Veteran filmmaker Clint Eastwood has taken aim at the politically apathetic youth in his native U.S. - insisting the nation is filled with "teenage twits".

The 79-year-old is disgusted by the lack of interest young Americans display in world events.

The Oscar-winner's latest film Invictus tells the true story of South African president and civil rights leader Nelson Mandela.

And Eastwood admits he's hinging his hopes on star Morgan Freeman to deliver a dose of harsh reality to absent-minded teens.

He tells America's GQ magazine, "(The U.S. is) becoming more juvenile as a nation. The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits...

"The world needs this kind of story nowadays. It's just...everybody's so screwed up. It seems like our country's in kind of a morbid mood, because of the recession or whatever."