Clint Eastwood's America E-Book

Sam B. Girgus

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: PALS-Polity America Through the Lens series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 469

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

The steady rise of Clint Eastwood's career parallels a pressing desire in American society over the past five decades for a figure and story of purpose, meaning, and redemption. Eastwood has not only told and filmed that story, he has come to embody it for many in his public image and film persona. Eastwood responds to a national yearning for a vision of individual action and initiative, personal responsibility, and potential for renewal. An iconic director and star for his westerns, urban thrillers, and adventure stories, Eastwood has taken film art to new horizons of meaning in a series of masterpieces that engage the ethical and moral consciousness of our times, including Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Mystic River. He revolutionized the war film with the unprecedented achievement of filming the opposing sides of the same historic battle in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, using this saga to present a sharply critical representation of the new America that emerged out of the war, a society of images and spectacles. This timely examination of Clint Eastwood's oeuvre against the backdrop of contemporary America will be fascinating reading for students of film and popular culture, as well as readers with interests in Eastwood's work, American film and culture.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Series page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction: Eastwood's America — From the Self to a World View

The Making of an Artist

Film Art and Ethical Vision

The Self-Made Man: A Hero of Revolt

Eastwood and Eastwood

An American Journey: Issues and Themes

Rethinking and Reviewing Eastwood: Ethics and Psychoanalysis

A Pilgrim's Progress

1: The First Twenty Years: Borderline States of Mind

A Western State of Mind

On the Road

“Black Hole”: Love, the Feminine, and the Other

2: Unforgiven: The Search for Redemption

On Death and Transcendence

The Feminine Frame

Opening Scenes: A New Artistic Sensibility

The Journey and the Flesh Trade: The Ethical Cost

The Sick Soul: Conscience, Death, and Repression

The Body, the Sacred, and the Face

Sublimation, Filthy Lucre, and an Outhouse Killing

The Dominion of Death

3: Mo Cuishle: A New Religion in Million Dollar Baby

The Fight: Tough Enough

Witnessing

Frankie, Maggie, and Scrap: Cinetext and Performance Text

Mo Cuishle: My Darling, My Blood

Mo Cuishle and Akedah: Frankie and the Priest

4: Cries from Mystic River: God, Transcendence, and a Troubled Humanity

God and the Mystic River: A Lost People

Rhapsody in View: Cinematic Rhythms

The Prologue: A Visual Poetics of Narrative and the Aporetics of Time

Mystic River Murders and Narrative Identity: Time, Subjectivity, and Ethics

Three Tales of Manhood: Dave, Jimmy, and Sean

Dave: Lost in the Past

Jimmy: Power, Possession, and the Moment

Sean: Vision and Meaning

The Marker: Murder, Mystery, and Tragedy

A Matter of Love: Families in Crisis

5: Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima: History Lessons on Time and the Stranger

Iwo Jima: Introduction to Hell

An Unprecedented Project

A Time Experiment: Ethics, History, and the Other

The Stranger

Film and History

The Photo

Heroes

The Home Front: The Society and Culture of “The Spectacle”

The Politics of the Stranger and the Time of the Other

A New “Consensus” and “Community Bond”

Index

America Through the Lens

Martin Scorsese's America – Ellis Cashmore

Clint Eastwood's America – Sam B. Girgus

Alfred Hitchcock's America – Murray Pomerance

Spike Lee's America – David Sterritt

Steven Spielberg's America – Frederick Wasser

Copyright © Sam B. Girgus 2014

The right of Sam B. Girgus to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2014 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

350 Main Street

Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5040-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5041-8(pb)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5648-9(epub)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5647-2(mobi)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Poem quoted from Clint Eastwood's America:

By Kenneth Patchen, from SELECTED POEMS, copyright ©1957 by New Directions Publishing Corp.

Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.politybooks.com

To Scottie

Katya, Meighan, and Jennifer

Jeff and Ali

Arielle Gianni, Zachary Isaac, Mia Victoria, and Maxwell Scot-Smith

Sam B. Girgus, August 2013

Photo: Zachary Arrington

Acknowledgments

After more than two decades, my students at Vanderbilt have worked with me through many classes and about a half-dozen books. I thank and appreciate them all. As Levinas says, “The presence of the other is a presence that teaches,” and I have learned more than I can say from them. In the Department of English, I especially wish to thank Mark Schoenfield for his generous and steady support. Friends in the film studies community have been especially supportive of this project, starting with the newest of best friends, Cindy Lucia, and a long-term debating partner, Jerry Christensen, along with Peter Bailey, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Jennifer Smyth, Colleen Glenn, Hunter Vaughan, Anne Kern, Krin Gabbard, Lucy Fischer, and Dudley Andrew. I would like to express my appreciation to Thomas G. Schatz for his critically and analytically astute reading of the original manuscript, which reflects his years of extraordinary contribution to film criticism, history, and scholarship. His thoughtful insights and informed suggestions proved of enormous help to me in editing and revising the manuscript. John Belton graciously read and encouraged me on an early draft of the introduction to the book as well as the completed manuscript.

