Clint Eastwoodis an American icon.

Within those valleys, however,there exist a great many wonderful films as well.

Good, bad or ugly, these are the ten most essential films of Clint Eastwood’s career.

Million Dollar Baby

Image via Warner Bros.

It’s a beguiling perfomance thats indicative of the range he has as an actor.

It was the modest beginning to a directorial career that would shape Hollywood for decades to come.

More prominent, though, was the controversial, but highly successful,anti-war WesternThe Outlaw Josey Wales.

Clint Eastwood driving while his pet orangutan flips someone off from the passenger seat in Every Which Way but Loose

Image via Warner Bros.

That direction is complemented byEnnio Morricone’sbeautiful score, and Eastwood’s effortlessly cool performance that anchors the entire film.

Endlessly imitated, copied, and riffed on,this Spaghetti Western has never been bettered.

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The Beguiled 1971

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Play Misty For Me - 1971

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Mystic River

Image via Warner Bros.

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Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales

Image via Warner Bros.

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The Man With No Name on a Western street in A Fistful of Dollars

Image via United Artists

a fistful of dollars

Clint Eastwood standing behind Hilary Swank in a boxing ring in a scene from Million Dollar Baby.

Image Via Warner Bros

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Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, pointing a gun in Dirty Harry

Image via Warner Bros.

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Blondie and Tuco talk in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Image via United Artists

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Clint Eastwood shooting a pistol in ‘Unforgiven’

Image via Warner Bros.

Unforgiven Movie Poster

Movie

Clint Eastwood

Unforgiven