Abstract This paper explains that, in "Unforgiven", Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, a former bounty hunter who reluctantly strikes out for his career's final coup de grace - the revenge killing of two men who have maimed a prostitute. The author points out that, hardened by experience, embittered by his fall from the righteous life, Munny eventually gives in to the belief that life is unfair, that men don't get what they deserve and that the world is a hard, cold place. The paper concludes that Munny, portrayed as a fallen soul, who pays for the sins of his past by repeating his past; isn't the brilliant marksman or the long arm of the law but rather a sad alcoholic who wishes he could change his past.
From the Paper "Once the partners have reconnoitered with the Kid, Munny again must face his past. The Kid is holds him in a kind of naive reverence and reminds him of his earlier escapades, which the Kid has heard from his Uncle Pete. To these stories, Munny shrugs, looks away and simply says, "I don't recollect it." Yet when the trio arrives in Big Whiskey, and Munny falls prey to a fever, he remembers his past in ample clarity. In a hallucination he sees the ghosts of men he's killed, the angel of death with "snake eyes," and his wife's head being eaten by worms. To Logan and the Kid, he confesses that he's really "scared of dying." The Kid is shattered by the demise of his hero and calls him a "broken-down pig farmer." "
Abstract This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the achievements of actor/director Clint Eastwood. Specifically, it discusses his work as a director and producer of motion pictures. The paper looks at the history of his career as an actor in westerns, action dramas and even some comedies. It then looks briefly at his directing and producing of some of the most poplar films of all time, such as "Unforgiven," "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima."
From the Paper "In addition, many of Eastwood's films have become cultural icons, giving identity and meaning to historic and important occasions. "Unforgiven" is an unforgiving look at the last days of the Old West, while "Flags of Our Fathers" shares an intimate moment in American history, introducing the men behind the famous photograph of Iwo Jima. Even more stylistic is "Letters from Iwo Jima," a look at the war though the eyes of the Japanese soldiers who fought and died on the island, and told entirely through subtitles (a risky move even today for most theater audiences). These films offer Americans a glimpse into their own varied cultural identity, and they are much more than entertainment venues, they teach, raise emotions, and even give glimpses into history that most people would never get to experience."
From the Paper "Clint Eastwood has become a major force in American films and has confounded many who predicted that he would never have a career in Hollywood. Long treated by critics as a one-note actor with little range, he received the nomination for the Academy Award as Best Actor of 1992. His success was made all the more impressive as he received the Academy Award for Best Director and for Best Picture in that same year. In addition, he has over the years produced, directed and/or appeared in a number of films that have achieved high grosses, and after winning the Oscars his newest film as an actor, In the Line of Fire, has become one of the major money-makers of 1993.
Alan Frank notes the distinction often made between the actor and the star--the presence of the actor in a film is necessary but not usually enough in itself to ensure that people..."
Abstract This paper discusses the movie "Million Dollar Baby". It provides information on the characters and actors (Hillary Swank, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman) and the use of lighting and other features throughout the movie. The paper concludes that despite the excellent performances, the movie was a slight disappointment.
From the Paper "The music and the editing support the directing and the actors and contribute greatly to getting the message across. Sound editing excels at making punches sound like nearby explosions and one can almost feel and imagine their full blast. Image editing creates the suggestive fighting scenes and the play with dark/light sequencing. The music is soft, sustaining and complementing the emotional moments of the movie."
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the two Western films, "Shane," made in 1953 and directed by George Stevens, and "Unforgiven," made in 1992 and directed by Clint Eastwood.
Abstract This paper analyzes the two films and discusses their significance in the genre of Western films. Today, the classic Western is a film out of style, but these two films live on as classics, generally because they deviate from the traditional Western model. They portray the characters three dimensionally, and the violence as real and devastating. The underlying theme and message is that violence is unnecessary and useless, and it can ruin the lives of those who use it.
From the Paper ""Shane" does not rely on elaborate sets and costuming to get its message across to viewers. One reviewer called the sets "spartan" and the language of the film "laconic." The characters of this film make it the classic it has become. From the opening scene, when Shane rides down into a valley with a massive chain of mountains behind him, the viewer understands his character is larger than life, and it is right that he came down from the "mountaintops" to save the struggling family in the valley."
From the Paper "The average "studio" film today costs tens of millions of dollars, while the average "independent" film exists in a range below $10 million. Such expenditures under both headings have little to do with the genre of film being made, the length of the film, or even the stars of the film in many cases. Many stars will work for less money in an independent film than they will for a studio-made film--Bruce Willis appears in the $7 million Pulp Fiction, for instance, while he is usually paid more than that personally for studio-made films like the two Die Hard sequels. The quality of the film produced also bears only some relationship to the amount of money spent--the aforementioned Pulp Fiction was well-received by critics and audiences alike, while a film costing $70 or $80 million such as Daylight was denigrated by critics and ignored by audiences. What is.."
Abstract This paper examines the bove book which discusses every imponderable imaginable right from the mundane ones such as lottery odds, predicting a child's height, baseball arithmetic, to more complex ones including Windchill equivalent temperature, carbon dating, Newton's relativity theory and synchronous satellites. It shows how the book improves one's problem solving skills by making them think about imponderables and also aids one's understanding of mathematical concepts and sheds light on their useful application in our everyday lives. It evaluates how the book is also an attempt to improve numeracy among American public by making them more aware of the usefulness of mathematics in their lives.
