Posted on 09/02/2012 2:24:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Clint Eastwood got one thing right during his senior moment at the Republican convention: Hollywood isnt all liberal. The first time Clint gained serious press attention in national politics was 1972, when he was invited by President Richard Nixon to attend his nominating convention in Miami. Nixon was a movie buff who understood the power of Hollywood. In 72, he wanted to use specific celebrity endorsements to shape the way that the public understood him. He wanted Democrats like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr to show that he was a centrist and he wanted Old Hollywood to evoke nostalgia for a happier, more traditional age. When Nixon held a meet-and-greet for actors at his West coast mansion, one guest called it a cocktail party at the Hollywood wax museum.
Commentators at the time were sniffy about Nixons Hollywood strategy precisely because its choice of symbols seemed so passé. The 1970s are remembered for experimental liberal film making Apocalypse Now, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, All The Presidents Men etc. The hot talent of the time was Left-leaning, even hippie Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Warren Beatty. But Nixon understood that movie politics is just as diverse as its many genres. Individual movies can be interpreted in multiple ways. The Godfather was meant as an attack on hyper-masculinity and even a parody of Nixon, but it became part of a revival of white ethnic nostalgia. It could be argued that the Corleone familys patriarchy offers a seductive alternative to bureaucratic welfarism.
Moreover, different people watch different sorts of movies. The early 1970s might be best remembered by historians for the radical current in Hollywood, but audiences also flocked to see movies that protested 1960s liberalism.....
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Then more personal snipping from another unhappy liberal commentator.....
Clint Eastwood: Good, Bad & Ugly - Hey, at least Sondra Locke didn't show up ..........."Eastwood's own personal character arc is revelatory, and morally significant. He has morphed from nameless killer to persecuted urban warrior to elder statesman imparting an implicit message of peace, all in one lifetime.
The question now is, Who did the RNC minders think they were getting? The good, the badass, or the ugly?
Unwise ideas aside -- and, too, shades of Charlton Heston -- Clint Eastwood's appearance only serves to wonder how many shots they've got left.".............
Clint was apparently directly over the target.
;]
I didn’t read that article as a whine, more like a relatively impartial analysis by an historian. BTW, the Telegraph (or ‘Torygraph’ as its sometimes known in Britain) is very much a conservative newspaper...
Agreed.
Well at least America fears decline and at least the Conservatives wish to avoid it as opposed to Britain that for all intents and purposes has embraced its decline making it an export industry.
Yes, apparently so. The New York Times hasn't stopped sniffing and sniveling since the speech. Herewith their Saturday snivel-sniff:
http://tinyurl.com/8nvxoaps
Friday Mark Halperin of TIME magazine (yes, that's "Mark-Son-of-Traitor-Mort", as in Halperin) delivered a crack on PBS's convention coverage (and repeated it on Charlie Rose an hour or so later) about Clint's empty-chair gig being "a Bayonne dinner-club routine". Snippy-snippy-snit-snit! Pissed Mark off, old Clint did. Guuuuuuud!
He fulfilled a similar function in 2012, when he even repeated his famous Go ahead, make my day catchphrase delivered in 1971 when he was about to finish off some punk kid with a blast from his Smith & Wesson. In 2012, the bravado fell a little flat. Clint is 82 and probably as blind as a bat. Hes more likely to shoot himself than a bank robber.
Well, let's look at the "bank robber punk" clip [3:58].
Bump!
Meant to acknowledge Salamander's post. Sorry about the #9 confusion (getting old like Clint).
I read that as more of an attempt at humour. One which, ironically enough, fell a little flat...
Clint Eastwood is a global icon.
He has more personal stature than any of his detractors could even hope to accumulate in 3 lifetimes.
Let’s ask him if he cares.
:)
What people don’t realize is that Clint is a very quiet and private man.
He does not ‘do interviews’.
He does not run around on talk shows gabbing and pimping his movies.
He’s actually quite reticent.
To see him show up at the RNC nearly floored me.
Normally, he keeps his thoughts close to the vest and if he’s suddenly decided to come onto a global stage and warn us of the danger of our current POTUS, this is HUGE.
I’ll bet Hollyweird [and all the rest of the liberal scourges] “got it” and that’s why their knickers are in a wad.
When a habitually silent man suddenly shouts, people listen.
Maybe the kibitzers would have taken more kindly to Clint's performance if he had used an elaborate
stage set equiped with false Greek Columns; one that presented him in a more god-like fashion.
What senior moment? Ruined the whole thing. I wouldn't read it after that!
Yes! They do.
I guess now’s the time to admit that I’ve been an avid Eastwood fan for 40+ years, I reckon.
This....is....huge.
Ageism.
Racism.
They have more isms than they can keep track of.
I wonder how many “senior voters” will be offended by the “senile old man” cracks?
The elderly Dems are not only on the death panel lists..they're on the plantation, too.
Ah, yes...pardon the intrusion Jeff Foxworthy...If you have an empty chair around, you probably are a razzist. If you talk to an empty chair...well you get the point.
Neil Diamond talked to a chair and he got inducted into the R&R hall of fame.
:)
[’razzist’? LOL]
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