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Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Stills<\/p>\n
October 23rd, 2026 \u00b7 7:15pm BST <\/p>\n
Over the years, Clint Eastwood<\/a> and Steven Spielberg have regularly entered each other\u2019s orbit, even if it\u2019s mostly been the former trailing behind the latter and feasting on his leftovers.<\/p>\n Nobody really wants to hear the phrases \u2018Clint Eastwood\u2019 and \u2018sloppy seconds\u2019 in the same sentence for a thousand entirely valid reasons, but that\u2019s the easiest way to sum up the professional relationship between the two Hollywood legends, and the \u2018Man with No Name\u2019 has admitted as much himself.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t fancy any of them, Eastwood was lurking in the shadows<\/a>, ready to snap up the screenplay and helm the pictures.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve never worked together as actor and director, with the closest they\u2019ve come being when the Dirty Harry legend made a cameo appearance in 1995\u2019s 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\u2019t bullshitted his way out<\/a> of making a guest spot of his own.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s The Shining, the Jurassic Park and Schindler\u2019s List steward changed his mind after a negative first impression, whereas Eastwood did not.<\/p>\n Having worshipped at Kubrick\u2019s 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\u2019t exactly enthusiastic about Jack Nicholson\u2019s descent into madness at the Overlook hotel.<\/p>\n Despite being a self-confessed fanboy, the three-time Academy Award winner admitted he \u201cdidn\u2019t love\u201d The Shining<\/a> the first time he saw it, although he did note, at the time, \u201cI\u2019d only seen it once,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n Eastwood\u2019s mind wasn\u2019t for changing, though, and he summarily dismissed the classic horror flick as \u201ca giant failure,\u201d and from where he was sitting<\/a>, \u201cthere just wasn\u2019t anything at all terrifying about it.\u201d With one final flourish, he also shared his thoughts on Scatman Crothers being axe-murdered by Nicholson, a moment he neatly described as being \u201cdead as a dick.\u201d<\/p>\n As ridiculous as it sounds now, Kubrick earned a Razzie nomination for \u2018Worst Director\u2019 for The Shining, so Eastwood wasn\u2019t alone in thinking it was an overrated piece of trash. Spielberg felt the same the first time the credits rolled, but now that he\u2019s watched another 20 or so times, he\u2019s long since been converted.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Clint Eastwood Newsletter<\/p>\n