Fans of Clint Eastwood's recent movies will remember the curmudgeon Walk Kowalski who was the lead character in his film "Gran Torino". Walt was a bigoted, emotionally closed, lonely man who was just made lonelier with the death of his beloved wife. The fact that his kids are either (a) good for nothing moochers and/or (b) could not relate or communicate to Walt in a meaningful manner, made his existence all the sadder. The realization that he has a greater connection to the Hmong people (toward whom he has typical old White guy anger and bigotry) then his own family is disorienting especially as he learns that he he has a medical condition that appears to be slowly killing him which he doesn't tell his family about but his Hmong neighbors come to realize. Perhaps the most poignant moment in the film is one that can only be appreciated in a second watching of the film because it is a forewarning of things to come but the context in which it appears might make one miss it. In the scene, Walt sits down in his front porch with his morning coffee and reads the newspaper to his dog, daisy. He says:
|Walt Kowalski: [reading aloud from the newspaper] Your birthday today, |Daisy. This year you have to make a choice between two life paths. |Second chances comes your way. Extraordinary events culminate in |what might seem to be an anticlimax. Your lucky numbers are 84, 23, |11, 78, and 99. What a load of sh*t. When I first heard the rumors that Eastman was going to make a speech/presentation at the convention, I thought how ironic. Perhaps he had forgotten that a number of the pro-life 'publicans condemned "Million Dollar Baby" because they saw it as an argument for euthanasia. Or maybe he didn't care about that condemnation or maybe he was so disappointed with Obama that he had to express it somehow, even with an audience that was ambivalent about him or split (i.e., pro-lifers against him, gun lovers for him). But, in any event, his weird piece of business on stage was certainly an "extraordinary event" which seemed to end with an anticlimax. I don't know what Mitt Romney's thought of Eastwood's bit but the camera shots of Ann Romney could be interpreted that she was not pleased (I bet there's a student research project here, using Ekman's coding scheme to identify what emotions she was expressing during the Eastwood performance). On the CBS Morning Show today, Charlie Rose interviewed Ann Romney and asked about the Eastman bit and her response, mildly positive wording and a laugh that seemed to represent suppressed rage. I have the feeling that those who were involved in the Eastwood affair will find their heads on a pike. But in a tasteful, Martha Stewart sort of way. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. I had been watching the 'publican convention on MSNBC and CSPAN and it wasn't until later that I was reminded that the major TV networks started their coverage of the convention at 10pm, thus missing a glowing video tribute to Romney. Eastwood came on at about 10:03pm. I wonder how weird it was for people just tuning in to see Eastwood do his schtick and thinking whether the people running the convention had just lost their minds? . --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=20132 or send a blank email to leave-20132-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
