Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Favorite Movies Include A Clint Eastwood Western

Clint Eastwood’s breakout role was, of course, the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s 1964 Western classic “A Fistful of Dollars.” At the time the movie was released, 17-year-old bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger who had just started a competitive career in his native Austria, far from both Hollywood and Spain’s Tabernas Desert where Leone’s seminal Western was shot. But the movie, and specifically Eastwood’s movie star magnetism, made a big impression on the young Schwarzenegger, who throughout the illustrious career that followed his early bodybuilding days has praised the Hollywood veteran as one of his idols. The “Terminator” star even modeled his post-Governator acting career on Eastwood, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2011:

“In the future I have to adapt my roles to my age. Clint Eastwood also has done it in the same way. Extreme fighting or shooting is not possible anymore. I want to be more encouraged as an actor and I believe that I can manage this challenge.”

Though Schwarzenegger and his idol have never worked together on a film, the Austrian was, at one time, attached to star in Eastwood’s failed 2021 awards contender “Cry Macho,” which instead of being showered in accolades found new life on Netflix in 2023. Otherwise, the pair have maintained a non-professional relationship off-screen, with Arnie honoring Eastwood for his 93rd birthday in 2023, posting a photo of himself skiing with the screen legend to his Instagram. Schwarzenegger captioned the photo, “Happy birthday, Clint! You’ve inspired me, you’ve mentored me, and you’re a wonderful friend. At 93, you prove that heroes don’t retire — they reload. You’re a legend.” Also, if you happen to be a fan of Eastwood’s fascinating social media habit of plastering every picture with seals of authenticity, check out this low-res masterpiece from August 2024 of him and Schwarzenegger hanging out.

With all that in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Schwarzenegger’s top films of all time include a Clint Eastwood classic, alongside a few entries that might surprise you.

With Arnold Schwarzenegger having been enraptured by early-career Clint Eastwood, watching from the continent as the leading man shot his way through Spaghetti Westerns and hard-boiled crime dramas such as the great (and controversial) “Dirty Harry,” you might expect his list of favorite films to be made up of early Eastwood classics. However, it seems the Austrian Oak has a special soft spot for the actor’s later career, having praised him for adapting his roles as he aged and for not slowing down even after becoming a nonagenarian.

As such, it makes sense to see Eastwood’s celebrated 1992 Western “Unforgiven” cropping up on Schwarzenegger’s top five movies list (which is actually his top six movies list). The actor revealed his picks to Rotten Tomatoes, adding “Unforgiven” as a sixth choice. He said:

“Of course, I never like to stick to five, so let’s put a sixth one in because that way you have a little bit more and, well, bigger triceps. So we put in ‘Unforgiven.’ It’s of course also one of those movies. Clint is an idol of mine. I always idolized him since before I came over to America. I loved his Western movies and followed his career very closely, then became friends with him and really admired him.”

If Schwarzenegger was so transfixed by Eastwood’s early Westerns, it seems slightly odd that he wouldn’t put “A Fistful of Dollars” or any of the “Dollars” trilogy on his list. But perhaps this film made the cut solely due to the fact that Arnie and Eastwood had become friends by the time “Unforgiven” was shot. Explaining his choice further, Schwarzenegger praised Eastwood for being “tremendously skilled” as both a producer and director and surmising that the Hollywood legend had “developed into a kind of real genius.”

Not that “Unforgiven” needs a Rotten Tomatoes score to advertise its well-established brilliance — the film won four Academy Awards, after all, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood, alongside a Best Supporting Actor win for Gene Hackman and Best Film Editing for editor Joel Cox. But with a 96% rating, you can’t really fault this Schwarzenegger pick. In fact, you can’t really fault any of Arnie’s top picks.

The rest of the list is composed of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Titanic,” “The Godfather,” “The Sound of Music,” and the 1973 movie adaptation of “Westworld” — all of which have RT scores well above 80%. That said, they do feel a tad safe. Not that you would necessarily expect Arnie to wax poetic about some deep-cut arthouse effort, but there’s not a single wild card on his list, and “Titanic” is directed by his friend and frequent collaborator James Cameron. Still, we are talking about a man who came from a small town in Austria to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world, so it’s only fitting that his top six is essentially an ode to some of the most universally acclaimed products to ever emerge from Hollywood — an industry Arnie admired from afar growing up. 

Interestingly enough, Schwarzenegger does claim that the one film that isn’t quite so unanimously adored, “Westworld,” was “what got [him] to be really interested in playing the Terminator. Because Yul Brynner plays a machine that malfunctions and it’s a very well-made movie, a very well-written movie.” But we know Arnie couldn’t have been less interested in starring in James Cameron’s “The Terminator” before its release. As the BBC notes, the actor told a friend about “some s**t movie I’m doing, take a couple of weeks.”