Others who have proven so important through their friendship and support include Negi Darsess, Dan and Emily Vafa, Audrey Scot-Smith Shapiro, Ellen and Gene Winter, Joel Jones, Leah and David Marcus, Thadious Davis, Jonathan Lamb and Bridget Orr, Carol Burke, Beverly Moran, Robert Mack, Risa Arnold, Agnieszka Masica Supel and Ola Supel, Joe Fashing, Kent Barwick, Carol and Keith Hagan, Magda Zaborowska, Kelly Oliver, Tina Chanter Sara Cooper, J. Aaron Simmons, Cristina Giorcelli, Carola Chataway, Humberto Garcia, Cecelia Tichi, Dana Nelson, Michael Kreyling, Kathryn Schwarz, Teresa Goddu, Houston and Charlotte-Pierce Baker, Jay Clayton, Jennifer Fay, Anne Cook Calhoun, John Halperin, Gabriel Briggs, David Lewis, Sandy Stahl, Sara Bickell, Roger Moore, John Sloop, Martin Rapisarda, Karen Campbell, Carolyn Dever, Richard McCarty, Nick Zeppos, Gordon Gee; also Trey Harwell, J. Douglas Macready, Monica Osborne, Ira Allen, Col. Patrick Hampton and Gator, Tara Jacobs Castiglione, Jay Brown, Betty Davies, Danny Dalby, Jean and Phil Roseman, Capt. Tom Limbaugh, Brian and Judy Jones, Ken and Claire Darling, Allen Weitsman, Ed O'Neil, J. Delayne Barber, Stephanie Page Hoskins, Katie Ferguson, Oliver Luckett, “Brittwick” Strottman, Ginia McPhearson, Nicole Crane, Katy McCall, Katrina Markoff, Jacqui Leitzes, Peter Dale, Hill Perot, Kalan Contreras, Hayley Danner, Ashley Hedgecock, Jamie Mauldin, Julie Sharbutt, Sarah Louise Childress, Rachel Hodorowicz Hitt, Alison Barnes-Cohen, Adam Rabinowitz, Ben Scott, Amanda Grosse, Avi Ginzburg, Corwyn Ellison, Alyson Huff, Chad Gervich, Shirley Bolles and Angela Lopez, Rick and Christy Pearce, Nadia Khromchenko Sikorshi, Jim and Martha Bomboy, Richard Bruehl, Tommy Haraway family, Vickie Williams, Natasha Brenna, Gentry Young, Nord Bathon, Natasha, Mary, Wade, Shannon and Anias, Chris, Patrick and Kate, Scott, Denise, Molly Ramsey, Melissa Childers, Roger Bishop, Bill Andrade, André Mouledoux Steve Ladd, Chad Given, Stephen Hendrix, Mickey Brathwaite, John Haley, Barry Coggins, Joe (“Pete”) Ratliff, John Walker, Corey Spalding, Jill Furstenberg, Shannon Snyder, Steve Waterman, Paul Meyer, Jeremy Joiner & Co. The late Bob Sklar's name and work appear throughout this book. I miss his friendship and presence as much as the steady force of his brilliant and original film criticism.

Calista Marie Doll was of great help to me, as were other staff members of the Department of English, Administrative Assistant Janis May, Sara Corbitt, Margaret Quigley, and Donna Caplan. Chris Noel was especially generous and pati­ent in giving me technical video assistance for the book. For other technological, administrative, and academic support, thanks to John Kilbourne, Chris Nold, Carol Beverly, Jamie Adams, Jeff Baltz, director Penny Peirce, Racquel Goff, Robyn Harris, Frank Lester, Ralph Schuller, and Holly Scott.

Calista Marie Doll was of great help to me, as were other staff members of the Department of English, Administrative Assistant Janis May, Sara Corbitt, Margaret Quigley, and Donna Caplan. Chris Noel was especially generous and patient in giving me technical video assistance for the book. For other technological, administrative, and academic support, thanks to John Kilbourne, Chris Nold, Carol Beverly, Jamie Adams, Jeff Baltz, director Penny Peirce, Racquel Goff, Robyn Harris, Frank Lester, Ralph Schuller, and Holly Scott.

It certainly was my lucky day when Andrea Drugan, a senior editor at Polity Press, talked to me about this book. I could not have asked for a warmer, friendlier, more supportive and encouraging guide for the project. Her intelligence, editorial acuity, and critical clarity were of great importance at the beginning of the project. I was just as lucky that upon her leave of absence she was followed by editors with equal commitments to excellence and with similar levels of support, including Lauren Mulholland, Jonathan Skerrett, Helen Gray, Clare Ansell, Joe Devanny, and Elen Griffiths.

