Ted Post vs Clint Eastwood: The Magnum Force Feud Explained
Magnum Force, the first sequel to Dirty Harry, was a box office hit when it landed in 1973 — but behind the camera, it was a total mess.
Director Ted Post and star Clint Eastwood clashed throughout production, and by the time the film was finished, Post was convinced Eastwood had torpedoed his career.
The friction wasn't subtle. Eastwood, despite not officially directing, acted like he was in charge. As biographer Patrick McGilligan put it in Clint: The Life and Legend, by the time Magnum Force came out, it was "becoming part of Clint's mystique that even when he wasn't directing one of his films, he was the one really directing."
Ted Post saw it the same way — and didn't mince words about it. According to Post:
"A lot of things he said were based on a pure, selfish ignorance and showed that he was the man who controlled the power."
What Actually Happened on Set
- Post claimed Eastwood cut two major scenes from the shooting schedule without approval, including a long motorbike sequence for Harry Callahan.
- Eastwood's reasoning? Budget and timing concerns.
- In editing, Eastwood sat in and made "side-of-the-mouth comments" to undercut Post's authority.
- Post summed it up by saying Eastwood's ego by that point "began to apply for statehood."
The feud escalated after Post requested a second take on an establishing shot — something Eastwood was famously against. He preferred to use first takes whenever possible. Post insisted, was proven right, and Eastwood begrudgingly apologized — but the relationship never recovered.
Even Rexford Metz, a frequent Eastwood collaborator and Magnum Force's cinematographer, weighed in:
"He [Eastwood] had a lot of great ideas, but he won't take the time to perfect a situation. If you've got 70% of a shot worked out, that's sufficient for him, because he knows his audience will accept it."
The Aftermath
- Magnum Force outgrossed the original Dirty Harry.
- Post walked away convinced that Eastwood effectively blacklisted him, though he admitted he had no proof.
- As McGilligan wrote, Eastwood had a track record of collaborators — writers, cameramen, directors — who struggled outside his production company, Malpaso.
- Eventually, Eastwood directed Sudden Impact, the fourth Dirty Harry film — the only sequel he directed and widely regarded as the weakest of the series.
Whether or not Eastwood sabotaged Ted Post's career, one thing's certain: the tension behind Magnum Force never really left the screen.