Clint Eastwood Is Quietly Dropping Strange Upgrades to His Old Movies
If you're a serious fan of action movies, it's hard to argue that the king of westerns is anyone other than Clint Eastwood. Starting with Rawhide, and then his famous role as the Man With No Name in A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, Eastwood fully stole the western crown away from John Wayne with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in 1966. By the 1970s, he was making massive western hits on the regular. Decades later, Clint Eastwood is quietly telling his fans about new, slick remastered versions of some of his coolest movies. And the interesting thing is, he seems to be doing it on the sly.
On Eastwood's official Twitter/X account, the actor just dropped a new update about a 4K release of his blistering 1976 flick, The Outlaw Josey Wales. According to the tweet, this is an early look at new art for the first-ever 4K Blu-ray release of The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Early look at the Preliminary artwork for the 4K UHD Limited Edition Steelbook of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) pic.twitter.com/0lR5OZ5Cyn
— Clint Eastwood (@EastwoodMalpaso) January 15, 2025
On top of that, just a few days prior, the Eastwood X/Twitter account revealed another upgraded version of one of his all-time classics: the 4K Steelbook release for Dirty Harry, which the tweet notes will be the only one of the Dirty Harry films that will be remastered in 4K.
An initial Sneak preview of the artwork for the 4K Steelbook edition of Dirty Harry. Additionally, a Collector's Edition featuring newly included bonus features is available. Currently, there are no plans to release the remaining films in the Dirty Harry series in 4K BluRay... pic.twitter.com/Muknq0HM6G
— Clint Eastwood (@EastwoodMalpaso) January 14, 2025
And the list keeps going. The Eastwood X/Twitter account has also dropped news about an upcoming 4K release of Pale Rider (1985), one of Eastwood's most underrated and classic westerns, which he notes was "originally planned as a French release, it will now be available worldwide."
While it's easy enough to watch most Clint Eastwood classics streaming (Pale Rider is on Tubi, and you can rent Josey Wales and Dirty Harry on Amazon) the truth is, these are cinematic classics that deserve the upgraded 4K treatment. As most fans know, Eastwood has become just as renowned as a director as he is an actor. Thus, it's no surprise that he's the kind of movie guy who cares about how older films are seen and preserved. And it's interesting, and even endearing, that he (or someone on his team) is communicating directly with his fans to let us all know when the coolest versions of his best movies will be released.
Eastwood movies like Dirty Harry and Pale Rider are best watched in a massive movie theater with fantastic sound. But, the next best thing is obviously a great 4K restoration. Eastwood hasn't confirmed the exact release date for these new versions of his classic movies, but clearly, if we keep following him online, he'll let us all know the second he has confirmation.
Clint Eastwood's latest film as a director is Juror #2 and is streaming on HBO Max. You can follow him on X/Twitter @EastwoodMalpaso.
Related: What It's Really Like to Work With 93-Year-Old Clint Eastwood on Set