14. "I enjoy it more now than I did back when it first came out" In response to Reply # 10
First time I saw it in the theater, I thought it was at times painfully slow, punctuated by a great ending. As I've gotten older and watched it MANY more times, I've learned to appreciate and love damn near all of it.
8. "Old conservative white guy grudgingly dealing w/ what America has become" In response to Reply # 6
I enjoyed Gran Torino but it was The Mule that made me realize he's got a specific demographic he's targeting and it ain't me.
I feel like his movies are meant to be affirmations of the old ways of doing things... and trying to show they (and the old people that believe in them) still have value.
12. "RE: How Long Before Repubs Turn On Woke Clint Eastwood?" In response to Reply # 0
Watched Outlaw Josey Wales a couple weeks ago. His entire crew was made of women and Natives, the elderly. He appeared to have casted actual Natives instead of whitewashing the cast, I was taken aback. I have been a fan regardless of his orientation.
16. "His sets are notoriously enjoyable to be on" In response to Reply # 12
On the one hand, he doesn't indulge in a lot of "actor bullshit" which means that sometimes he doesn't get the best performances out of people - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a go-to example - but it also means that you get to just show up, go to work, collect your check and move on to the next thing. He's very sure of what he wants, tells his crew what that is, and as long as he gets reasonably close he's happy to call the shoot for the day.
And yea, for whatever his reputation is as a political player, his movie making is pretty beyond reproach. Gran Torino looks like it's one thing in the trailers that it kind of isn't when you actually watch it (though it is, like most latter-day Eastwood, still pretty reductive) but what's really interesting is stuff like Letters from Iwo Jima where he legitimately attempts to get in the heads of the Japanese defending that island from American invasion and respect them as people in a way most American filmmakers would never depict WWII.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Thu Sep-02-21 10:16 AM
19. "A lot of Clint's movies comment on toxic masculinity." In response to Reply # 0
Some of them more explicitly, like Unforgiven. Others less explicitly, like the Dirty Harry movies. But Clint's always been interested in men using hypermasculinity to mask what's going on underneath.
21. "I don’t think Clint thought about that at all." In response to Reply # 19
His enforcer movies were just following the pattern in Hollywood with making movies about cops and robbers. The 70s gave us Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson movies, Barretta, and Starksy and Hutch tv shows.
The Unforgiven was simply Clint going back to his Western movie/tv roots, because that is how he started as an actor. And his character William Munny had similarities to real life outlaw Billy The Kid, who was a vicious murderer and robber. Munny tried to change his life, but an outlaw will always be Unforgiven, and will never escape his reputation.
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24. "There is a lot more going on than that in the Unforgiven. " In response to Reply # 21
You had a sheriff who presents as a hero, but is actually a cruel person who tortures people. But is considered a good guy because he has a badge. Then a lead who had done many bad things but now wanted to be a good person, but turned back on his badness when he needed to and we are rooting for him when he shoots a sheriff and an unarmed man. And finally a kid who wanted to be bad, but didn't have it in him. Whew.
Then you layer on top of that the role of mythmaking with the writer. who easily monkey barred from "hero" to "hero" and turned villains into heroes and heroes into villains based on who he talked to. So much going on in this movie.
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
25. "Yes, from a plot or storyline point of view " In response to Reply # 24 Thu Sep-02-21 05:40 PM by allStah
there is a lot going on. I was specifically speaking about the character Munny, and not other characters. Munny was a vicious, brutal murder with no regard for human life, man, woman or child. And even though his wife got him to stop his ways, his past made him Unforgiven, and that existence would forever live in him. That is why it was so easy for him to kill again. He was simply a straight up murderer.
Ned even lost the heart to kill, and chose to go back home. And Munny killed that cowboy out in the open with the rifle when Ned didn’t have the heart to do so. So Munny was not forced to kill, and he wasn’t forced to help get revenge for those whores. All of that happened before little Bill got a hold of Ned, and Ned told him all the malicious things that Munny had done.
Munny being a killer never left him. And there was nobody in that film that was more malicious. That’s why the Kid vowed to never be like him after the whore was speaking on all the wicked things that Munny had done.
Little Bill: “ I’ll see you in hell” Munny: “ yeah”
ALL HAIL THE KING of LOSING: LEBRON Bulls | Bears | White Sox | Yankees | Notre Dame | Illinois | Chelsea | Real Madrid
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