Salon.com > Clint Eastwood http://www.salon.com Thu, 20 Jun 2013 04:25:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Clint Eastwood on “invisible Obama”: “You know, I’m an odd person” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/clint_eastwood_on_invisible_obama_you_know_im_an_odd_person/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/clint_eastwood_on_invisible_obama_you_know_im_an_odd_person/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:27:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13195171 Clint Eastwood doesn't care if you think he's odd because of his "invisible Obama" routine at the 2012 Republican National Convention. "Seemed odd at the time. But, you know, I'm an odd person," he said.

In an interview with CNBC, Eastwood spoke about the attention surrounding his speech, in which he addressed a chair with an invisible President Obama. "One thing about getting into the senior status of life, like I am, you don't really care," he joked. "You just say what you say and then you get away with it."

Watch:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/clint_eastwood_on_invisible_obama_you_know_im_an_odd_person/feed/ 13 Clint Eastwood’s new Romney ad http://www.salon.com/2012/10/24/clint_eastwoods_new_romney_ad/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/24/clint_eastwoods_new_romney_ad/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13050970 Although actor Clint Eastwood's political involvement will forever be epitomized by his speech to a chair representing President Obama, Karl Rove's super PAC has called upon the Hollywood veteran to narrate a commercial that supports candidate Mitt Romney. (Of course, it's much harder to veer off track in a taped, scripted commercial.) The commercial will air in the swing states of Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada and Virginia.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/24/clint_eastwoods_new_romney_ad/feed/ 7 Is Ben Affleck one of this generation’s greatest filmmakers? http://www.salon.com/2012/10/12/is_ben_affleck_the_next_clint_eastwood/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/12/is_ben_affleck_the_next_clint_eastwood/#comments Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:06:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13038221 Film archives are littered with movies about real movies — "Shadow of the Vampire," about the making of "Nosferatu"; "My Week With Marilyn," about "The Prince and the Showgirl." And there are those about the making of fake movies: Fellini’s "8½," Truffaut’s "Day for Night."  Ben Affleck’s "Argo" must be some kind of first: a movie about a real fake movie. Considering that the material on which "Argo" is based was declassified in 1997, it’s amazing that the story didn't inspire a movie much sooner.

It’s historical,  as I’m sure you know by now. It details how six American hostages were whisked out of Iran after the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979. It’s political, offering a fair and incisive account of how both the American CIA and the Iranian rebels contributed to the crisis. And it reintroduces suspense as the primary element in a thriller.

After directing two fine films that were top-heavy with violence, “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town,” Affleck has now made a movie almost devoid of violence but long on suspense. The biggest surprise of all: “Argo” is hip. It keeps getting the audience to hold its collective breath only to let it out laughing.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/12/is_ben_affleck_the_next_clint_eastwood/feed/ 32 The right’s pop-culture problem http://www.salon.com/2012/09/30/the_rights_pop_culture_problem/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/30/the_rights_pop_culture_problem/#comments Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13025317 As the anti-union inspirational drama “Won’t Back Down,” Dinesh D’Souza’s deeply crazy Obama conspiracy-theory documentary “2016” and the Clint Eastwood fiasco at the Republican National Convention suggest, conservatives have a problem with pop culture. They don’t much like it or trust it, and the feeling is mutual; every time the two try to dance, the results are embarrassing to all. This becomes painfully clear every time a Republican candidate holds a fundraiser in Hollywood, which has of course been a bottomless source of money for Barack Obama and every other significant Democrat on the national stage, going back at least as far as Adlai Stevenson.

