Clint Eastwood

Interviews, Revised and Updated

Robert E. Kapsis, Kathie Coblentz

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781617036637
• eBook ISBN: 9781628467949
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) is the only popular American dramatic star to have shaped his own career almost entirely through films of his own producing, frequently under his own direction; no other dramatic star has directed himself so often. He is also one of the most prolific active directors, with thirty-three features to his credit since 1971. As a star, he is often recalled primarily for two early roles—the "Man with No Name" of three European-made Westerns, and the uncompromising cop "Dirty" Harry Callahan. But on his own as a director, Eastwood has steered a remarkable course. A film industry insider who works through the established Hollywood system and respects its traditions, he remains an outsider by steadfastly refusing to heed cultural and aesthetic trends in film production and film style. His films as director have examined an eclectic variety of themes, ranging from the artist's life to the nature of heroism, while frequently calling into question the ethos of masculinity and his own star image. Yet they have remained accessible to a popular audience worldwide. With two Best Director and two Best Picture Oscars to his credit, Eastwood now ranks among the most highly honored living filmmakers. These interviews range over the more than four decades of Eastwood's directorial career, with an emphasis on practical filmmaking issues and his philosophy as a filmmaker. Nearly a third are from European sources—several appearing here in English for the first time.

Index

Absolute Power, 176

Academy Awards, xvi, 143–44, 163, 215, 233, 239, 252, 254–55

acting and Eastwood: acting for other directors, 65

directing compared to, 20–21

and directing in same film, 21, 56, 65, 123, 126, 133–34, 149, 198

early roles, 4–5, 55–56, 147

enjoyment of, 196

his personality and his roles, 5, 31, 63, 133, 150

preparation, 195–98

studying acting, 5, 100

actors: as directors, 66, 139, 181, 182, 191

Eastwood’s recurring use of, 55, 68, 81

adaptations: The Beguiled, 130

The Bridges of Madison County, 174–75

Honkytonk Man, 85

Letters from Iwo Jima, 207–8

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 169–70, 174

The Outlaw Josey Wales, 32–33

Africa (location, White Hunter, Black Heart), 125, 128

African Queen, The, 37, 119, 122, 124

script, 127

age discrimination, 159–60

Agee, James, 127

Aiona, Eddie, 144

Alberta, Canada (location, Unforgiven), 142–43

ambiguity, 101, 204–5

in High Plains Drifter, 26–28, 46

in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 168, 170–71

in Million Dollar Baby, 200

in Mystic River, 191, 204

American Film Festival, Deauville, France, xv

Anderson, Bronco Billy, 81

antihero: in The Beguiled, 23

in Bronco Billy, 82

Eastwood’s image as, 21, 31, 58–59, 62–63

in High Plains Drifter, 26

anti-Semitism, in White Hunter, Black Heart, 126–27

Any Which Way You Can, 42, 51, 65

box office, 54

apartheid, 235–36, 242

Apocalypse Now, 80

...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chronology
• Filmography
• No Tumbleweed Ties for Clint
• Eastwood on Eastwood
• Eastwood Direction
• Director Clint Eastwood: Attention to Detail and Involvement for the Audience
• Eastwood: An Auteur to Reckon With
• Cop on a Hot Tightrope
• “Whether I Succeed or Fail, I Don’t Want to Owe It to Anyone but Myself”: From Play Misty for Me to Honkytonk Man
• Clint Eastwood: The Rolling Stone Interview
• Eastwood on Eastwood
• Flight of Fancy
• Interview with Clint Eastwood
• Interview with Clint Eastwood
• Any Which Way He Can
• America on the Brink of the Void
• Q & A with a Western Icon
• “Truth, Like Art, Is in the Eyes of the Beholder”: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The Bridges of Madison County
• A Conversation with Clint Eastwood about Mystic River
• Mystic River: Eastwood, without Anger or Forgiveness
• Staying Power
• Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima
• The Quiet American
• Do You Feel Lucky, Monk?
• Clint Eastwood, America’s Director: The Searcher
• Eastwood on the Pitch: At Seventy-Nine, Clint Tackles Mandela in Invictus
• Interview with Clint Eastwood: First, Believe in Yourself
• With J. Edgar, Eastwood Again Flexes His Freedom
• For Further Reading
• Index