This Maligned Clint Eastwood Action Movie Marked A Career Turning Point (And It Led To Unforgiven)

The Rookie ended a key era of Clint Eastwood's career, and its failure put him on the path to Unforgiven. Eastwood didn't become a true A-list star until the first movie in the Dirty Harry franchise exploded in 1971. From there, Eastwood became one of the most prolific actor/directors in the business. He would also use his stardom in smart ways, funding more personal projects like Honkytonk Man or Bird by fronting traditional action movies or thrillers like The Gauntlet or a new Dirty Harry sequel.

Once Clint Eastwood directed projects gathered more critical and commercial attention than his starring vehicles, he largely retreated behind the camera. Still, he cut a pretty convincing figure as an action hero for many years. This includes his violent cop movie The Rookie, a Lethal Weapon-inspired buddy offering that paired his grizzled vet with Charlie Sheen's titular newbie. The film bombed back in 1990, grossing $21 million on a $30 million budget (via The Numbers) and earning some poisonous critical notices.

The Rookie Is The Last Clint Eastwood Movie That Didn't Comment On His Age

The movie quietly ended a key Eastwood era

A bloody Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen in an airport in The Rookie.

The Rookie mines a lot of humor from how unconventional Eastwood's gruff cop is in contrast to Charlie Sheen's "soft" rookie. Now, the film takes a few potshots at the age of Eastwood's Nick, but it's not something the film really interrogates. Nick can outrun, outpunch, and outshoot every opponent, including criminals half his age. The movie isn't about Sheen's sensitive younger cop teaching Nick how to be more open-minded or thoughtful, it's about how Sheen's character has to man up to be just like his mentor.

The Rookie is the end of the action hero phase of Clint Eastwood's career, as every subsequent leading role he took on added commentary about his age or his screen legacy.

In Clint's defense, he looks very fit and imposing in The Rookie, so it's still believable that Nick would be running around the streets at age 60. Still, The Rookie is the end of the action hero phase of Eastwood's career, as every subsequent leading role he took on added commentary about his advancing years or his screen legacy. A mere three years after his final cop movie The Rookie, In the Line of Fire would make constant mention of Clint's Secret Service agent, Frank, being over the hill and past his prime.

Unforgiven,-The-Bridges-of-Madison-County,-&-The-Rookie

All 8 Clint Eastwood Movies From The 1990s, Ranked

Clint Eastwood has made iconic movies every decade of his career, and the '90s marked an interesting turn for his future as an actor and filmmaker.

Posts1

Frank sweats when he runs, tires easily and has begun to question his mortality. The Rookie has no interest in making Nick's age a feature of the character, but the response to the film made it clear Eastwood could no longer avoid the topic. In hindsight, this was the best thing that could have happened to his career during this time.

Unforgiven Forever Changed The Kind Of Roles Clint Played

Unforgiven introduced audiences to Old Man Clint

Eastwood famously sat on the screenplay for Unforgiven for many years, believing he had to age into the role of Will Munny. There are many reasons the Western is now considered a masterpiece, from the masterful direction to Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman's supporting performances. More than anything, Eastwood is perfect casting since the entire film plays on his own screen legacy as a violent gunslinger.

Munny is a fascinatingly egoless performance from Clint; not only does he do nothing to conceal his age, he makes himself look older and frailer. Munny is about as far from the Man with No Name or Dirty Harry as it's possible to get. In the aftermath of Unforgiven's acclaim, Eastwood leaned hard into roles that made his age a feature instead of a bug. In the Line of Fire was one of the best, but everything from Absolute Power to Blood Work offered commentary on his past roles and that he's not as spry as he once was.

Before Clint Eastwood took over the project, Francis Ford Coppola planned to direct Unforgiven with John Malkovich in the lead role.

Hell, the entire premise of Clint's Space Cowboys involved NASA recruiting a bunch of elderly astronauts for an important mission, with their experience being an important part of the plot. Post The Rookie, Eastwood smartly weaponized his own history as a performer and often framed himself in more mythic terms.

The Rookie Proved Clint Had To Make A Big Career Shift

A tepid run in the 1980s forced Clint to rethink his screen image

Clint Eastwood as Nick Pulovski with a gun in The Rookie — Clint Eastwood with a gun in The Rookie

Ultimately, the only lasting legacy of The Rookie is that the film employed more stunt people than actors. It does feature impressive action, from a creative opening car chase to a gigantic warehouse explosion. Still, the chemistry between Eastwood and Sheen isn't fully formed, the comedy often misfires, and the movie is often unpleasantly mean-spirited. The thriller capped off a poor run of Eastwood starring vehicles, including other box-office disappointments like Pink Cadillac and the final Dirty Harry sequel, The Dead Pool.

The Rookie saw Eastwood try his hand at a genre that was becoming hip, but it proved his grasp on what younger audiences want was slipping. It also showed he couldn't keep returning to the same action movie well that had previously served him so well. Clint needed to reinvent himself onscreen, and he couldn't have picked a better follow-up to The Rookie than Unforgiven.

Source: The Numbers