Clint Eastwood Absolutely Hated One Stephen King Movie

If you’ve ever wondered what the Man with No Name has to say about the King of Horror, there’s actually one movie adapted from a Stephen King book that Clint Eastwood simply cannot stand. The actor and director best known for his westerns like “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” has very strong feelings about a certain beloved horror movie.

To be fair, it’s hardly unusual for Stephen King adaptations to disappoint viewers. Less than a quarter of the sixty-some movies adapted from his books have gotten good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. After so many failed adaptations, Stephen King has earned the reputation of being an author whose books are basically unadaptable.

But surprisngly, it’s not the 2022 remake of “Firestarter” or any of the universally-hated King adaptations that Clint Eastwood loathes. Rather, it’s none other than 1980’s “The Shining,” a film widely considered one of the best Stephen King movies, and an overall classic of the genre. Here’s what Clint Eastwood has to say about the iconic horror movie.

Read more: The Most Controversial Movie Costumes Explained

Clint Eastwood thought The Shining simply wasn’t scary

As far as Clint Eastwood is concerned, “The Shining” is a terrible movie. The filmmaker did not mince words about this in a reprinted discussion featured in the book “Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson’s Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983.” In the sit-down, Eastwood recalled attending a screening of the movie and not being impressed. “Unfortunately, the scary parts were not very scary,” said Eastwood. “That ax scene, coming in with the ax to hit Scat [Crothers], it’s dead as a d***.” While many would argue that “The Shining” is one of the greatest horror movies of all time, it’s certainly not a universal consensus, with even Stephen King having negative feelings about the movie.

What Eastwood found especially galling was director Stanley Kubrick’s own boastfulness. It was reportedly Kubrick’s idea to promote his film with the tagline, “A masterpiece of modern horror.” Mind you, this was not quoted from a movie critic -– these were Kubrick’s own words. According to Eastwood, some studio executives told the filmmaker, “‘Stanley, maybe you better wait and let some reviewer stick the byline on the film because it might be considered a little forward of you to do it.'” Instead, claims Eastwood, the “2001: A Space Odyssey” director decided his movie was a masterpiece and marketed it as such.

Clint Eastwood believed Stanley Kubrick had lost his touch

Although Clint Eastwood hated “The Shining,” the majority of movie critics felt differently. Eastwood was convinced that Kubrick only got a free pass because of his reputation among the industry.

In the same interview with Paul Nelson, Eastwood suggested that the director’s perfectionism was to blame for the film’s quality, with Kubrick famously calling for dozens of takes on any particular scene. The exact number of takes the cast endured is still debated, with actor Scatman Crothers recalling doing between 40 to nearly 90 attempts on a single shot. This bizarre occurrence on “The Shining” set naturally left the players exhausted. Eastwood speculated that this led to the stilted performances, stating, “I have to assume that they were just beaten down by the whole overall thing.” By extension, Eastwood wondered if the film would have been better had Kubrick adopted his own preferred method of going with the first or second take, rather than spending too much time and money perfecting all the wrong things.

With that said, Eastwood still praised Kubrick’s earlier works, such as 1956’s “The Killing.” But as the director shifted from groundbreaking independent films to big-budget productions, Eastwood believed that Kubrick’s films had grown increasingly indulgent.

If you enjoyed this article, sign up to our free newsletter for the biggest movie and TV news delivered straight to your inbox. And add us as a preferred search source on Google.

Read the original article on Looper.