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Summary
Clint Eastwooddefined the Western movie genre for many age , but when rewatching his classic photographic film through the lens of modern - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. conventions and expectations , some obvious issues follow to illumination . This realness is n’t to say that his films should be tear apart and never look on again , butviewing them with a vital eye can open up the audience ’s world and inform modern iterations of the genre . Revisiting Eastwood ’s most iconic movies with an knowingness of the problem does n’t bankrupt the movies but makes them richer by having a contextual savvy of the westerly genre .
After working in the westerly arena for so long , Eastwood became intimately cognisant of the tropes and pitfalls of the beloved but sometimes problematic movies .
Clint Eastwood is a great role player and music director , and his influence is feel across the westerly genre despite it having been many yr since he took on a project in the battlefield . After working in the Western arena for so long , Eastwood became intimately cognisant of the figure of speech and pitfalls of the beloved but sometimes problematic picture show . This experience allowed him to undermine the traditional formulas subsequently in his calling and ruminate on what western say about the United States and filmmaking as a whole .
10Eastwood’s Characters Have Questionable Morality
High Plains Drifter (1973), Unforgiven (1992)
Cast
The Western is notorious for blurring the lines between Italian sandwich and villain because it characterize its hoagie as morally ambiguous .
No hero is compelling if they do n’t present a moral quandary , no matter what picture genre they ’re in . The Western is notorious for obscure the lines between hero and villain because it characterize its hero as virtuously equivocal . This characterization frequently happen in Eastwood ’s movies , and sometimes , his roles press the bound between an anti - wedge and a complete villain . InHigh Plains Drifter , his eccentric , The Stranger , acts viciously and violently toward everyone around him , and the higher moral code that so often govern Old West cowboys is seemingly nonexistent .
Unforgivenattempts to unpack this ethical motive by ingest Eastwood ’s Will Munny pit against an even worse baddie , fiddling Bill Daggett ( Gene Hackman ) . However , it ’s readable that Munny was once a gun for hire and kill many innocent people without qualms , even if he ’s a semi - reformed man in the present tense . This wave-particle duality tap the question of whether these dark-skinned men with severe past can be trusted and elevate to the posture of hero and call for nuance in interpreting them as aspirational .
While Clint Eastwood is well - hump for his characters in Western picture show , the villains who serve as foils to his heroes are just as compelling .
9Historical Inaccuracies
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966), A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
Eastwood generate his start in Spaghetti Westerns , a recession that began as miserable - budget B vitamin - movies made by Italian directorsand film in Italy . At the time , this raised motion as to how something as American as a Western could be shot and create out of doors of the U.S. However , they are some of the best - call back former Westerns of the time and are celebrated for build primal patch and figure that are seen as synonymous with the musical genre . However , not all of them necessarily hold up up when it comes to accurately portraying the historic context of use and Sojourner Truth of the period .
These inaccuracy come into play inThe commodity , The Bad , and The Ugly , as well as theDollars Trilogyoverall . Eastwood ’s iconic Western movie was assessed by a Civil War expert , and anachronisms from the type of guns to the clothes were rampant . Outside these details , however , there are big issues with not being period - exact . Westerns across the board have been critiqued fornot portraying how many blackened cowboys and nester were living in the West . Additionally , brutality and lawlessness have been significantly over - emphasized by Westerns throughout chronicle .
8Violence Is Glamorized
High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
There ’s no enquiry that fight scene , shootout , and larger-than-life confrontation are of the essence piece of Westerns , and violence in films is n’t necessarily something that must be critiqued . Violence can play a key role in representing expectant narrative root word , further character development , and exposing audiences to existence they might never have been mindful of . However , costless force can be jarring and unneeded in the context of how it ’s portrayed . This form of savagery can communicate to the audience that violence is always an pick if the destruction vindicate the means .
Since the protagonist does n’t have to be a hero and frequently is n’t , that opens up the theory for further violence , which is seen throughout Eastwood ’s study .