Last weekend Mitt Romney’s campaign held just such an event in Beverly Hills, and most of the names on the guest list were downright depressing: A few aging producers like action-movie impresario Jerry Bruckheimer and 1970s game-show pioneer Burt Sugarman; a few showbiz relics like Pat Boone and Connie Stevens. Almost the only contemporary and recognizable figures were Patricia Heaton (you know! Debra from “Everybody Loves Raymond”!) and “CSI: NY” star Gary Sinise, quite likely the only Republican who has ever directed a Sam Shepard play. Indeed, Sinise is so beloved by the lonely cadre of culturally savvy right-wingers – they do exist! – that former George W. Bush and John McCain aide Nicolle Wallace floated a rumor in 2009 that he might run for president. (Given the way things look for Romney right now, I bet a lot of Republicans would love to go back in time and work a little harder on that.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/30/the_rights_pop_culture_problem/feed/ 78 After the chair: Clint Eastwood’s tormented legacy http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/after_the_chair_clint_eastwoods_tormented_legacy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/after_the_chair_clint_eastwoods_tormented_legacy/#comments Sat, 22 Sep 2012 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13018823 Sure, I wish Clint Eastwood had not recently revealed himself to be a grumpy old guy who talks to furniture, on behalf of not just a doomed presidential candidate or a right-wing presidential candidate – because neither of those things is a huge surprise -- but a third-rate doomed right-wing presidential candidate. But I wish lots of other things too. I wish that baseball, the so-called national pastime and the subject of Eastwood’s awful but fascinating new movie “Trouble With the Curve,” hadn’t become a niche entertainment for suburban white people with bad clothes and worse politics. I wish that the guy most of us Eastwood-mockers are likely to vote for would stop randomly nuking civilians in the Third World, and that American politicians could ever, even once, have an honest public conversation about our screwed-up relationship with Israel. I wish that American liberals had better sense than to be smitten with Bill Clinton all over again, like the girl with the black eye who feels sure that her boozy, good-looking boyfriend has turned over a new leaf this time.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/after_the_chair_clint_eastwoods_tormented_legacy/feed/ 77 Blame Fox News, not Mitt http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/blame_fox_not_mitt/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/blame_fox_not_mitt/#comments Sat, 22 Sep 2012 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13018769 I’m still more hesitant to accept the post-convention polling than almost anyone, but suppose that Barack Obama has in fact pulled out to a solid three- or four-point lead over Mitt Romney. Is it because of the Romney campaign's mistakes? We’ve certainly seen several: a generally lackluster convention capped off by the Clint Eastwood moment (great TV, but almost certainly a wasted moment as far as electioneering goes), a reaction to events in the Middle East that was widely panned, and the “47 percent” tape.

Greg Sargent makes the excellent point this week that part of what’s happening is that Obama has pulled even or ahead with Romney on the question of who would do a better job on the economy, partly because a lot of people still blame George W. Bush for creating these economic problems but also because a lot of people are newly optimistic about the current economy.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/22/blame_fox_not_mitt/feed/ 179 Biden’s DNC speech got the highest ratings http://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/bidens_dnc_speech_got_the_highest_ratings/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/bidens_dnc_speech_got_the_highest_ratings/#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:28:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13017959 Perhaps anticipating a speech chock-full of gaffes, 43.6 million people tuned in to see Joe Biden's speech at the Democratic National Convention, making his the most-watched speech of both conventions.

According to Nielsen, 14.7 percent of Americans watched Biden's speech, compared with 13.7 who watched Obama's, and 12.5 percent who watched Romney's.

Bill Clinton was the next highest with 10.9 percent, and Clint Eastwood was down at No. 6 with 9.9 percent.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/bidens_dnc_speech_got_the_highest_ratings/feed/ 5 Obama chair lynchings in Texas and Virginia http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/invisible_obama_chair_lynchings/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/invisible_obama_chair_lynchings/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13017026 Two people may have single-handedly set back civil liberties by nearly 100 years by hanging Obama effigies in their yards. The chairs, on display at two Centreville, Va., and Austin, Texas, homes, are a reference to Clint Eastwood's chair speech, and conjure memories of mob lynchings once common in the South. Technically, it's a free country, and it's their right, but the symbolism behind the actions of just a few is disturbing for the rest of America.

Burnt Orange reports that when one woman complained to the Texas homeowner, he said, "I don't really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don't give a shit. If you don't like it, don't come down my street." The man has since added an American flag to the chair.

UPDATE: KEYE TV in Austin has uploaded a reluctant interview with the Texas home owner, who took down the chair and moved it because, "Does anybody else that's got a chair sitting out receiving the same harassment that you guys are giving?"

 

H/T Gawker

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/invisible_obama_chair_lynchings/feed/ 190 Eastwood explains why he spoke to the chair http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/eastwood_explains_why_he_spoke_to_the_chair/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/eastwood_explains_why_he_spoke_to_the_chair/#comments Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:18:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13004399 Clint Eastwood has finally spoken out about his memorable RNC speech. His take: "Mission accomplished."

“I had three points I wanted to make,” Eastwood told the Carmel Pine Cone, a paper from the city where he once served as mayor. “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/eastwood_explains_why_he_spoke_to_the_chair/feed/ 24 Viewers preferred Eastwood to Romney http://www.salon.com/2012/09/05/viewers_preferred_eastwood_to_romney/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/05/viewers_preferred_eastwood_to_romney/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 18:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13001787 According to a Pew Research survey,  RNC watchers were not very impressed by Romney's speech. Or, at least, not nearly as impressed  as they were by Clint Eastwood's. Of those asked, 20 percent said Eastwood's speech was the highlight, compared with 17 percent who preferred Romney's. Another 20 percent said there was no highlight.

