The Films of Clint Eastwood
The Films of Clint Eastwood
Critical Perspectives
The indefatigable Clint Eastwood, the great old man of American film, is still controversial after all these years. Many of the critical essays in this collection focus on Eastwood’s 2014 American Sniper, a particularly controversial film and a devastating personal account of the horrors of war. Additional essays within the collection address his films that deserve more recognition than they have received to date.
The chapters vary by topic and identify themes ranging from aging, race, and gender to uses of Western conventions and myth to the subtleties of quieter themes and stylistic choices in Eastwood’s body of cinematic work. As a collection, these essays show that none of these themes account for Eastwood’s entire vision, which is multifaceted and often contradictory, dramatizing complex issues in powerful, character-driven narratives.
Overall, Wanat and Engel—and their contributors—have much to say on Eastwood that is enlightening and instructive. That they manage to offer original perspectives and insights after all that has been written on Eastwood is a credit to them.
These essays interrogate the persona of Eastwood and his artistic output with insight and intelligence.…A timely, worthy, necessary scholarly contribution—and intervention—on Eastwood. Highly recommended.
Matt Wanat is an associate professor of English at the Lancaster regional campus of Ohio University, where he teaches composition, literature, and film. He is also the coeditor of Breaking Down Breaking Bad: Critical Perspectives (UNM Press) with Leonard Engel. Leonard Engel is a professor emeritus of English at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He is also coeditor of Breaking Down Breaking Bad: Critical Perspectives (UNM Press) with Matt Wanat.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Matt Wanat and Leonard Engel
Chapter One. The Eiger Sanction: Midlife and Midcareer on Eastwood’s Vertical Frontier
Mark Maynard
Chapter Two. Forced into Heroism: Clint Eastwood’s Reluctant Protagonists in The Eiger Sanction, The Gauntlet, and Firefox
Edward Lamberti
Chapter Three. Why Are We Stuck in Low-Earth Orbit?: Sexagenarian Space Cowboys and the Failing Body of Their American Dream
W. D. Phillips
Chapter Four. Empowering the Victim: Eastwood as a Director of Women
Raymond Foery
Chapter Five. Manufactured in America: Clint Eastwood, Chrysler’s Halftime in America, and the Republican National Convention
Craig Rinne
Chapter Six. The Real War That Got into the Movies: Eastwood and Spielberg in the Pacific
John Streamas
Chapter Seven. Captain of My Soul: Inspiration in Eastwood’s Films
John Gourlie
Chapter Eight. Cultural Hero-Systems in Shane, Gran Torino, and American Sniper
Glenda Pritchett
Chapter Nine. "Life Takers and Heart Breakers": Moral Injury in Clint Eastwood’s War Films
Kathleen Brown and Brett Westbrook
Chapter Ten. Another Fistful: The American Sniper Franchise and Clint Eastwood’s Post-9/11 American War Film as Neo-Western
David Buchanan
Chapter Eleven. The Legend: Situating American Sniper in Clint Eastwood’s Canon
Landon Lutrick
Chapter Twelve. With Some Trepidation, I Suggested That We See American Sniper Together
Dennis Rothermel
Chapter Thirteen. Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper: A Note on the Art of Interpretation
Leonard Engel
Chapter Fourteen. "The First Cut Is the Most Important Cut": An Interview with Joel Cox
Paul Seydor
Afterword
Drucilla Cornell
Filmography
List of Contributors
Index
