The Eastwood Factor

Just caught the premiere of this on TCM. There have easily been better overviews of Eastwood's career (the 2000 American Masters documentary 'Out Of The Shadows' is an excellent example) and it's easy to tear apart Richard Schickel's often sloppy style. But just to focus on a technical/aesthetic aspect of this production - who the hell was in charge of actually assembling the clips from the films? Eastwood's filmography includes films produced in just about every aspect ratio from full-frame to scope - and it's a TOTAL crap-shoot here whether a scene from a film will be properly letter-boxed or miserably pan-and scanned - or something in-between! (sometimes in a montage using scenes from the same film!) There were scenes from DIRTY HARRY that were pan-and-scanned, slightly letter-boxed and in full letterbox (it's a scope film) while others like A PERFECT WORLD (also scope) were in total, horrendous pan-and-scan - ruining not only the composition of the shots - but the beauty and impact of the scenes shown. These are just two of numerous examples throughout this production. This kind of oversight was simply inexcusable - especially from a man (Schickel) who is entrusted with how contemporary audiences see Clint's cinematic legacy. Next time hire somebody (like me!) who knows and cares that the examples shown are presented and represented correctly! Amateurish hack work beyond belief!