I'll begin my first post by saluting Clint Eastwood who is having an amazing run of success as a director in the ripe old age. He'll be 80 this year. I'm eagerly waiting to see his new film Invictus in which he has teamed up with his friend Morgan Freeman. Whenever he teams up with Mr Freeman, the result is a hit. Who can forget Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. In the new movie Freeman plays Mandela. It should be definitely worth watching.

I 've seen lot of Clint films during by college years. I wouldn't say I was his fan ( although now I'm one)> But since many of the films he acted and directed came during my college daysin Thiruvananthapuram, I went and saw them. I got to watch his popular spaghetti westerns in the eighties. This tall, laconic man with gun or horse often as a companion ( I remember in one movie he appeared with an Orangutan ) never impressed me as an actor. His best expression was squinting his eyes. He was no great shakes as a director then.

But after Unforgiven in 1992, my opinion about him as a director has changed. And just when he is improving as an actor, he has decided to stop acting. He seems to be like a good wine maturing with age. Just look at the films made by him in the last decade. Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters of Iwo Jima, Changeling (in whic Angelina Jolie appears in a different role) and Gran Torina- all excellent films.

Already he has been nominated for best director in Invictus. Hope it will be a class film