Credit: Far Out / YouTube Stills
October 23rd, 2026 · 7:15pm BST
Over the years, Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg have regularly entered each other’s orbit, even if it’s mostly been the former trailing behind the latter and feasting on his leftovers.
Nobody really wants to hear the phrases ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ‘sloppy seconds’ in the same sentence for a thousand entirely valid reasons, but that’s the easiest way to sum up the professional relationship between the two Hollywood legends, and the ‘Man with No Name’ has admitted as much himself.
The Bridges of Madison County, Flags of Our Fathers, Hereafter, and American Sniper were all originally optioned by Spielberg with an eye on directing them, but when he decided he didn’t fancy any of them, Eastwood was lurking in the shadows, ready to snap up the screenplay and helm the pictures.
They’ve never worked together as actor and director, with the closest they’ve come being when the Dirty Harry legend made a cameo appearance in 1995’s Casper, which the highest-grossing director in cinema executive-produced, and they could have even been co-stars in the supernatural caper if Spielberg hadn’t bullshitted his way out of making a guest spot of his own.
The heavyweight duo are friends and have a deep-lying mutual respect and admiration for what the other has accomplished, but when it comes to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, the Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List steward changed his mind after a negative first impression, whereas Eastwood did not.
Having worshipped at Kubrick’s altar for as long as he could remember, when Spielberg pitched up at Elstree Studios to take over the sets vacated by the Stephen King adaptation for Raiders of the Lost Ark, he finally came face-to-face with his hero, and he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about Jack Nicholson’s descent into madness at the Overlook hotel.
Despite being a self-confessed fanboy, the three-time Academy Award winner admitted he “didn’t love” The Shining the first time he saw it, although he did note, at the time, “I’d only seen it once,” making the mistake of trying to obfuscate his feelings to Kubrick, who saw right through the charade and demanded to know what his problems with the spine-tingler were.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
Eastwood’s mind wasn’t for changing, though, and he summarily dismissed the classic horror flick as “a giant failure,” and from where he was sitting, “there just wasn’t anything at all terrifying about it.” With one final flourish, he also shared his thoughts on Scatman Crothers being axe-murdered by Nicholson, a moment he neatly described as being “dead as a dick.”
As ridiculous as it sounds now, Kubrick earned a Razzie nomination for ‘Worst Director’ for The Shining, so Eastwood wasn’t alone in thinking it was an overrated piece of trash. Spielberg felt the same the first time the credits rolled, but now that he’s watched another 20 or so times, he’s long since been converted.
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