Don’t let the old man in

Donrsquot let the old man inI wanna leave this aloneCanrsquot leave it up to himHersquos knocking on my doorAnd I knew all of my lifeThat someday it would endGet up and go outsideDonrsquot let the old man inMany moons I have livedMy bodyrsquos weathered and wornAsk yourself how would you beIf you didnrsquot know the day you were bornmdashToby KeithAs the end credits roll in Clint Eastwoodrsquos 2018 film ldquoThe Mulerdquo country singer Toby Keithrsquos Donrsquot Let The Old Man Inrsquo playsmdashthe film is about an old man who successfully runs drugs across the US a second chapter in his lifeIn every way the song could be about Clint Eastwood who turned 94 two days agomdashstill fully functional still fully lucid still utterly creative 65 motion pictures in his filmography 35 directedIn my view there are two phases in Eastwoodrsquos hugely fertile career pre his 2003 Mystic River and post thatIn the first half 1963 till 2003 there seemed to be a passion for an obsession with the ldquotough guyrdquomdashscowling cowboys puffing on cheroot cigars in Sergio Leonersquos spaghetti westerns and hardnosed guntoting detectives like Dirty HarryIt was guns and glory holsters and hard talking in that phase as Eastwood ldquomade most days hell for the baddiesrdquoHistory was made with the Good the Bad and the Ugly and the Dirty Harry series culminating in 1992rsquos The UnforgivenBut from 2003 to the present hersquos made 17 motion pictures aged 74 to 94 with themes as varied as Man vs Nature Christian guilt the loss of innocence and death as a part of lifehe began with ldquoMystic Riverrdquo a noir crime thriller based on a Dennis Lehane book his film making skills hitting new deeper levelsmdashhis direction of Sean Penn and Tim Robbins childhood friends torn apart by a terrible incident won them Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor at the 2004 OscarsSean Penn once said of the man ldquohe likes absolute silence on set probably comes from his years of working with horsesrdquoldquoMillion Dollar Babyrdquo was followed by one of the greatest achievements in modern film makingmdashin 2006 Eastwood simultaneously shot two war dramas ldquoFlags of our Fathersrdquo and ldquoLetters from Iwo Jimardquothe former in English the latter in Japanesemdashto show audiences the two opposing viewpointsMatt Damon who worked with him in the rugby sports film ldquoInvictusrdquo said with some awe and respect ldquoHe likes one maximum two takes per shotrdquo mdashrdquoletrsquos not waste everyonersquos timerdquo Eastwood once famously saidItrsquos true that Clint Eastwood has maintained amazing fitness all through his life with exercise and diet controlBut what creates such an attitude of inner wellbeing and outer drive at an age when most men are winding down for the most prolific period in his life is perhaps a never ending hunger to make films He has acted in many of these anyone whorsquos made a film will tell you how hard it is to do both the level of detail you need the trust you repose with your cinematographer perhaps why Tom Stern has shot most his filmsmdashmuchdetailed home work and trust in your cameraman allows him to perform freelyIt wouldnrsquot be fair to say he is one of Hollywoodrsquos greatest actors But being an actor gives him his ability to extract the finest performances from his actorsAs Eastwood said of his later career ldquoEverybody wonders why I continue working at this stage I keep working because therersquos always new stories And as long as people want me to tell them Irsquoll be there doing themrdquoPerhaps most importantly hersquos never let the old man in NeverRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom