Tag Archives: Clint Eastwood

Empty Chair Makes Clint’s Day

Clint Eastwood’s argument with an invisible Obama sums up the Romney campaign.

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Vigilante Films Responsible for Trayvon?

Trayvon Martin’s death has Americans rethinking the vigilante film.

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We Can’t Be Knocked Out with One Punch

Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl ad has stirred up a political storm but it reminds me of Tennyson’s “Ulysses.”

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A Gritty Child in a Tough World

Film Friday (Warning: The following essay contains spoilers) I watched Ethan and Joel Coen’s remake of True Grit last Friday and now can’t help but think about it in terms of the Arizona shootings. Will our young people, faced with all this violence, grow up as tough as 14-year-old Mattie Ross? Yesterday’s Washington Post had […]

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A Poem for Heroes and Mass Murderers

Since the World Cup is underway in South Africa, I watched Clint Eastwood’s Invictus last week, about the 1995 World Cup Rugby Tournament held in South Africa.  Based on a true story, the film notes that, while in prison, Nelson Mandela, like many black South Africans, would root against the South African rugby team, beloved […]

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Rethinking Dirty Harry Vigilantism

Film Friday I’m fascinated by how films function as social barometers and am wondering what kinds of films will characterize the Age of Obama.  Maybe Clint Eastwood’s Grand Torino (2008) is some kind of harbinger. (Spoiler alert: I will be revealing the end of the film.) One career trajectory I never could have imagined (not […]

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