Clint Eastwood's Son Has Starred In Two Very Different Westerns, But Both Were Flops

Clint Eastwood is the quintessential Western star, known for his steely gaze and quick draw, who went on to become one of the greatest directors of all time. He holds the record for being the oldest to win the Oscar for Best Director, receiving the award at the age of ripe old age of 74 for the boxing weepie "Million Dollar Baby." 20 years later, Eastwood is still making movies; at the age of 93, he released the intense courtroom drama "Juror #2." He also has a son, Scott Eastwood, who's taking advantage of his familial status by being featured in his dad's movies. 

He's appeared in several of Clint Eastwood's films, including "Flags of Our Fathers," "Gran Torino," and "Invictus." Scott has also followed in his father's footsteps by stepping into the Western genre, although his efforts pale in comparison to the Sergio Leone classics that helped make Clint a legend. Two of the Western movies that Scott Eastwood has starred in — ironically released in the same year — don't even come close to the best Western movies of all time, proving that you can't just rely on the Eastwood name to guarantee success.

It's hard not to think of Clint Eastwood when you see Scott Eastwood all decked out in his cowboy studs in "Diablo." His square jaw and piercing eyes are uncanny. He has that same guarded way of carrying himself. "Diablo" operates in all of the genre tropes that Clint Eastwood's films made popular, especially the themes of revenge and regret. But whereas that inscrutable nature always hid something deep within Clint Eastwood's characters, an emotional pain or haunted memories that he still managed to convey through stony silence, Scott Eastwood's character is an empty void thanks to the lazy writing. 

In "Diablo," Jackson rides to Mexico to find the men who burned down his house and kidnapped his wife. Aside from the painterly vistas of the Colorado wilderness, the only bright spots in this film are an exuberant Danny Glover as a Civil War veteran and a pre-"White Lotus" Walton Goggins as Ezra. Goggins always commands the screen with his seductive presence, and this seems like a precursor to his role in the far better, yet supremely dark Western "The Hateful Eight." But even he's not enough to save the film from a hokey, "Fight Club"-esque twist.

"The Longest Ride" isn't a traditional Western movie but a typical Nicholas Sparks-based romance about two bland white people falling in love. Many hallmarks of the Western genre are there, including the serene rural setting of rolling hills and dense forests — even if the story takes place in North Carolina rather than the American West. Scott Eastwood's character of Luke Collins is every bit a modern cowboy. He willingly faces danger as a professional bull-rider, dresses in a cowboy hat and boots, and embodies a stoic, rugged masculinity. He falls in love with an art student named Sophia, and their biggest conflict is whether or not she will move to the big, bad city of Manhattan for an internship. 

After Luke and Sophia save a 90-year-old man named Ira from a car crash, he shares the memories of his sweeping romance with his wife, Ruth. The narrative framing of World War II-era flashbacks is similar to "The Notebook" (hands-down the best Nicholas Sparks adaptation) but far more disjointed and less emotionally moving. There are lots of Nicholas Sparks clichés in "The Longest Ride," like Eastwood using any excuse to take off his shirt and flex his muscles, or gallantly showing up on Sophia's doorstep with a bouquet of flowers. Scott Eastwood naturally fits the role of Western-style hero, but in the context of this story, he comes across as generic and boring. "The Longest Ride" is too busy drowning in its syrupy melodrama to actually make the audience invested.