An unsolicted tribute to Clint Eastwood - a master of his art!

OK, so this really will be my last post before I arrive in Belgrade. As far as my trip preparations go...I am nearly there. I am sure I have forgotten tons of stuff that I am supposed to do, and I can't seem to fall asleep at night, but I am reaching the acceptance stage in terms of feeling like I have done all I can to be prepared and now it is time to go and deal with whatever I have forgotten later...

So...what is it that I have to say now??

Well...last night, as I was desperately trying to fall asleep...I caught Clint Eastwood on Letterman. Now I am not particularly crazy about Letterman - I can take him or leave him - but I LOVE Clint Eastwood and last night I was reminded again why...

1st - his utter brilliance as a person and an artist - God that man is brilliant! He is really well-educated with regard to the history and traditions of film. (In fact he referenced Kurosawa [in the context of Fist Full of Dollars which he said was an adaptation of Kurosawa! Something I did not know!], told a story - with subtle humor - about Hitchcock, and mentioned several other "greats" in the context of his interview!)

2nd - his personality - He is so confident and soft-spoken and appropriately self deprecating and sexy (even still at 78 yrs old - yes I would still like to marry him!)!! He can talk about his films and his ideas in such a way that the listener is totally engaged, and he does so in a way that is still likable. He believes in his message and in his projects, but does not think of himself as a genius. And he seems to care very little for his own celebrity, but instead seems to relish his career choice as a way to tell important stories in careful ways.

3rd - his sex appeal - yes, I do get it that he is the same age as my Gramma. I don't care. He is strong and authoritative without being a creep. I have heard a rumor that he is a republican, which I know should send me into fits of horror, but I am positive that if he is in fact a conservative that he is not a "George Bush/Jesus-abusing/war mongering" conservative, and is more of a "less government is more/conserve what we have" type of conservative - aka a more rational intelligent type of conservative. Anyhow, I have not seen any clear evidence of his conservatism, and am convinced that he would at the very least be the type of person who is open to discussion and debate of ideas - which is sexy!

4th - his sense of humor- His sense of humor is so incredibly sharp! It is self-deprecating and subtle in the way that it rewards close attention and even seems somewhat ill suited for the talk-show format as the thought it requires does not seem to fit the quick pace of the "knee slapping" interview that seems to be the expectation of this type of interview.

In contrast - to make my point more clear - now, I like John Stewart, and I admire his intellect, but what bugs me a little about Stewart is the glaringly obvious self "back-patting" type of funny that annoys me about comedians like Sarah Silverman and David Spade. It is this sort of self aware kind of "funny" - this kind of funny that seems to scream "look at me...I am sooo funny!" that takes away from some of the actual humor for me.

To explain further - Amy Sedaris noted in an interview I read recently that the reason she likes to look "ugly" in so many of her on screen characters is that when an ugly person is funny, people are genuinely laughing at and paying attention to what that person has said. The ugly person has won over their audience purely on content. The pretty person, says Amy Sedaris, only thinks that they are funny when really people are paying them attention b/c they are beautiful. Sedaris says this makes her feel a bit bad for the pretty person who is deluded into thinking they are entertaining and interesting.

This self-aware "look at me...I am so cute and funny" that I feel so heavily with Davis Spade and Sarah Silverman, and to a lesser extent with John Stewart, is not present with someone like Clint Eastwood, and this makes him all the more sexy and charming to me. If you don't get the joke, he won't poke you in the ribs or ask "you get it?" (a la clown honking a horn). Instead he will just move on to his next point with a subtle grin.

5th - his usefulness to me as a public speaking teacher - Now, while his sense of humor and confidence are admirable for starters, the first moment I knew he was one of my top most admirable famous people was when I saw an old clip of an academy awards show from years ago. Eastwood was asked at the last minute to give an award in place of someone who did not show up. As a result, there was no cue card written for him. His hilariously appalling public speaking skills were fascinating to me as a public speaking teacher (and serve as further evidence that celebrity is not part of his "thing" as a filmmaker/actor.) It proved so much to me that, while there are many aspects of speaking that share qualities with acting, there are also some aspects of speaking that are unique to speaking itself. Hence this clip is a great one to use in the classroom. In the years since this occasion Eastwood has gotten a lot better at speaking. But this occasion helped solidify for me 2 things....

1) Like most other performative skills, you can practice and polish and become a competent speaker, but there is a certain innate, unteachable "je ne ce quois" to being a truly gifted speaker; and

2) Eastwood is a gifted story teller, director, and even actor, but he is not full of himself, does not engage in acting because of the fame and glory, but because he sees the film medium as his voice. He truly has a gift for using the medium of film to offer powerful messages in ways that are not overbearing.

6th - his utility for me as a teacher of critical media studies and genocide studies- Now...some may say negative things about his westerns or about his Dirty Harry days, but I will point the reader to such westerns as Outlaw Josey Wales and High Plains Drifter to note that even in this genre, once Eastwood gains some amount of creative control over his medium, he embeds broader social messages in his films in ways that do not overpower the film (such as his critique of the treatment of Native Americans as well as his critique of official history and its false authenticity - a theme we see him develop more fully in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima later in his career). This allows his films to be consumed on a variety of levels and offers a piece of "art," instead of a blockbuster piece of entertainment, in that most of his films keep unpacking themselves in the mind of the audience for days or even years after one first sees the film. I find that I can watch many of his films over-and-over and can pick up on different things each time. This is the mark of a truly excellent film for me.

Now, I will admit that I am not as fanatical about the Dirty Harry days, and not all of his films are deeply-thoughtful "winners" overall, but looking at his body of work as a whole, I have to say that he proves over-and-over again that he has a real gift - a gentle skill when it comes to teaching his audience without preaching at them. Unforgiven is a complex and important film that can be unpacked in so many ways that the fact that it is a western is inconsequential to the broader message. Flags and Letters are films that offer such a powerful critique of the authenticity of history and of "us vs. them" thinking that I wish all of my Rhetoric/Media students as well as my Genocide Studies students could see and discuss them. They complicate easy ideas of war and history and offer a social critique that does not seem heavy handed, but seem easy enough to grasp at the level of the common audience. And the fact that he is most commonly thought of as a sort of man of action, and a sort of action hero on par with Arnold (and that like Arnold, Clint was once - for a brief moment - a politician) helps his more important social messages be palatable for general audiences.

I am not sure why I felt compelled to write this entry/tribute to the man. I just have been thinking about him all day and one day I think I will teach a course that uses only Eastwood films for critical analysis. From a critical media perspective as well as from a critical historical/conflict studies perspective, his body of work is the only one from a single artist that I think could be used to teach so many important concepts. While there are many excellent Polanski films, I am not sure I could use only Polanski.

I guess in closing I will say that Clint Eastwood is in my top three famous people I would love to meet. Bill Clinton is in that number as well, with the third spot a somewhat revolving door of whomever is my most beloved at any given moment (with that spot currently alternating between Stephen Colbert and Barak Obama).

In fact, if I were to host a dinner party and, in addition to 10 friends, I could invite 10 famous people living or dead, the guest list of famous people as of today would include...

1) Clint Eastwood

2) Bill & Hilary Clinton

3) Stephen Colbert

4) Barak & Michelle Obama

5) Nelson Mandela

6) Rachel Maddow

7) Meryl Streep

8) Winston Churchill

9) Eleanor & Franklin D. Roosevelt

10) bell hooks

OK, so it is back to packing. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment with your top three or your top 10 guests for dinner list.

I will write again when I have arrived in Serbia. Wish me luck and keep in touch.