How a Western , peculiarly ones as high - profile as Eastwood ’s , portrays violence crosstie into the position their stories take on morals . Since the protagonist does n’t have to be a hero and frequently is n’t , that opens up the hypothesis for further violence , which is seen throughout Eastwood ’s work . InThe Outlaw Josey Wales , Josey ’s ( Eastwood ) family is killed as part of his source taradiddle . While this does make for a motivating firearm of the story , it ’s used to allow Josey to reenact terrible violence on the perpetrators , and the audience ends up rooting for this because the story frames it as justice .
7Celebration Of Individualism
Pale Rider (1985), Hang ‘Em High (1968)
Many of thebest Western motion picture protagonistsare define by specific qualities , and almost all of them relate in some mode to individualism . broken individualism is a defining aspect of Western movies , and their stories keep this ideology to the point of worship . This myth of expansive loners is common in the United States , asAmerican finish decenters the community of interests and collective in party favour of singular achievement and sustainability . Westerns stage these desire and pipe dream by creating part who do n’t play well with others and do n’t take after society ’s rules .
Eastwood ’s work rarely challenges these ideas and often elevates these solo characters to the distributor point of mythical status . Even if his role make some connection or build familial bonds , they are almost always shatteredby the goal of the picture . His family is killed , which sets him on a itinerary of revenge , or as soon as his study is done within a frontier town , he moves on , never to be get wind from again . While this might be a romantic perspective , it ’s rarely an advisable expectation , as people need each other to survive .
Pale Rideris available to lease on Apple TV and YouTube .
Image by Debanjana Chowdhury
6Women Have Limited And Stereotypical Roles
Unforgiven (1992), Two Mules For Sister Sara (1970)
find out thebest pic with female westerly heroescan be a challenge . While they do exist , they were the exclusion , not the formula , for many years . There are interesting Eastwood movies that search women ’s roles and setting more centrally , like the 1971 filmThe Beguiled . Sofia Coppola later remade the movie in 2017 , but Eastwood ’s office in the original attempted to unpack how men abused military position of baron during times of warfare and unrest . However , among his other picture show , women are kick downstairs to only a few prototypic office .
Eastwood ’s dear involvement might have some fighting skill and a spirited personality , but their characters only served as a mean value to develop his character . to boot , these cleaning lady were dally only by white women .
These archetypes include the erotic love interest , the sex actor , or the victim , almost invariably . Eastwood ’s sexual love involvement might have some fighting skills and a spirited personality , but their quality only served as a means to develop his persona . to boot , these women were played only by white women . It was rarefied enough to see the great unwashed of color in the cast at all , but women of color were immensely underrepresented . This unsuccessful person is something that Hollywood needs to actively meliorate on today but is even more evident in older westerly films .
5Whitewashing Of The West
Paint Your Wagon (1969), The First Traveling Saleslady (1956)
Whitewashing and the centering of livid chronicle is an essential problem with almost every movie of the westerly writing style during its heyday and superlative in the 1940s-1960s . This failure can be attributed to the fact that it was not only Western movies that overtop and still the voices of people of gloss but Hollywood as a whole . Before white colonial settlers busy the North American continent , it was already a diverse and well - populated country , but Western films typically framed it as an untamed and empty land that needed to be seize and settle .
AlthoughPaint Your WagonandThe First Traveling Salesladyare immensely dissimilar motion picture within Eastwood ’s Western oeuvre , they both illustrate similar problems with his celluloid . They demand Eastwood and his compatriots expire West to stake out an imagine claim in territory that was n’t theirs to occupy . Additionally , they center the approximation that society was nonexistent in the West until white settlers arrived , and it was their duty to construct community of interests from scratch . This outlook is strongly challenge today and has been speculate upon in certain New Westerns .
Paint Your Wagonis available to pull on Apple TV and Prime Video .
The Western genre is not just lie with for fearful cowboys and hit man , but also for touching musical with unbelievable Song dynasty and terpsichore numbers .
4Nostalgia For Vigilante Justice
High Plains Drifter (1973), Pale Rider (1985)
This portrayal of governmental law positions the vigilante as someone who must hail and facilitate him , playing the role of the masculine hatchet man .
The law is something that ’s played fast and loose in Western flick because the cardinal idea is that the settlement were too far aside from cities and club to be rule by the government . If there is a law officer in town , he ’s corrupt , acts as if he owns the town , and often is the baddie who needs to be stoppedby the righteous vigilante . In the rare case that the sheriff is honorable and meet fairish , he is often visualise as soft or incapable of properly defending the frontier town .
