[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

perfect by any means, but ultimately a story of occasional awkward truths.
 Honky Tonk Man is one of those well-intentioned efforts that doesn t
quite work. It seems that Clint Eastwood took great pains in telling his
story of an aging, struggling country and western singer but he is done in
by the predictability of the script and his own limitations as a warbler,
carped Variety.
Sadly, most of the reviews echoed what Joseph Glemis would write in
Newsday:  Clint looks the classic country western singer in dark suit, string
tie, boots, and ten gallon hat. It would be a great pleasure to report that his
courage pays off. But the scenario s ultimate ambition is kitschy bathos, to
make you weep in your popcorn . . . the mild humor of Honky Tonk Man
devolves into the gross sentimentality of a Clint Eastwood Camille, stated
Glemis with caustic charm.
The film admittedly was a tough sell, and whether it was because audi-
ences would not accept Eastwood in the role of a dying country and western
singer has become moot. His skills as an actor through the nineties and
beyond display an actor willing to challenge himself, growing as an artist
and making a very personal work that mattered to him. Most directors are
celebrated for that sort of courage. Eastwood had not yet reached that
plateau in his career.
If Eastwood was the least bit stung by the critical attacks on his attempt
to grow as an artist, the fact that critics in France compared the film to The
Grapes of Wrath (1940) must have eased that sting.
The words of the great Norman Mailer would have eased Eastwood s
pain:  The steely compassion that is back of all the best country singing . . .
and the harsh, yearning underbelly of America . . . making out with next to
nothing but hard concerns and the spark of a dream that will never give up.
 A subtle man, Mailer wrote of Red Stovall,  brought to life with minimal
strokes, a complex protagonist full of memories of old cunning deeds and
weary sham. It was one of the saddest movies seen in a long time, yet on reflec-
tion, terrific. One felt a tenderness for America while looking at it.
Mailer, more than any film critic of the time, understood exactly what
Eastwood was trying to do and say with Honky Tonk Man, something he
celebrated in his own art form.
10
Sudden Impact (1983)
Ah . . . I know what you re thinking . . . did he fire six shots or five? . . . Well to tell
you the truth in all this excitement I ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a
.44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and will blow your head
clean off, you gotta ask yourself . . . Do I feel lucky? Well, do you . . . punk?
 Detective Harry Callahan (Eastwood) in Dirty Harry
Go ahead . . . make my day . . .
 Detective Harry Callahan (Eastwood) in Sudden Impact
With that first speech, as the cliché states, a star was born, who then became
an icon. The second piece of dialogue became a part of pop culture and was
repeated by President Ronald Reagan, though certainly not within the same
context. Eastwood claims that the moment he read the line, he knew it
would become synonymous with the film.
His first monologue is said over a man wounded in Harry s attempt to
break up a bank robbery. Eastwood and the character he was portraying
became an instant part of American pop culture; and the actor found a role
that suited him as perfectly as a form-fitting shirt. Becoming one of the major
stars working in Hollywood was a transforming moment for Eastwood. He
gained more power than he ever thought imaginable, and he knew even then
that he would use this power to further his career as a director.
As John Wayne is Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956), and Harrison
Ford is Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Clint Eastwood is
forever Dirty Harry Callahan.
The role of Harry Callahan now identified with Eastwood and only
Eastwood was not initially even offered to him until Paul Newman turned
the part down because of his political convictions. Stating that he had none,
Eastwood read the script and saw immediately what Newman was concerned
about, and he demanded rewrites of the work. The original screenplay
seemed to challenge, if not take away, the constitutional rights of criminals,
something Newman had found repulsive. Eastwood was not quite as
54 Clint Eastwood
appalled, and suggested with some effort they could flesh out a fine story
within the work. However, movies being what they are green lights being
difficult to obtain, and projects coming and going Eastwood became busy
with other work, and the project fell away from him, eventually going to
Frank Sinatra, who was formally signed as Harry. An injury prevented Sinatra
from shooting the role, and Eastwood, now with a window of time, stepped
in. The screenplay, having been finally overhauled, loosely based the killer,
Scorpio, on the Zodiac killer, who had terrorized the San Francisco area
since the late sixties.
The now famous story sees Harry on the hunt for a dangerous, psychotic
killer who kills at will, demands money for him to stop killing, kidnaps a
child, and admits sexually assaulting her. Scorpio (Andy Robinson) was the
sort of Hollywood bad guy the audience wanted to see killed in the worst
possible way. Yet the twist here was that the character was very smart and
always seemed to be one step ahead of Eastwood s character. However,
Harry finally catches him and kills him to the cheers of audience members,
repeating the speech he had made over the bank robber at the beginning of
the film, though this time with barely concealed rage.
At a time when the New American Cinema was emerging with profoundly
strong works of art, such as A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Last Picture Show
(1971), Klute (1971), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), and the Academy
Award winning cop thriller The French Connection (1971), Dirty Harry
(1971) seemed an odd choice as the year s top moneymaking film; yet it was
just that. It struck a chord with audiences and brought them a character they
felt an instant rapport with, someone they could identify with and someone
who offered them a sense of justice as they sat there in the dark. Ironically, what
Dirty Harry shared with The French Connection was the lead character being a
rogue cop who played by his own rules, almost a vigilante in many ways, and
who was consistently at odds with his supervisors but committed to upholding
the law, even if it meant breaking the law. Made with an almost documentary-
style realism, The French Connection was new cinema, something previously
unseen in its honest and startlingly authentic portrayal of police work, namely
narcotics investigation. Gene Hackman s gritty, Academy Award winning per-
formance as Popeye Doyle was light-years removed from Eastwood s Harry
Callahan, yet oddly enough they shared the same code. Dirty Harry was not
realism, and everyone involved with the film knew that; the film was first and
foremost an entertainment piece. At the outset how could anyone have known
what the impact of this tough character would be?
Eastwood became the most popular actor on the planet, surpassing John
Wayne who was now in the twilight of his career as world-box-office king.
This popularity led to some snipes from various critics, such as Pauline Kael,
who had always held Eastwood s acting ability in contempt.
The box office success of Dirty Harry could not be denied, and in the sev-
enties with box office success came the inevitable sequel. Magnum Force
Sudden Impact (1983) 55
(1974) was written by no less than future Oscar winner Michael Cimino, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

forum-gsm.htw.pl