by Madeleine KandoFirst off, I have to confess that I have always been a Clint Eastwood fan. His spaghetti westerns are my all-time late-night favorites. How can anyone not fall head over heels with his 5'oclock shadow under his broad rimmed cowboy hat? The mix of indifference and concern in his crow-feet lined eyes? His tall frame with a hint of a stoop which makes his masculine body even more attractive? As I was watching my idol deliver his speech at the Republican Convention yesterday, all of this vanished in a puff of smoke. It was replaced with a sense of complete befuddlement.
My first impression was that Eastwood had had one too many before he climbed on the podium. He slurred his words, interrupted himself for no apparent reason and seemed to be talking to someone that only he was able to see. Then, I realized that everything he was doing was rehearsed to a T, albeit not necessarily to the liking of his sponsors. The sole purpose of his speech was to bash Obama. Isn't it wonderful when you bash someone else? You don't have to come up with any ideas or vision of your own, just bash the other guy and the crowd goes mad.
I was hoping to find a rational explanation for why this intelligent, talented, handsome man was speaking on behalf of the biggest idiot this century has produced, and why he had degraded himself to the level of a buffoon.
As Clint Eastwood was 'crying' for the millions of unemployed, as he was bashing Obama for not bringing home our troops, for not closing Guantanamo Bay Prison and for being a lawyer and trying to, oh what sin, weigh both sides of an argument, I kept wondering what had made my hero turn into such an old, bumbling, empty windbag.
At the end of his speech I relished the thought that not only was this former admirer disgusted with his performance, yes it WAS a performance, not a speech, but that he had taken all of the much needed attention away from Romney himself.
Icons of the silver screen should respect their boundaries. This one had been given the opportunity to step away from being a good actor, a good director and had bungled big time. It still amazes me how fame, glory and money can inflate someone's ego to the point where they are only aware of their own importance. God forbid Eastwood should look at the real world, the world outside of Hollywood that most of us live in. Now THAT would make my day. leave comment here
11 comments:
My thoughts exactly. I could forgive Clint his Republicanism if he'd only stay out of politics. He has no more place there than Ronald Reagan did!
You are so right, Ellen. I like your comparison.
Two comments - Do you actually think Romney is "biggest idiot this century has produced" - that is quite uncivil. Mr. Eastwood has expressed his political views for quite a long while - this was a parody of Eastwood characters. I assume that if you condemn Eastwood you also condemn George Clooney and all those actors on the left who entertain for the democrats? Or is this just a bit of not liking the message?
You are almost right. Clint should have simply said: When there is an amateur in the whitehouse not doing his job, you should just LET HIM GO.
It is inconceivable to me that any thinking American would vote for Republican presidential candidate whose party twelve years ago promised to diminish the nation's debt and instead exploded it; promised a vibrant economy and then destroyed it; and promised a smaller government and then enlarged it. And now proposes to organize our government around the themes in two novels written by A Rand. This is madness !! Robert Jones
Jonathan:
I condemn Eastwood for not telling the truth. Here are a few corrections to Eastwood's 'facts:
1) Obama was prevented from closing Guantamo Bay by the Republicans in Congress.
2) NATO and Karzai's government were the ones that put restrictions on the troops' withdrawal date, not Obama.
3) Joe Biden's record includes passing the Violence against Women Act. He is definitely intellectually gifted.
4) President Obama does fly Air Force One, like any other president before him. He also has doubled green energy production during his presidency.
As far as Romney is concerned, I go by his track record as the Governor of Massachusetts. He was one of the least effective governors in the history of my state because he refused to cooperate with the Massachusetts Government.
Calling him an idiot might be disrespectful, but how else do you call someone who is willing to do and say anything, including renouncing the only valuable act of legislation that bears his signature, the Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform Law, aka Romneycare, because it suits his current political agenda? The man has no vision, no principles and does not deserve my respect.
I am not sure what to make of Clint Eastwoods speech. Do you think he was trying to do comedy and failed at it? I am curious to see if the Democrats at this week convention will poke more fun at the this. I am sure that Biden will way something.
Gail
I, too, love him as a director and I certainly liked "Dirty Hairy." I believe Obama was gracious in saying approximately the same thing. Maybe the Democrats, in scheduling Jimmy Carter, will have their own "Eastwood" problem. Carter would not have been my first choice as a speaker.
Scott
Hi Tom and Madeleine,
If I'm not mistaken, the technique used by Eastwood has been used before. I believe it was used by Joseph Goebels, the Minister of Propoganda for Adolph Hitler to promote Nazism or Adolph Hitler.
Goebels used an empty chair technique to conduct a monologue as a debate at a time when Hitler could not get formally elected leaders of Germany to meet with him to debate his propoganda in public.
I don't think the technique was used to encourage a balanced debate.
It was used to reinforce the point of view already held by Romney supporters.
Madeleine said...
Sam: Thank you for that information. According (Goebbels' Place in History), it was not Hitler but Chancellor Heinrich Bruning , so even that idea wasn't Clint's own?
Scott, Clinton's speech at the DNC was in sharp contrast to that of Eastwood's, full of facts and no empty (chair) rhetoric. I loved it.
I’ll put in my two bits worth:
In response to criticism of his performance at the Republican Convention, Eastwood recently added insult to injury by saying that “President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
It now becomes even clearer that Eastwood is losing it (maybe due to old age?). Such a statement borders on lunacy. I have no idea what it means to call Obama a hoax, and even if someone were to convince me that he is one, how does one conclude that he is THE GREATEST one in our history? In sum, meaningless verbiage.
I also want to underline Madeleine’s main point: talent in one area does not make a person competent in another. Eastwood’s trajectory reminds me of Mel Gibson: another talented movie maker with otherwise deeply flawed political views, including anti-Semitism. There are other examples further back in history, e.g. Richard Wagner, who wrote divine music and was at the same time a racist and a proto-Nazi.
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