Posted on 02/22/2005 2:01:25 AM PST by paudio
Clint Eastwood has acknowledged that a plot twist in Million Dollar Baby that raises the issue of euthanasia "does hit you with sort of a left hook," and that when he attempted to raise money to produce the film "nobody seemed enthralled with that." In an interview appearing in the current issue of Time magazine, Eastwood suggested that he was able to keep the plot twist secret because the movie was made "under the radar. Nobody knew we were making it, and nobody gave a damn that we were making it." Eastwood said that he was surprised that it took so long for the matter to become the subject of controversy. Asked about the fact that the attack on the film comes from his "constituency," Eastwood, generally regarded as a Republican conservative, responded, "Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right, you meet the same idiots coming around from the left."
Any Louis L'Amour novel that has been made into a movie is superior to 'The Unforgiven' in our opinion!
(Thought they shouldn't be allowed to imply that Clint was turning on his own)
To oppose the slow-motion, excruciatingly painful murder of an innocent, mentally impaired but otherwise physically healthy person would be "easy", to use Eastwood's word. To oppose a method of "mercy killing" that would have the Left in full riot mode if it was proposed as the method for executing people on death row would be "easy". To oppose an act that makes a bullet to the head seem humane would be "easy". Only extremists would oppose such a thing.
Which appears to show that he intended to push the envelope with this subplot all along.
I liked most of those westerns....(I hope you didnt mean the Sharon Stone Quick and the Dead, which was crap but the Sam Elliot TQATD was pretty good for a made for TV movie)
but in my humble opinion the best 2 westerns in the last 20 years were the 'Unforgiven' (it helps if you like dark films), and Tombstone..."why my dear, your not wearing a bustle....how lewd"
Hey...how about the original Lonesome Dove miniseries...excellent
Explains Pat Buchanan quite nicely. ;)
He's dead, Jim.
It's interesting. I just watched "Space Cowboys" again the other day, and I realized that the same issue is addressed in that film as well. The character who has inoperable cancer volunteers to take a one-way trip into space in order to save the world.
Okay, not quite the same situation. Somebody had to go, and it might as well be the guy who's gonna die slowly and horribly anyway. I haven't seen "Baby", but I'm not hard-line on assisted suicide - yet. I'm not sure what I would do if it were me.
In any event, based on the recurrence of the theme, I wonder if ol' Clint is exploring some internal concerns through his choices in films. I'm not ready to condemn him just because he's putting the question out there.
Now telling a story is "glorification" of something. Thank God you weren't around to stop Sophocles or Aescylus from their "glorifications."
Absolutely true.
Particularly when compared to artistic geniuses like you.
Tombstone was good and the Lonesome Dove movies were also good.
Maybe I will attempt to watch The Unforgiven again. I don't think my opinion of the movie will change because I did not care for the story line and it was the story line that turned us off.
We are fans of the Louis L'Amour novels, excellent westerns are made from them.
Seems Clint has some lingering issues as a result of his battle with the ADA.
Clint Eastwood used to be one of my favorites. Last movie of his that he was in that I saw was "In the Line of Fire" (1993). Last movie of his that he directed that I saw was "The Unforgiven" (1992). The rest of the stuff he made that I really liked was in the 1971-83 range.
He may be a conservative in some ways, but certainly not in moral values. More like a libertine (see his lousy personal record on promiscuity and illegitimate children).
bttt
I don't really care that much about the fact there is that BS in the movie, as much as I hate them trying to 'trick' people into watching that crap.
I swear they get some kind of 'satisfaction' making people watch something they have no interest in watching. For some reason these 'artist' types think that takes GENIUS. Thats why the dumbo critics love it.
Nothing I hate more than bait and switch (espically if it ends up depressing me, to the PURE DELIGHT of the producer/marketer)
I have never been able to sit through Purgatory....I like my westerns, western. I like my Twilight Zones, Twilight Zonie...and never the twain should meet....(my god there is something on the wing!)
That being said, some members of my Cowboy Action Shooting club have written scenerios that were taken from Purgatory and they were pretty funny .....
True conservatives have never been anti-gun, I could live with reformed conservative, but never TRUE. If you are not aware Charleton in his former self was a prime mover in the passage of some very serious and still in place anti-gun legislation. I beleive it was the 1968 gun bill, a bad bill and forerunner of a lot more anti-gun legislation. The 1968 bill opened the door and the rest is history until the sunset of the POS so-called assault weapons ban, which is still a ban in places like mexifornia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.