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.
Table des matières
Acknowledgments viii
Abbreviations xii
Introduction: Eastwood’s America – From the Self to
a World View 1
1 The First Twenty Years: Borderline States of Mind 24
2 Unforgiven: The Search for Redemption 70
3 Mo Cuishle: A New Religion in Million Dollar Baby 116
4 Cries from Mystic River: God, Transcendence, and a Troubled
Humanity 172
5 Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima: History Lessons on
Time and the Stranger 231
Notes and References 284
Index 301
A propos de l’auteur
Sam Girgus is professor of English at Vanderbilt University.
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