Stephen King Thinks This Clint Eastwood Movie Is One Of This Century's Best

The New York Times recently ran a poll asking famous filmmakers, actors, and writers to name the best movies of the century so far. From Pedro Almodóvar to "West Side Story" and "Snow White" star Rachel Zegler, the Times asked dozens upon dozens of famous people about their favorite feature films released since the year 2000 and then compiled their responses into a Top 100 list (ranked by which movies got the most votes). The poll was very similar to the polls that Sight & Sound holds once every decade, only limited to releases from the last 25 years and inviting a different team of filmmakers, writers, and executives to participate. (Sight & Sound also invites critics and essayists.)

As of this writing, one can see many of the Top 10 lists submitted by the participants, and, boy howdy, are some of the choices interesting. Alex Winter, the star of the "Bill & Ted" films and director of "Freaked," "Zappa," and "The YouTube Effect," listed the recent Romanian comedy "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" as one of the best of the century, while Almodóvar listed "Ida," "Dogtooth," and Abbas Kiarostami's "Ten." To choose a few more at random, Julianne Moore listed "Phantom Thread" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," while Karyn Kusama was fond of "Arrival," "Mandy," "Under the Skin," and "The Social Network."

Star horror luminary Stephen King was also polled, naturally, and his choices were perhaps a little more mainstream than most, with several box office hits and Oscar darlings among them. King enjoyed Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down," Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," the Coen Bros.' one-two-punch of "O Brother, Where Are Thou?" and "No Country for Old Men," and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer." The only horror films on his list were "Train to Busan" and the 2025 New Zealand thriller "The Rule of Jenny Penn" (which features one of John Lithgow's greatest performances).

His list also included a film directed by — and starring — Clint Eastwood. No, not "Space Cowboys."

Eastwood's prolific 21st-century directorial output has increased in both political strength and tonal mellowness. His films tend to be very laid back and emotionally disarming. Often, Eastwood will make films that are sympathetic to a right wing point-of-view, having helmed several features about honest, hard-working Americans being attacked and pilloried by a "Big Government" system. Impressively, Eastwood has directed 19 features in the last 25 years, starting with "Space Cowboys" and continuing to, most recently, "Juror #2." Some have been legit great movies, while others have been outright stinkers. (No one really liked "J. Edgar" or "Jersey Boys").

"Million Dollar Baby," which made King's Top 10 list, was an awards darling upon its release in 2004, winning the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Hilary Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). It was also a massive hit, earning $231.9 million at the box office against a $30 million budget. It tells the story of an aspiring boxer named Maggie (Swank) as she seeks the tutelage of a burned-out boxing coach named Frankie (Eastwood). They acknowledge that career-wise, she's on her way up while he's on his way down. Be that as it may, he trains her so well that Maggie begins knocking out her assorted opponents with a single punch. This is when the plot takes a dramatic twist, leaving Frankie to care for Maggie in a way neither of them expected or planned for. "Million Dollar Baby" has an intensely tragic ending as well, one that will leave audiences using a lot of tissues on the way out.

This was a surprising choice for King, who, if he were perusing Eastwood's filmography, could easily have chosen a film like "Mystic River," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Hereafter," or "Gran Torino" (some of the filmmaker's best movies). Instead, he chose a large-scale Hollywood melodrama, something that feels like it could have come out in the 1930s (the occasional f-bomb notwithstanding). King didn't elucidate on his choice, and no essays accompany his list.

Of course, maybe the man behind "The Life of Chuck," "Stand By Me," and "The Shawshank Redemption" merely has a sentimental side.