Intermission: Eastwood continues to portray the essence of onscreen 'cool'

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Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.|ret||ret||tab|

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As a child of the 1950s, I grew up with television, and it has grown up with me. One of the first memories I have is of Rowdy Yates, the "ramrod" on "Rawhide." At 4 years old, no one really has a concept of "cool," but Yates did it for me.|ret||ret||tab|

That character was played by a guy who is now a film icon, a true living legend and someone who has been the essence of cool for more than four decades: Clint Eastwood.|ret||ret||tab|

He appeals to the macho men moviegoers with his action heroes, like Dirty Harry and "the man with no name" in his spaghetti Westerns. |ret||ret||tab|

However, as a director (and he's directed himself in 20 movies to date) he has been critically cited as a devout, downright feminist. |ret||ret||tab|

His films always feature female characters that are far from the norm of typical Hollywood action films. |ret||ret||tab|

Eastwood is also well-known for getting pictures filmed on time, on target and on budget. |ret||ret||tab|

His pictures always make money, as well, and I can't think of any film Eastwood has been associated with that isn't imminently watchable.|ret||ret||tab|

While other actors have a tendency to become clichs of themselves and their characters, Eastwood keeps aging gracefully. |ret||ret||tab|

He hasn't really been reinventing himself, but he's chosen roles that befit a man of his age. |ret||ret||tab|

He's now 72, and his latest persona is Terry McCaleb, a retired FBI man who could have been Dirty Harry (or even Coogan from "Coogan's Bluff") in his younger days.|ret||ret||tab|

McCaleb is the main character in "Blood Work," directed by Eastwood, written by veteran Brian Helgeland and based on the novel by Michael Connelly.|ret||ret||tab|

As the story opens, McCaleb an FBI agent/profiler is on the trail of a serial killer who taunts him at every turn. The killer leaves coded messages with his murder victims addressed to the agent, and seems to revel in the media publicity they both receive.|ret||ret||tab|

McCaleb finally finds the guy at a crime scene, but the killer takes off running. |ret||ret||tab|

McCaleb follows but bad news. Not only does the killer get away, McCaleb suffers a massive heart attack.|ret||ret||tab|

Jump ahead two years. Agent Terry McCaleb has just undergone a heart transplant and is ready to go back into the real world. |ret||ret||tab|

Needless to say, he can't resume his former job or anything too strenuous, so he takes up residence on his boat, which is docked at a local marina.|ret||ret||tab|

Also hanging around is his buddy, Buddy, a quintessential surf bum type played by Jeff Daniels.|ret||ret||tab|

Terry is laying low, but anyone who has ever seen an Eastwood character knows that a plan like that won't last long. And it doesn't. |ret||ret||tab|

He's approached by Graciella Rivers, a woman whose sister is the victim of a seemingly senseless homicide. |ret||ret||tab|

The plot device introduced is a great twist: Rivers lets McCaleb know that he was the recipient of her sister's heart. |ret||ret||tab|

From here on things get personal, and Terry, 72-year-old heart-transplant patient, just can't let it go.|ret||ret||tab|

McCaleb has always been good at figuring things out by making connections between the little things surrounding a crime that most people would never notice. |ret||ret||tab|

He draws a line to another murder that took place just a few weeks prior to Rivers' sister's killing. |ret||ret||tab|

He knows, and the audience gets a sense, that there's just one small part missing that will explain the entire thing.|ret||ret||tab|

When the true twist comes in the third act, it makes "Blood Work" a completely different film. |ret||ret||tab|

I was hanging on for the ride, just because I respect Eastwood so much, but honestly I wasn't sure if it was a good movie or not. |ret||ret||tab|

When the plot comes around, though, it makes the whole thing rather spooky, and the previous action carries a lot more weight. |ret||ret||tab|

My hat's off to Eastwood. He's a talented actor and a concise, no-nonsense kind of director. |ret||ret||tab|

He knows what needs to be done to keep audiences entertained and has managed to do so without becoming a parody of himself. |ret||ret||tab|

Paul Newman's done it. So has Robert Redford. Sean Connery, too. Aging gracefully is something to be appreciated in art, as well as life.|ret||ret||tab|

Other actors in Hollywood should take note as to how a cool dude can grow old with grace and style. Eastwood is still every bit as cool as he was as Rowdy Yates more than 40 years ago.|ret||ret||tab|

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