5 Underrated Clint Eastwood Movies Every Self-Proclaimed Fan Needs To Watch

Clint Eastwood got his start in an uncredited role in a hokey monster movie "Revenge of the Creature" in 1955. Cut to 70 years later, he's still in the business of making movies. It was his starring role on the long-running Western series "Rawhide," where he played the first of many cowboys throughout his career, that launched him to fame. Now there are over 100 credits to his name on IMDb, not only as an actor, but as a prolific director, writer, and even composer. 

As one of the last true relics of the classic Hollywood studio system, he has witnessed or been a part of nearly every major change or movement in film, making his filmography vast and varied. For as many famous and highly-rated Clint Eastwood movies — such as Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, where he plays the now legendary Man With No Name, or his Academy Award-winning "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby" — there are also ones that don't get as much attention as they deserve. This list spotlights five of them.

Clint Eastwood's directorial debut is a high-strung and passionate precursor to the obsessed stalker genre that would flourish with later films like "Fatal Attraction," "Single White Female," and "Fear." Eastwood also stars as Dave Garver, a cool, jazz-focused radio disc jockey who becomes dangerously entangled with a rabid fan named Evelyn, played by Jessica Walter, who is a frequent caller requesting the song "Misty" by Erroll Garner. "Play Misty for Me" has a hypnotic pull that evokes Dave's initial chemistry with Evelyn, particularly in the lush love scene set to Roberta Flack's velvet-voiced ballad, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

Their relationship quickly unravels as Evelyn reveals her true self in scenes filled with nail-biting furor. Her behavior becomes more and more erratic as she worms her way deeper into every aspect of Dave's life. Her obsession with Dave escalates from showing up uninvited at his home to threatening to take her own life if he tries to leave her. Against the foreboding and darkly romantic backdrop of the Monterey Peninsula, with its fog-covered cliffs and windy beaches, Eastwood constructs a thriller with touches of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" that tightly winds the audience until it releases in a jagged crescendo.

Clint Eastwood directs "A Perfect World," which mixes crime drama with sentimentality. A little boy named Phillip is held hostage by an escaped convict named Butch Haynes and driven across the Lone Star state. You can practically feel the sweltering heat radiating off the screen as they make their way across the backwoods and sprawling plains during the manhunt. "A Perfect World" explores the tensions between bureaucracy and instinct in a place where people take matters into their own hands.

Clint Eastwood plays the tough Chief Red Garnett, a stiff-upper-lip type who's stubborn about doing things his own way. Red deals with a female criminologist (played by the always effervescent Laura Dern, who endures plenty of misogyny in the investigative boys' club) using new-fangled psychological methods to understand the criminal; future "The Handmaid's Tale" star Bradley Whitford as a smarmy fed; a governor more concerned with appearances; and a runaway Populux Airglide trailer serving as their investigative hub. There's a humorous juxtaposition between what Red and his team think Butch is doing and what he's actually up to.

As Butch, Kevin Costner's warm voice and paternal demeanor perfectly suit a character who, as we learn more about his past, may not be as much of a criminal as we first thought. The bond he develops with Phillip is heartwarming. Butch sees himself in Phillip: a lonely boy without a father, searching for some sort of role model, and he tries to be that for him in his own strange way. If you're a sucker for movies about unexpected little-kid adult relationships, you'll especially enjoy this. 

Clint Eastwood directs (but does not appear in) "Juror #2" at the ripe age of 93. Nicholas Hoult stars as Justin Kemp, an enigma of a man serving as a juror on a highly-publicized homicide trial that he many have deeper ties to. As more is revealed, it becomes clear that Justin has as much of a checkered past as the defendant. Society just views him differently because he appears to be a clean-cut family man rather than someone with neck tattoos who gets into explosive fights in public. 

Hoult keeps his character's nervous energy humming for the two-hour runtime, and you can see the guilt gnawing at him beneath those perched eyebrows and behind his dazed eyes. The brightly lit Savannah exteriors, with lush weeping willows and the constant buzz of cicadas, create a balmy environment that feels like a pressure cooker, feeding into Justin's anxiety. There's an "About a Boy" reunion as Toni Collette plays a no-nonsense prosecutor who is also running for District Attorney, and Chris Messina as her former peer and more overworked public defender. Other actors such as Leslie Bibb, J.K. Simmons, and Kiefer Sutherland appear. 

Clint Eastwood cleverly superimposes and cuts back and forth between the memories of the night, which shift depending on whose perspective we're seeing and what realizations they've come to. It becomes difficult to say what really happened, because everything hinges on what different people believe. /Film writer Jeremy Mathai calls "Juror #2" "a solid, efficiently-made picture made specifically for adults," the kind of economical and steady-moving courtroom dramas that thrived in the '90s. Eastwood's procedural asks major questions: Do people change? Is the truth justice? What makes a good person? "Juror #2" leaves on a surprising ending that will still keep you wondering.

Clint Eastwood made the ambitious World War II movies "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" about America's most monumental war; he also showcased an oft-forgotten military chapter when the United States invaded Grenada in 1983 to prevent the takeover of a Marxist regime in "Heartbreak Ridge." Eastwood has great fun starring as Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway, a foul-mouthed war dog who pulls no punches with his unruly new Marines. Speaking with a sandpapered voice and moving with a stiff precision, he drills down into his green recruits so that they become better soldiers.

Beneath this rigorous boot camp tension is a surprisingly thoughtful consideration of how America was changing after the Vietnam War. Highway feels left behind as he is getting older, questioning his achievements and struggling to let go and retire. He was so devoted to the Marine Corps that he gave up love, a family, and friends. But was it worth it? "Heartbreak Ridge" exposes the dirtiness of military training and combat, like the hard-nosed instructors and the coarse dynamics between the troops. This unvarnished look at military life was hated by the government but loved by real-life soldiers.

Don Siegel helmed many of Clint Eastwood's most celebrated films, including "The Beguiled," "Dirty Harry," and "Escape from Alcatraz." One of their earlier collaborations is a classic Western adventure tinged with romantic comedy. Eastwood is yet another tight-lipped cowboy who forms an unlikely duo with Shirley MacLaine as Sister Sara, a nun he rescues from bandits. She wants him to protect her when she travels to a camp to help Mexican rebels fighting the French occupation. The dry and pale-looking Mexican desert where "Two Mules for Sister Sara" was filmed is an oppressive wilderness where danger could be just across the canyon.

The heart of the movie lies in Hogan and Sara's playful differences, with Sister Sara's bright spirit opposing Hogan's stoicism. Their endearing odd-couple humor sparkles when Hogan realizes she's more than she appears — especially when she swears and drinks whiskey. Composer Ennio Morricone uses a fluttering guitar to mimic the sound of a mule's hee-haw and a church-like choir to evoke Sister Sara's alleged devout Catholicism which perfectly matches the film's eccentric style.