Salon.com > Clint Eastwood

Karl Rove’s hissy fit: “Offended” by Chrysler ad

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:22:00 +0000

I admit it: Chrysler's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad reminded me of President Obama's best recent speeches. Actor Clint Eastwood, the face of rugged American individualism, talked about "tough eras" and "downturns" and "times when we didn't understand each other," but then declared:

But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right, and acted as one. Because that’s what we do. We find a way through tough times, and if we can’t find a way, then we’ll make one...

This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yeah, it’s halftime America. And, our second half is about to begin.

Karl Rove heard echoes of Obama's rhetoric too, and implicit optimism about the direction of the country, and cried foul.

"I was, frankly, offended by it,” Rove said on Fox News Monday. “I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising."

Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl Obama endorsement

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:25:00 +0000

This much we know for certain. During halftime at the Super Bowl, Clint Eastwood touted the resurgence of Detroit while narrating a striking two-minute-long commercial for Chrysler, "Halftime in America."

But what did it mean? In a presidential election year, it is impossible to mention Detroit without political repercussions richocheting everywhere like shrapnel from an improvised explosive device. The fallout was instant: Clint Eastwood just picked sides!

For the conservative bomb-throwing blogger Michelle Malkin, Eastwood's stance was an affront to free market principles:

“WTH? Did I just see Clint Eastwood fronting an auto bailout ad???”

For liberal Michael Moore, it was an endorsement of President Obama.

“Your sermon seemed 2 b a call 2 give O his ‘second half.’”

Charges of hypocrisy poured in like Giants defensive linemen collapsing on Tom Brady. Clint Eastwood has long been regarded as a solidly libertarian conservative, and he is on record as having opposed the auto bailout. Yet here he was, cashing in, indirectly, on the auto bailout: taking what must surely have been a hefty paycheck to tout Detroit's comeback!

“J. Edgar”: Clint Eastwood’s lame and insulting Hoover biopic

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:00:00 +0000

We gather today to pay tribute to two genuine American icons, but without saying anything nice about either of them. Clint Eastwood has made a movie -- or at least I think that's what it is; the lighting is often so dim it's difficult to make out -- about longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who acted as the wacko third rail of American law enforcement for almost half a century. "J. Edgar" is one of those prestige Hollywood pictures that sounds, at first, as if it might be a good idea: a name director, a supposedly big star playing a major historical figure, and a script by young screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who since "Milk" has become the go-to scribe for what is no doubt described in story meetings as "gay material." But instead of a good idea, "J. Edgar" turns out to be one of the worst ideas anybody's ever had, a mendacious, muddled, sub-mediocre mess that turns some of the most explosive episodes of the 20th century into bad domestic melodrama and refuses to take any clear position on one of American history's most controversial figures.

Pick of the week: Can Matt Damon outrun God?

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:01:00 +0000

Here's the thing about "The Adjustment Bureau," which is a science-fiction romance featuring Matt Damon and English actress Emily Blunt as a couple on the run from mysterious men with hats. It's a somewhat awkward blend of ingredients, but not in the usual Hollywood fashion, where it often appears that nobody involved really gave a crap, or even bothered to watch the whole thing all the way through. Instead, "The Adjustment Bureau" is distinctly the work of one guy, and not a guy with Spielbergian or Scorsesean clout, either: Writer-director-producer George Nolfi is known in the industry as the writer of "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Ocean's Twelve," but has never made a movie on his own before.

Early Oscar odds: “Inception” vs. “Social Network”

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Question: Is it too unbearably early to begin thinking about the annual winter circus that is Oscar season? Answer: Never! Or at least not after the Gotham Independent Film Awards nominations, the unofficial starting gun of award-mania, have gotten us started.

Let me save your comment-typin' fingers a workout and stipulate the following: No, the Oscars are no indication of quality, historically speaking; yes, the best films of the year (whether by my standards or yours) are often overlooked; and yes, covering movies by focusing overmuch on the Oscar race resembles the horse-race coverage of American politics and signifies the downfall of journalism in particular and civilization in general. But you want to know about it anyway, so let's move on. (Check out my Movie List for an utterly subjective and totally non-market-driven ranking of the year's best and worst movies.)

“Hereafter”: Clint sees dead people

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:45:00 +0000

Clint Eastwood has now directed a kazillion movies -- OK, I count 31 feature films, the bulk of them made since 1990 -- and while some are good, some are bad and a whole bunch are in between, let's say this: They're all watchable. He knows where to put the camera and appreciates elegant, restrained cinematography. Actors like to work with him because he doesn't waste their time or try to get inside their heads, and he prefers understated, even dry performances, whether he's making a hard-boiled crime flick or a sentimental weeper.

I'm totally fine with cutting Eastwood a break based on his undeniable status as a national treasure and an iconic figure in Hollywood history. As certain friends are happy to remind me, I've definitely overpraised some of his mediocre outings. But as Clint has grown older and backed away from acting in his own films (he's appeared in only two of his last eight directorial projects), the movies themselves have lost personality and vigor. "Million Dollar Baby" and "Gran Torino" are pictures that have many fans and many haters, but both possess an intensity and specificity of vision you just don't see in handsome, dull, big-budget vehicles like "Changeling" or "Invictus."

Lakeside Retirement Movie Club: “Dirty Harry”

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:20:00 +0000

Mom: Harrumph.

Me: Why you pouting, Mom?

Mom: ::sigh::

Louise: It's my fault, Deven.

Mom: I'm fine. ::sigh::

Me: I grew up with that "I'm fine." You're not fine.

Mom: I am too.

Me: Miss Louise, what happened?

Louise: I picked the movie this week. Betty was in charge of directing the flier. She got a bit confused.

Mom: I was not confused. You were confused when you told me.

Louise: I didn't realize there was a mix-up until I saw the flier in the elevator yesterday.

Mom: Now I look like a fool.

Louise: Now Betty, you do not. It was a mistake anyone could have made.

Mom: You should have realized something was wrong when I told you that was Deven's favorite story when she was a child.

Louise: I might have if Deven wasn't such an unusual girl. I could see how "Dirty Harry" might have been her favorite story as a kid.

Me: Are you talking about "Harry the Dirty Dog"? I did love that book.

Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus”: Can rugby heal a nation?

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:16:00 +0000

Even though it's based on real events, there are moments in Clint Eastwood's "Invictus" that seem as artificial as the thatch of bright dyed-blond hair on Matt Damon's head. Damon's character here is Francois Pienaar, the captain of the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, which made a historic leap for its country when it won the World Cup in 1995. In our first glimpse of him, he's a bulked-up lug of a guy taking up real estate on his mother's living-room couch, accepting the super-nutritious power shake she's concocted for him. With his button nose and beefy build, he looks as if he's auditioning for the title of World's Oldest Teenager.

Francois will be instrumental in a plan hatched by then-recently elected President Nelson Mandela, played here by the aggressively noble Morgan Freeman. The country's black population -- the majority -- hates the nearly all-white Springboks, seeing them as a relic of apartheid; they attend Springbok matches, but they all too happily cheer for the opposing team. The country's National Sports Council is even making moves to abolish the team, but Mandela intervenes. Wouldn't it be more unifying, he wonders, to make all the people of his country, black and white, love the Springboks? And so he woos Francois, drawing him into a Springbok image makeover that includes sending the team into townships to play ball with the impoverished black kids who live there.