Clint Clint Clint

It's a big ol' week of Clint Eastwood, and I can't think of a better way to start the summer . . . or any other season, for that matter.
Our greatest living actor-auteur celebrated his 78th birthday Saturday, all five of his epochal Dirty Harry movies came out in a spectacular DVD box set on Tuesday, and the American Cinematheque starts a weeklong celebration tonight at the Aero in Santa Monica, with the man himself attending and discussing his work between screenings of the new documentary "Clint Eastwood: A Life in Film" and "The Beguiled," the Don Siegel-directed, kinky/creepy Civil War gothic from 1971, the same year the duo made the first Harry Callahan classic (screening Friday).
All this on the heels of word from the Cannes Film Festival that Eastwood's own latest directing effort, "Changeling," is yet another politically astute, gut-punchingly moving masterpiece. And Eastwood is already preparing two more films: "Gran Torino," which will also mark his first onscreen appearance since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby"; and "Human Factor," a South African reconciliation drama with Matt Damon and Clint's old buddy Morgan Freeman as, inevitably, Nelson Mandela.
All of which makes me marvel at Eastwood's ongoing vitality and continued creative growth at an age long past the time when even the greatest filmmakers have given us their best. Much as the recently departed Sydney Pollack will be missed, it's comforting to know that people dedicated to intelligent, thoroughly grown-up movies still have some foothold in Hollywood (even if they did direct the occasional "Firefox" back in the day).