My daughters and their husbands and our grandchildren remain a source of unending joy and pride and the core of our purpose and being. Scottie helps to keep our households together with her love, care, sensitivity, informed and intelligent guidance, sparkling humor, generosity, and endless charm. The first and strongest reader, the best and greatest of friends, the person who fills life with love and meaning, she keeps, as a close friend noted, the “there” there.

Abbreviations

BSJulia Kristeva, Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, trans. Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989).DFEmmanuel Levinas, Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism, trans. Seán Hand (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).DLJulia Kristeva, Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Louis S. Roudiez, trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980).FFJames Bradley with Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers (New York: Bantam, 2000).GDTEmmanuel Levinas, God, Death, and Time, trans. Bettina Bergo (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000).HFJulia Kristeva, Hatred and Forgiveness, trans. Jeanine Herman (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).IRJulia Kristeva, Intimate Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis, trans. Jeanine Herman (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002).LDNorman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History (New York: Vintage, 1959).NMS  Julia Kristeva, New Maladies of the Soul, trans. Ross Guberman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).PHJulia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, trans. Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).PNEmmanuel Levinas, Proper Names, trans. Michael B. Smith (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996).RPaul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vol 3, trans. Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988).RKRichard Kearney, Anatheism (Return to God After God) (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).RPLJulia Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language, trans. Margaret Waller, intro Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).

Introduction: Eastwood's America — From the Self to a World View

The Making of an Artist

The transformation of Clint Eastwood into one of America's most significant directors stands as an extraordinary achievement in film history. After decades of acting and directing that gained him success and fame but little recognition for his film art, Eastwood's emergence as a major creative and artistic force in film came as a surprise with Unforgiven (1992). Film critics, scholars, and the public, as Edward Buscombe writes, have discussed the significance of Unforgiven as a work that changed film and cultural history with its unique revision of the Western genre.1 What could not be known at its release was how much change Unforgiven would initiate by opening a series of major transformational films by Eastwood that engage the ethical and moral crises of our times. Unforgiven and the works that followed it constitute a vital and original addition to American and world film art from an unexpected source to proffer new ways of looking at and thinking about modern experience.

In the film that arguably revivified the modern Western while changing popular and critical perceptions of Clint Eastwood's artistic sensibility and ethical consciousness, William Munny (Eastwood) in Unforgiven searches his soul and ponders his destiny. (Unforgiven, 1992, Warner Bros, Malpaso Productions, dir. Clint Eastwood.) (All images are screen captures produced by the author.)

Unforgiven reintroduced Eastwood to film culture and the world. The film instigated the change in the meaning of the name “Clint Eastwood” from being a label or brand for a popular American film hero and a marketable film commodity to signifying not just excellence in film-making but a film art and ethical consciousness that exceed and transcend simple definition and categorization.

Building on his considerable film experience at the time, Eastwood in Unforgiven and then in the major works that follow it explores new territory for art and meaning. Like Unforgiven, subsequent films revise film genres. Mystic River (2003) turns a crime and detective story into a modern drama of vision and ethics. Million Dollar Baby (2004) revivifies and transforms the dormant sub-genre of the boxing film. The joint venture of Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) not only revolutionizes the concept of the war film; the films become a consciousness-altering cultural endeavor to suggest the fear and repulsion of the stranger and the other as a source of death and violence. The war films indicate that such fear requires new thinking about difference as a basis for a culture of strangers.

Accordingly, Eastwood should receive critical attention as a director for taking film as an art form to new horizons of meaning as part of a dedicated ethical and spiritual quest. Eastwood has found the means of mind, imagination, and artistic will to create films that provoke new thinking, especially regarding ethical relationships and responsibility. For more than a century of film, directors have told viewers what to think about life, sex, love, relationships, society, and the inexorable complexities of experience. Eastwood, however, has become part of that special group of directors who makes viewers think. His anti-violence Western ends in a massacre; his film of transformative love in which the word becomes flesh in the boxing ring ends with a form of human sacrifice in the name of a transcendent and redeeming care; his crime story of perversion, murder, and revenge insinuates a deific power of witnessing that propounds the promise of an ethical vision of transcendent responsibility to the other; his unprecedented venture of filming both sides of a horrible battle, the Battle of Iwo Jima, goes beyond the espousal of peace to make the stranger, the foreigner, the outsider, and the history of the other the material and structure of film art. The intellectual courage and ethical imagination of the Iwo Jima films directly challenge the stereotype of Eastwood as a political reactionary that goes back to his early roles in film.