' ' Cinema Romantico: Clint Eastwood Has Earned The Right To Be Cut Slack

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Clint Eastwood Has Earned The Right To Be Cut Slack


Richard Burton once said of his twice-wife Elizabeth Taylor: “At her finest she’s incomparable.” He was speaking of Taylor’s acting ability but he may as well have been talking about HER – the movie star, the person, the woman. Although, in fact, I disagree slightly with his statement. At her finest she was incomparable, sure, but at her worst? She was still incomparable.

Do you remember the 2001 Golden Globes when she took the stage to announce Best Dramatic Picture and went on and on to the point where she nearly gave away the winner of the award without actually announcing the nominees and Dick Clark had to swoop in to her rescue? It appeared she had imbibed one too many adult beverages from the Hollywood Foreign Press Open Bar, or maybe she was just generally loopy, but, of course, in the end, none of it mattered. By that point she had earned the right to march onstage and do whatever she damn pleased. If she wanted to open the envelope and read the winner without re-reciting the nominees, she damn well should have been allowed to do so. She’d been through it all, baby. She was mother courage. If she’d been on that stage with the Real Cleopatra, the Real Cleopatra would have sensed her own unworthiness and demurred.

You might have heard Clint Eastwood had a bit of an off night at the Republican National Convention. I didn’t see it live but Mr. Eastwood took to the stage to have a chat with an empty chair holding an imaginary Barack Obama. Well, not so much a chat as a rambling one-sided scolding of our current Commander and Chief which apparently made more people wince more frequently and painfully than a Mitt Romney playlist (rim shot!). To be sure, the whole ordeal is peculiar, and even more peculiar is Clint’s hair which makes him look like he’s been out at a wind farm all afternoon and then growled at the RNC-mandated stylist when she tried to lend an assist. He was endlessly mocked via the world’s foremost mockery tool – Twitter – and his performance apparently left political pundits figuratively speechless.

Was Clint taking a stab at Gestalt Therapy on a national stage? Did he brazenly decide to go off script? Was he secretly employed by Obama to undermine Romney? Was he just generally loopy? The way I see it, none of that really matters. By this point he's earned the right to march onstage and do whatever he damn pleases. No? Allow me to ask a simple question.

Did YOU make “Million Dollar Baby”?

Ah. I thought you didn’t. He, however, did. And so I don’t give a Presidential Flag Lapel Pin whether he’s a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or member of the Flat Earth Society – if he wants to talk to an empty chair for ten minutes, he can talk to an empty chair for ten minutes. Mocking him on Twitter’s easy. Mock him to his face, why don’t you?

Don’t think he can’t still take that empty chair and break it over your head.

4 comments:

Andrew K. said...

Quotable quotes for the win
If she’d been on that stage with the Real Cleopatra, the Real Cleopatra would have sensed her own unworthiness and demurred." Just me guffawing in the corner here.

That said, as a non-American I am, of course, somewhat removed from American politics even if I do love Hillary Clinton. But, I don't have a gross hatred of either political party and I didn't watch the speech because I'm not politically inclined and if I'm watching it just to rubberneck...I think I shouldn't. I'm not a zealous fan of Eastwood, but I'll demure to you - maybe he does need to be cut some slack. And even if he doesn't, twitter can get a bit annoying in that respect with the cyclical jokes.

Nick Prigge said...

I will admit I was mostly just being contrarian with this piece. I mean, it seemed like everyone was going after him and, well, when Million Dollar Baby is your 2nd favorite film ever, you have to stand up and defend the guy. Political leanings aside.

Anonymous said...

"...even more peculiar is Clint’s hair which makes him look like he’s been out at a wind farm all afternoon and then growled at the RNC-mandated stylist when she tried to lend an assist." LOL!! I could just picture him growling! My friend just said the same thing the other day, the guy is 82 years old and he's done all these great things, I think he's entitled to blabber on once in a while, ahah.

Derek Armstrong said...

But he wouldn't have been there at all if he weren't so peeved that his Super Bowl commercial was interpreted as pro-Obama. He was doing some REAL growling THAT day.