voice in "The Iron Lady" (2011), and my favorite is her Midwestern drawl in "Prairie Home Companion" (2006). In this one it's Italian.

I asked my wife Pam what she would have done if she were Francesca. "I would have been out of that truck like a bullet!" she said. I suspect that a lot of women who saw the film felt the same.

Clint Eastwood had this to say about Robert Kincaid: "I've been that guy a little bit, going off by myself years ago in a pickup truck into Nevada, scouting locations for 'High Plains Drifter'. But I didn't stop off with any housewives while doing that."

Answer: Savannah, Georgia

People who have not read the book may be confused by the peripheral characters in the film. People who have read the book may be confused with the addition of new characters and the combining of characters. Suffice to say that the book was a panorama of life in Savannah in the 1980s with its choice selection of its most colorful citizens. The film only captures the essence and aroma.

The only character one could point to as a protagonist is Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey) who stands accused of murdering his homosexual lover Billy (Jude Law). Although much of the film is taken up for his trial, in reality there were four trials. John Cusack and Alison Eastwood (Eastwood's daughter) have a romance not in the book. In addition we get to meet Lady Chablis (a local transgender performer, who steals every scene she is in), the 'real' Georgia bulldog, the lady of a thousand songs, the goings-on at the Married Ladies' Card Club, a lawyer who lives at people's homes when they are out of town, mysterious black magic rituals, a man who plans to poison the water supply, and a man who walks a dog without a dog.

My wife Pam and I both read the book and listened to the library audio on our trip to Savannah and were able to see some of the sites in the book. We met the Lady of a Thousand Songs, Emma Kelly, who signed our book, and we enjoyed her two hour concert. And yes, she did know all the words.

Answer: Boston

Three childhood friends are emotionally scarred by a kidnapping and sexual abuse of one of them. As adults they still are trying to cope with that event. Jimmy (Sean Penn) is an ex-convict now running a small business, Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a police detective, and Dave (Tim Robbins), the one who was abused, is a factory worker. Jimmy's daughter Katie is found dead. Dave circumstantially is a suspect because of his childhood trauma and his inability to explain his whereabouts. Jimmy believes that Dave was responsible and begins to pressure him while Sean and his partner Whitey (Lawrence Fishburne) investigate.

The Academy awarded Sean Penn the Best Actor award and Tim Robbins collected the Best Supporting Actor trophy. In addition there were nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Actress in a Supporting Role (Marcia Gay Harden) and Best Screenplay (Brian Helgeland).

Mystic River is a seven mile long river with water quality problems that flows through north Boston.

Answer: A woman boxer

Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) enters a gym owned by Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) and wants to be trained as a boxer. He does not take her very seriously but has Eddie Dupris (Morgan Freeman), his friend and employee, work with her. Surprisingly, she develops some skills with a natural knockout punch and moves from the amateur ranks to professional. Dunn arranges a million dollar bout for her against Billie "The Blue Bear", a German ex-prostitute who has a reputation as a dirty fighter. She sucker-punches Maggie after the bell and she falls on her corner stool breaking her neck and rendering her a quadriplegic. In the hospital she is besieged by shirt-tail relatives to sign her property and care over to them. As Maggie's health declines, Frankie has to make a heart-breaking decision.

Just as in the previous year, Eastwood's film was the darling of the Academy Awards. "Million Dollar Baby" was nominated for seven awards, winning four. In addition to Best Picture, Eastwood was named Best Director, Swank won for Best Actress, and Morgan Freeman for Best Supporting Actor.

The film was on the shelf for several years until Eastwood found financing. Eastwood thought that Hilary Swank was perfect for the part of Maggie but said, "(She) would be great. If we can get her trained up. If we can get a little bit more bulk on her, to make her look like a fighter." Swank began training for the role five hours a day and put on 19 pounds of muscle.

Although critics endorsed the film, several were cautious in not including the ending in their reviews.

Answer: Bird

Charlie "Bird" Parker was a creative musical genius and was known for the introduction of bebop into the jazz genre. Eastwood treats him with great respect and traces his rise to prominence in spite of drug addiction and health problems. Forest Whitaker moved to the 'A list' of actors with his performance as Parker.

The plot of this 1988 film might be summed up in a quote by Whitaker in the film. "I go to a liver doctor and I pay him $50. And it don't help me. I go to an ulcer doctor. Same thing, except I pay him $75. But I go to some little cat up in a house somewhere and pay him $10 for a bag... and a little peace. My ulcers don't hurt, liver don't hurt. My heart trouble is gone. And this is the man I'm supposed to stay away from? ... That is what I call a paradox."

Because Parker's recordings were all in mono and not stereo, Eastwood was told he could not use them in the film and should hire a jazz musician to re-record them. Instead Eastwood had audio experts lift Parker's solo playing from his records and unreleased private recordings then hired prominent jazz musicians to back him up.

Answer: "Letters from Iwo Jima" (Americans raise the flag)

After nearly 70 years, an American director tried to tell the story of Japanese soldiers in World War Two. "Letters from Iwo Jima" (2006) was difficult subject matter but had critical acclaim and was a popular film in Japan.

Nelson Mandela encourages the South African National Rugby Team to greater heights as a unifying force for his country in "Invictus" (2009).

"Jersey Boys" (2014) was Eastwood's attempt to bring the international stage production to the screen with only marginal success.

Bradley Cooper got an Oscar nomination for his role in "American Sniper" (2014) as a skilled sniper during the Iraq War.