Go ahead, make my day

Per a request that came in via email, I am going to look at an actor from the 1970s that has helped define the genre of action film in this decade...Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood helped to make horror the acceptable way to do business in many of his films such as Dirty Harry where he plays a homicide detective who deals out his brutal form of justice as he sees fit. He is an antihero in a sense, but we root for his success none the less. We cheer him on in his murderous deeds because he kills "for the greater good," to stop the criminals before they can incur further damage on innocent people.

Many of us have experienced such ethical and moral dilemmas where we want and encourage the Dirty Harry in our lives to step forth and take care of the justice that no one is willing to do. But at what cost do we make this move? Do we lose a bit our our life and faith each time we go to such lengths? Or are we strengthened in our resolve and beliefs? It seems to me that we tread a slippery slope when we deify such action and people. Sure there are times when bold action is needed to help save the world (such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer), but do we need to mindlessly kill all criminals without due process?

It seems as though Eastwood himself struggled with such the violent ethics of Dirty Harry. Writer Garreth Higgins notes Eastwood's transition from movies where violence was strictly the underlying motive of his characters, to the point of his characters (Don't Stop Believin', 73). In 1992's Unforgiven Eastwood is a mercenary cowboy who's soul diminishes each time he kills. In 2003 he directed Mystic River that tells the adage that the sins of the father always continue, but he adds that it does so in horrific and community destroying ways. Higgins further comments on this development, "By this stage, Eastwood was clearly saying that he knew bullets did not stop anything: they merely perpetuated the cycle of violence" (73).

However, Clint Eastwood further atoned for his sinful characters of the past by his direction of Million Dollar Baby, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Gran Torino In each of these films he plumbs the depths of humanity: fear, pride, lust for power, racism, and stubbornness. Eastwood's later films have expressed a sort of regret for his earlier works, but have none the less used violence as a way to teach the world  that violence does not always solve the case as Dirty Harry may have argued.

Which Eastwood resonates with you better, the younger or older?

Taking requests for next week...the 1980s!
-Tom