The Forgotten Clint Eastwood Thriller That Marked The End Of An Era

We didn’t know it at the time, but Blood Work marked Clint Eastwood’s final time playing a lawman. From Hang ‘Em High to the Dirty Harry movies, Eastwood often found himself playing law enforcement types on the big screen. At the height of his career, Clint would often embrace a “one for them, one for me” model.

This means he would make a broadly commercial movie in exchange for the studio funding a smaller, more personal project. A key example would be returning for his final Dirty Harry outing The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Pool in 1988 so he could direct the musical biopic, Birdy.

Audiences rarely tired of seeing Clint wielding a gun and squinting at bad guys, but by the 1990s, age was catching up to the screen icon. Most of Clint’s thrillers from this era, like In the Line of Fire, made his advancing years part of his character, but that could only work for so long.

Blood Work Marked Clint Eastwood’s Final Time Playing A Lawman

Clint Eastwood as McCaleb shooting a sH๏τgun in Blood Work.

Blood Work is Clint’s final action movie, although that label is somewhat loose here. This 2002 thriller also marked the first adaptation of a Michael Connelly book, with the source material taking place in the same universe as Bosch.

Blood Work cast Eastwood as Terry McCaleb, a veteran FBI profiler who has a heart attack while chasing a mystery serial killer. After his recovery he picks up the case again, as his new heart belonged to a victim of the aforementioned killer.

Blood Work received a tepid critical response (it stands at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes) and was a box office dud, picking up $32 million (or $62 million, when adjusted for inflation) on a $50 million budget. One thing that is significant about the thriller is that it’s Clint’s final time playing a law enforcer.

While he’s not exactly performing high-energy stunts and the story is offering a commentary on his age, Clint felt too old to be running around with a gun or chasing down suspects. That’s something most of the reviews picked up on, and it’s likely Clint suspected it too, as he never attempted such a part again.

Blood Work Was Also Clint’s Last Time Performing Action

Clint Eastwood as Terry McCaleb on the poster for Blood Work.

Clint Eastwood was 72 when Blood Work was released, and to be clear, he’s looking mighty fit for his age. McCaleb is the kind of taciturn authority figure he’s played dozens of times before, and the action he performs is grounded enough to be believable.

Still, Blood Work is the final time Clint performed action scenes in a movie. This includes some foot chases and a couple of shootouts, including one where he’s sH๏τgunning a car being driven by the killer. Again, the action sequences are tailored to Eastwood’s capabilities, but they lack the impact of something like Dirty Harry or The Gauntlet.

Every Dirty Harry Movie	Release Year	Director
Dirty Harry	1971	Don Siegel
Magnum Force	1973	Ted Post
The Enforcer	1976	James Fargo
Sudden Impact	1983	Clint Eastwood
The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Pool	1988	Buddy Van Horn

It wouldn’t be the last time Eastwood held a gun in a movie, as Gran Torino and even Cry Macho have his grouchy protagonists waving firearms around. Blood Work is far from Clint’s best, but there is something meaningful about how it marks an end to a key period in his career.

In truth, Clint Eastwood’s movies had largely turned away from straight-ahead action with 1990’s The Rookie, which famously featured more stuntmen than speaking roles. This actioner saw Clint outpunch, outdrive and outshoot all his foes, but even at 60, it felt like it was time to put those kinds of characters behind.

Once he stepped away from fronting thriller or action movies, Clint began to swap acting for directing too. He had helmed most of his own projects since the early 1980s anyway, but with the weak reception to Blood Work, he placed his focus on being behind the camera instead.

Eastwood Almost Retired From Acting After Blood Work

Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn and Morgan Freeman as Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris by the boxing ring in Million Dollar Baby. — Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn and Morgan Freeman as Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris by the boxing ring in Million Dollar Baby.

In the aftermath of Blood Work flopping, Eastwood dived into directing Mystic River, an acclaimed 2003 mystery thriller. He was content to stay in the director’s chair too, telling Reuters in 2008 that he seriously considered giving up performing entirely.

I think I started saying that back a few years ago, I said ‘I don’t think I’ll act anymore, I’ll stay behind the camera, ‘ but then “Million Dollar Baby came along and I liked that role.

Indeed, his follow-up to Mystic River was 2004’s Million Dollar Baby, which cast Eastwood as a (what else?) grizzled boxing trainer who takes a female fighter (played by Hilary Swank) under his wing. On the surface, Million Dollar Baby set itself up as a female Rocky-type story, only for the final act to take a tragic turn.

The movie was a critical and financial hit, with the role of Frank feeling tailor-made for Clint. While his acting roles declined noticeably following Blood Work, once every few years he’d dust off the cobwebs for projects like Gran Torino or The Mule. It appears that, for the time being, 2021’s Cry Macho will be his last acting credit.

It’s odd that Blood Work, a largely forgotten entry in the screen legend’s CV, quietly marked some big changes in his career. It was all for the best, considering the success and acclaim that greeted many of his directorial efforts.

It seems that Warner Bros still holds the rights to McCaleb, since the character was entirely absent from the Bosch TV series. Perhaps they felt Blood Work could start a late-career franchise for Clint, but on many levels, it’s a good thing that didn’t happen.

Source: Box Office, Rotten Tomatoes, Reuters