Clint Eastwood Loved This Oscar-Nominated Comedy That Skewered Hollywood

Clint Eastwood is one of the most recognizable and well-known cinematic figures in the history of Hollywood, but he's also still somewhat of an enigma. The man who made the seminal and controversial crime thriller "Dirty Harry," for instance, also spent some of his time in the '80s palling around with a trained orangutan named Manis in buddy action comedy "Every Which Way But Loose" and its misguided sequel. So, when it comes to the man's influences, you might expect some surprises. But "Tropic Thunder?"

Eastwood's favorite movie of all time is the classic 1950 noir "Sunset Boulevard," which he praised for melding the style of the silent movie era with a more contemporary filmmaking ethos. The famously taciturn star didn't go into much more detail, but it makes sense that he was influenced by "Sunset Boulevard," which was released five years before Eastwood made his first on-screen appearance in 1955's "Revenge of the Creature."

By the time he was cast as ramrod Rowdy Yates on CBS's "Rawhide" in 1959, Eastwood was 29 years old and had imbibed some of the great movies of Hollywood's golden age. He would, of course, go on to change the trajectory of filmmaking himself, first by helping to usher in the age of the revisionist Western with his and Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. But that doesn't mean he won't always love the classics ... and "Tropic Thunder," apparently.

Clint Eastwood isn't averse to picking favorites, having chosen two very different Westerns as two of his favorite movies he's ever directed. The actor has also highlighted several of his war movies as personal favorites, which might go some way to explaining why he loves "Tropic Thunder" so much.

In a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Eastwood picked 12 key influences on his "life in movies," highlighting such cinematic legends as James Cagney, Alfred Hitchcock, and even legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker. Number 12 on his list, however, was 2008's "Tropic Thunder." "The last picture I saw was 'Tropic Thunder,'" Eastwood told EW. "It's a great send-up of Hollywood. It looked like they had a good time making it, and Robert Downey Jr. was great. When they blow that guy's head off ... you couldn't help laughing."

The actor is, of course, a veteran of the action/war movie. Eastwood has made nine war movies in his career, starring in 1968's World War II thriller "Where Eagles Dare" and directing/starring in 1986's "Heartbreak Ridge" among others. As such, the screen legend seemed to enjoy the way "Tropic Thunder" subverted every trope associated with those genres. But there's so much more about the film's treatment of Hollywood and moviemaking that likely appealed to Eastwood.

"Tropic Thunder" was directed by Ben Stiller, who also starred as former action star Tugg Speedman. The veteran actor is desperate to revitalize his career after several ill-advised sequels have left him on the verge of being fully washed up. The solution, according to Speedman, is to make a Vietnam War epic and to shoot it in a real jungle, which ultimately places him and the entire production in the midst of a real-life conflict. For Eastwood, that made for a standout film, which, given its skewering of Hollywood production itself, probably appealed to the seasoned pro for several reasons.

Having long since established himself as a capable director and producer, Eastwood has seen movie production from pretty much every angle and is no stranger to the issues and situations parodied in "Tropic Thunder." What's more, he's a veteran of the action genre himself, helping popularize a more gritty, graphic style of on-screen violence with "Dirty Harry" and its many sequels. Perhaps watching, as he put it, a guy's head getting "blown off" as a gag reminded him of how over-the-top some of his own movies became in that regard, like when the writer of "Magnum Force" found the final product distasteful due to its excessive violence. Whatever the case, Eastwood remains a mystery in terms of his personal sensibility to this day, which only makes him all the more compelling.