Clint was interviewed over at Esquire in November. Here are some highlights:
We live in more of a pussy generation now, where everybody's become used to saying, "Well, how do we handle it psychologically?" In those days, you just punched the bully back and duked it out. Even if the guy was older and could push you around, at least you were respected for fighting back, and you'd be left alone from then on.
You wonder sometimes. What will we do if something really big happens? Look how fast -- seven years -- people have been able to forget 9/11. Maybe you remember if you lost a relative or a loved one. But the public can get pretty blasé about stuff like that. Nobody got blasé about Pearl Harbor.
My father died very suddenly at sixty-three. Just dropped dead. For a long time afterward, I'd ask myself, Why didn't I ask him to play golf more? Why didn't I spend more time with him? But when you're off trying to get the brass ring, you forget and overlook those little things. It gives you a certain amount of regret later on, but there's nothing you can do about it. So you just forge on.
Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time. That's the secret to life, really -- never stop learning. It's the secret to career. I'm still working because I learn something new all the time. It's the secret to relationships. Never think you've got it all.
Eastwood was my dad's favorite actor. When he was stationed in Japan in the late 60s he watched "The Good, the Bad, and Ugly" ten times or more at the base cinema. He always thought it was the best movie ever made. It was the first movie I bought him when he got a DVD player.
2 comments:
I watched plenty of Eastwood as a kid. I remember seeing the monkey movies in the theater and Coogan's Bluff, Escape From Alcatraz, The Gauntlet and Play Misty For Me on TV, among others.
I loved the Dirty Harry movies and took a girl named Shelly to Sudden Impact in 1983. She put her hand on my leg during an intense moment and I didn't notice until later and then was confused about how long it had been there and what I should do about it. I chose to ignore it so I wouldn't be distracted and she left it there, awkwardly, until the credits.
My dad treated us all to City Heat and Tightrope. Later, I was invited by E and Mom to go to The Dead Pool, and I can't remember why I chose to skip it, but I've still never seen it. I do recall seeing Heartbreak Ridge with E and Steve.
When I began working for Blockbuster and was given free rental privileges, I spent my first weekend watching the Man With No Name trilogy. I thought A Fistful of Dollars was good, but For A Few Dollars More was even better, though less famous. Neither prepared me for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which was insanely great.
My first Eastwood film with Tom was White Hunter, Black Heart and then we had a transcendent experience together with Unforgiven in the theater.
The first film I went to after moving to Orlando was In the Line of Fire, which I had already seen in Pensacola with Tom. While dating Marci, I watched and enjoyed A Perfect World. I saw Bridges of Madison County with Marci in the theater and was moved to tears when Meryl was groping for the door handle in the car, as she contemplated running away with Eastwood.
Tom and I may have seen True Crime together before I moved to LA. And of course, the most recent film I've paid to see is Gran Torino.
Back in 1988 or thereabouts, I remember a poker game in which we discussed which male and female stars we would most like to meet. I went with Winona Ryder, because she might like me, and Clint Eastwood, same reason.
I was talking with one of my colleagues after the Inaugural our new foreign policy of "love and light" and all anger melting away, and bunnies. He quoted Obama talking tough about how we will outlast our enemies and defeat them. It was a good day for our enemies, who dismiss empty rhetoric and respect strength. "Missile attacks will break our backs, but words will never hurt us."
Re: Clint, your lists of films demonstrates his range and that he never had stopped learning. There are some great ones on your lists. I just saw Gran Torino. The theater was full of men, and we laughed in approval of tough talking Clint. It's a matter of perspective whether America's moral superiority means beating down the bad guys or turning the other cheek. I can see where both are right. It's the consequences I worry about.
Dude, good comments on Obama. I do hope he succeeds, but success in my view will mean not doing a lot of things he said he would do. I hope, like you, that now he will be his own man, and that I will like and respect this man.
Don't know what it might mean that my Word Verification upon posting this comment is "fooker."
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