This characterization of governmental constabulary berth the vigilante as someone who must come and serve him , playing the role of the masculine enforcer . Critiquing the systems of governmental law is not a novel conception for picture palace , and dispute existing office structure is a vital part of what art can do . However , within Westerns , the vigilante seldom film a political stance , and his actions upgrade violence and suggest that a personal moral code gives someone the rightfulness to deal out justice with impunity .
3Violence Against Women
Unforgiven (1992), High Plains Drifter (1973)
The activity inUnforgivenbegins because a grouping of sex worker want revenge on the human who disfigured one of them and then burn down their place of business . InHigh Plains Drifter , it ’s Eastwood ’s The Stranger who systematically assaults and dress down the women around him . Assault is a consistent and brutal theme throughout westerly movies , andit often feels that the threat of harm is the defining characteristic of every female fiber in Eastwood ’s Western .
While this was a reality of the prison term , the chance was rarely presented to women to oppose back and have agency . This topic is apparent when considering that women are consistently victimized and used as a plot gadget and motivating constituent for Eastwood ’s male Heron to get retaliation and excuse their actions . dissemble that the creation was n’t prejudiced toward cleaning lady would have been a ill service as well , but the way thatwomen are not only framed as without options but also as decrepit is what becomes most problematic in Eastwood ’s films .
2Inaccurate And Harmful Depictions Of Indigenous Communities
Ambush At Cimarron Pass (1958), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
In Western film , Indigenous American peoples are depicted as either the opposer , the chum , or as mystical beings who help the white people in their journeying . All of these portrayals are awry and offensive , completely neglect the ferocity committed by livid settlers and the U.S. governing . For many years , autochthonal peoples did not have a voice in how they were portrayed onscreen , and the white-hot perspective was all that was useable in Hollywood . While this has begun to slowly exchange in late twelvemonth , it must not be forgotten about , specially with the Western genre .
WhileThe Outlaw Josey Walesis less combative with Indigenous communities , the character representations are offensive and perpetuate stereotypes .
InAmbush at Cimarron Pass , one of Eastwood ’s earliest Westerns go around entirely around a struggle with the Apache , as Eastwood ’s theatrical role , Sergeant Matt Blake , and his chemical group are trying to spoil their territorial dominion . All the pitfall of representing Indigenous the great unwashed are present inAmbush at Cimarron Pass , as the Apache people are characterize as grave and disputative . It ’s unacknowledged that it ’s their domain Blake is glide by through without their license . WhileThe Outlaw Josey Walesis less combative with Indigenous communities , the character representations are offensive and perpetuate stereotype .
North America is cognise for its big Hollywood film , but there are many great , significant stories that could be considered the good autochthonal picture .
1Celebration Of The Hyper-Masculine White Hero
Joe Kidd (1972), The Dollars Trilogy (1964 - 1966)
A handful of Dollars is a spaghetti Western photographic film from director Sergio Leone asterisk Clint Eastwood . A Fistful of Dollars is noted for being Clint Eastwood ’s bountiful good luck in Hollywood and also for being the beginning of the " Dollars Trilogy . " The film was followed by For a Few Dollars More in 1965 and The Good , The Bad and the Ugly in 1966 .
TheDollars Trilogyis infamous for its success but also for ofttimes portraying Mexican characters as villain and irredeemable . Too often , Eastwood ’s clean characters are considered justified in their tearing actions despite order people of semblance as the antagonists and celebrating an superannuated form of hyper - masculinity . The individualism that ’s so celebrated by the film also ties into both the racism and the toxic aspects of masculinity , asit ’s white masculinity the moving-picture show center around and glorify as the peak of personhood .
Eastwood ’s films are not without nuance , but by today ’s standards , they barely scrape up the surface of the trouble with a violent white male protagonist being praised for his unforgivable actions . Movies can have white manful agonist , and they should be nuanced character that are n’t all safe or all bad , as that would be one - dimensional . However , when trance the complexity of the whitened manful hoagy role in picture show history and humanity ’s chronicle , it ’s authoritative to be aware of the power these function hold .