Mitt did slightly better among Republicans, with 25 percent saying that his speech was the highlight compared to Eastwood's 19 percent.

Only 2 percent of overall viewers thought Chris Christie was the best part but they probably didn't ask him.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/05/viewers_preferred_eastwood_to_romney/feed/ 2 Poor Donald Trump! http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/poor_donald_trump/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/poor_donald_trump/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:03:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12998788 Donald Trump, a television character in a 1980s-era satirical dystopian future SciFi movie, was supposed to have a big "surprise" on Monday at this week's RNC, which he wasn't invited to (he says otherwise but he is delusional), but then the Republicans were "forced" to cancel because of Hurricane Isaac. And they didn't reschedule it.

What they did make time for at the convention included a song by the guy your grandma liked on "American Idol" a few years back, a speech by former Hooters promoter Connie Mack and an old man yelling at a chair.

The old man yelling at the chair was, of course, legendary American actor and director Clint Eastwood, who was invited because I think the organizers assumed he wasn't as crazy as every single other Republican celebrity, but then he went and did the craziest thing of the week. (I don't think Eastwood is crazy, actually. He's just ... eccentric.)

That had to be particularly galling, for Donald. This totally unvetted rambling piece of absurdist theater got prime billing right before the nominee, but the dumb video he made was just ignored completely.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/poor_donald_trump/feed/ 68 Eastwood’s imaginary friend http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/eastwoods_imaginary_friends/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/eastwoods_imaginary_friends/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12998217 Is this really happening, and did the president just answer meme for meme? Questions I asked myself last night while feeling bad about making fun of Clint Eastwood arguing with a chair, because Clint Eastwood reminds me of my grandfather, another crusty old Republican who loved westerns and believed he was surrounded by idiots 99 percent of the time. Would you let your grandpa get on TV and yell at a chair? And yet, perhaps this bizarre, ill-rehearsed moment was a stroke of staging genius. Did Eastwood actually see someone in that chair? Some shadow companion, perhaps, who appears as a result of trauma and slowly becomes a private antagonist that could only be defeated by a grand gesture? There is precedent.

The Donnie Darko Explanation

The president appears to Eastwood yesterday as a monstrous, soft-spoken bunny. He lures Clint out onto the streets of Tampa (“closer, closer”) and tells him the world will end in 28 days, six hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. With nothing to lose, Clint lets the president lead him to the RNC stage, and now Clint will spend the next month committing increasingly desperate acts before ending it all in an epic confrontation with a guy in a rabbit suit (college football season is upon us, mascots beware).

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/eastwoods_imaginary_friends/feed/ 54 Must-see morning clip http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/must_see_morning_clip_21/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/must_see_morning_clip_21/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12998111 Last night, "The Daily Show" mocked Romney and Ryan for not acknowledging how much they've benefited from public infrastructure and private enterprise. It could be an amazing documentary: "Mitt Romney: A Human Being Who Built That."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/must_see_morning_clip_21/feed/ 2 Jan Brewer loves Clint Eastwood http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/jan_brewer_loves_clint_eastwood/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/jan_brewer_loves_clint_eastwood/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 05:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12997844 TAMPA -- “He said it the way only Clint Eastwood could,” said Dough Hutt, a construction business owner from New Jersey in one of the truest statements of the evening. The actor’s speech at the Republican National Convention, if it can be called that, drew loud cheers from the crowd, along with a mix of fervent approval and befuddlement from delegates and politicians who lingered on the floor after the night's events finished.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was sold. “I thought it was terrific! He said all the right things, standing up there and talking to Mr. Obama and he wasn’t listening!” Mark Sanford, the former governor of South Carolina who recently married his Argentine girlfriend, said flatly of Eastwood, "I thought that was fun."

Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- who asked if Salon was a “beauty shack” -- said, “I also like Clint Eastwood, that was nice of him to come down. A great actor, a great American, and I like the 'make my day.'” Arpaio said he liked Eastwood’s unusual format as it helped him “come around to meet the people.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/jan_brewer_loves_clint_eastwood/feed/ 21 Clint to chair: Get out of Afghanistan! http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/clint_eastwood_tells_chair_to_get_out_of_afghanistan/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/clint_eastwood_tells_chair_to_get_out_of_afghanistan/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:01:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12997756 You really cannot overstate how bizarre this was: Political conventions are not supposed to have weird, unscripted moments onstage, especially on the final night shortly before the nominee's speech. You generally don't let old men -- old men with no real experience addressing national TV audiences -- show up, onstage, and do ... whatever they want.

Clint Eastwood -- a fine American actor and director -- went onstage and argued with a chair. For what felt like an hour. He also trashed lawyers, for some reason, and said something nice about Jon Voight and also he pretended the invisible president told Mitt Romney to "go fuck yourself."

I think convention organizers thought they'd get the serious, somber Eastwood of his recent films, and not ... the comedy stylings of Dirty Harry. (Romney aides apparently did a bit of wincing.)

Before Eastwood we were repeatedly introduced to Mitt Romney, who’s been absent, rhetorically, for most of the rest of the convention. This was a weird show by any standard: Taylor Hicks, Olympians, a parade of D-list pols and non-politicians no one’s ever heard of. The point was both to humanize Romney and to make sure none of the presenters would outshine him, as any number of the previous few days' speakers would have. Eastwood ruined that.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/clint_eastwood_tells_chair_to_get_out_of_afghanistan/feed/ 59 Clint Eastwood steals the RNC http://www.salon.com/2012/08/30/clint_eastwood_steals_the_rnc/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/30/clint_eastwood_steals_the_rnc/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2012 05:23:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12997791 When it leaked earlier today that Clint Eastwood would be the “surprise” guest at the Republican National Convention, it seemed predictable that a bunch of white people in patriotic hats would shortly be chanting “Make my day” on national television.  This cacophonous “Make my day” did, in fact, come to pass, but only after the 82-year-old Eastwood babbled, went blue and inadvertently insulted Mitt Romney, the guy he was allegedly there to support, all while speaking to an empty chair occupied by an imaginary Obama. Look, it is not every night that a national political convention transforms itself into a surrealist farce after being hijacked by a madcap octogenarian, but tonight it happened, and we have Clint Eastwood to thank for that. Once an entertainer, always an entertainer, right?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/30/clint_eastwood_steals_the_rnc/feed/ 24 When geniuses bomb http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/when_geniuses_bomb/ http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/when_geniuses_bomb/#comments Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12936306 Since when did “passion project” become such a dirty phrase?

When Andrew Stanton’s magnum opus "John Carter" was released just two short months ago, you’d think he had committed some kind of original sin. Just about every article or review dwelled on the fact that either A.) the film was going to lose a massive amount of money, or. B.) Disney was insane to entrust a massive studio blockbuster to some naïve “artist."

Talk about self-unfulfilling prophecy.

The history of Hollywood is littered with artists going one Bridge Too Far, a distinguished field of creative carnage that began with D.W. Griffiths’ "Intolerance." The story is simple. Having gathered their chips through some mega-success, deranged creative types bet their stack on a personal epic. "Jaws" begets "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," a win, and then, Steven Spielberg craps out on "1941." "The Godfather" gets topped by a sequel, but soon "Apocalypse Now" comes staggering from the jungle. Francis Ford Coppola was lucky enough to make it out of that casino, but then, had to return to Vegas for "One From The Heart," the opening act of the slow-motion dissolution of his career. And of course, there is Billy Wilder’s corrosive masterpiece, "Ace in the Hole," a cynical treasure that cost him most of the goodwill he had earned from the previous 10 years of commercial success. We won’t mention "Heaven's Gate," as that is too damn easy. But, I will say, deep inside Michael Cimino’s deranged epic there is something mesmerizing. It deserves to be taken on its own terms as an deranged vision, clearly made – if not made clearly -- by some kind of cinematic idiot savant.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/when_geniuses_bomb/feed/ 28 Karl Rove’s hissy fit: “Offended” by Chrysler ad http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/karl_roves_hissy_fit_offended_by_chrysler_ad/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/karl_roves_hissy_fit_offended_by_chrysler_ad/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12309921 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."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/karl_roves_hissy_fit_offended_by_chrysler_ad/feed/ 179 Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl Obama endorsement http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/clint_eastwoods_super_bowl_obama_endorsement/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/clint_eastwoods_super_bowl_obama_endorsement/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:25:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12307081 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!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/clint_eastwoods_super_bowl_obama_endorsement/feed/ 127 “J. Edgar”: Clint Eastwood’s lame and insulting Hoover biopic http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/j_edgar_clint_eastwoods_lame_and_insulting_hoover_biopic/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/j_edgar_clint_eastwoods_lame_and_insulting_hoover_biopic/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10179686 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.

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