From the Paper "The book begins with calculation of distance between one particular point and the horizon. Brookhart gives a simple geometric formula to predict the approximate distance. A casual look at these formulas in the beginning of the book prepares the reader for what comes later. However the very simple tone of the book is what arouses skepticism in readers. Some have even pointed out the errors they found in the book. For example the rejection of Goldbach's well-known assumption that "no one has ever found a number greater than 2 that could not be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers" is one such error."
Abstract This paper on Greek Literature and the Hollywood Cinema compares the the Greek novel "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles with the film "Hamlet" starring Mel Gibson and the saga of the "Iliad" with the film "Unforgiven" with Clint Eastwood. It reviews the films and their characters and shows how both films follow a particular theme of a book and accomplish the same goal but in a different situation. Even though the scenario and situations in the novels differ from that in the movie, both protagonists however show similar characteristics and undergo similar events, which force them to act in a resembling fashion.
From the Paper "He discovers the committing of the two crime after he hears the Teiresias prophecy, "You are the cursed polluter of this land. The killer you are seeking is yourself. You are living in sinful union with the one you love, living in ignorance of your own undoing" (Oedipus Rex, Sophocles). His wife Jocasta tries to calm him down by telling him that prophecies do not always come true. She tells him about the prophecy once told by oracle to King Laius about his murder, which would be committed by his son. She narrates to him the falseness about the prophecy as it never came true since five robbers killed Laius not his son. From here, Oedipus recalls his past events in which he had murdered a man. With the help of a messenger Oedipus comes to know that he is not the son of Polybus and later the shepherd solves the mystery for him hence, revealing Oedipus to be the son and husband of his mother."
Abstract This paper shows that "Unforgiven" is not just a western; it is a perceptive and monumental study of the corrosive effect a lifetime of violence can have on the human spirit. The paper shows that the themes of justice, feminism, gun control, revenge, reform, honor, morality and corruption are all examined in both overt and symbolic forms in the film. Despite the fact that there is plenty of gratuitous violence provided, the principal and most powerful theme of the movie is that there are more constructive ways to resolve conflict that bashing someone's brains in or gunning them down in the street.
From the Paper "Unforgiven is a compelling film in many rights, but its symbolism is one of its most masterful features. Because of its revisionist attitude towards violence, the film's portrayal of violence as an inappropriate method of conflict resolution is ironic in that the brutality is so gorily depicted. Yet the film's intent is a dogged attempt to show how violence and revenge can ruin a person's life. Still, by portraying violence in an entertaining manner, the message of the film is somewhat negated. In addition, while the film does portray many conventional elements of the western genre, it at the same time obliterates the requisite stereotypes which generally permeate these types of films."
Abstract This comparison and contrast paper discusses Clint Eastwood's film version of John Berendt's novel "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." It argues that the film is enhanced by the elements of photography and sound compared to the book, but ultimately the concessions made for the screen make Berendt's rich characterizations fall flat.
From the Paper "The transformation of any novel into cinema typically requires the filmmaker to omit people, events or other aspects of the novel to fit the format and time constraints of film. The same is true with respect ..."
Abstract This paper discusses Ridley Scott science fiction movie, "Blade Runner," and the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." It compares the two films in terms of how they both reveal different myths of America.
Abstract This paper explains how American cultural values are transmitted to the rest of the world through Hollywood cinema icons like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood.
From the Paper "Icons are symbols or representations of values that transmit culture. Icons can be people, places or things, such as movie stars John Wayne and Sylvester Stallone to Disneyland, McDonald's and the Statue of Liberty. As Kroes argues, from the high rhetoric of its political ideals to the golden glow of McDonald's arches, from Bruce Springsteen to the Marlboro Man, American culture washes across the globe. Hollywood cinema is responsible for the creation and transmission of national icons that have transmitted American culture i.e., values around the..."
Tags: film, legend, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Katharine Hepburn, democracy, integrity, Horatio Alger, freedom.
Abstract In this paper, the individual heroism of Costner and Eastwood depicted in the films analyzed reflect the ideology of the Post-Vietnam Era of American society. These heroes do not project the blind bravado toward war or violence, but project a far more individualistic approach to the western by being men of conscience. The paper shows that although Eastwood and Costner do not always present moralistic heroes, they are resoundingly for the individual over the greater good of society.
From the Paper "This film study will analyze the centrality of individualism that resounds within the modern westerns of the modern era. The heroic premise of the films analyzed in this study will explore how Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner display individualism, relating more intrinsic desires for autonomy from the law or outside 'authorities'. In this manner, the modern western depicts heroes that seek an individuals a sense of freedom in the old west, reflecting the greater sense of individuality in Post- Vietnam Era filmmaking. The basis of individualism is apparent in how Kevin Costner reflects the individuality of the 1990s, as well as the "modern era' of filmmaking after the 1960s. When he decided to create a film based on the life of man living a solitary existence on the open prairie. Costner presents an individualistic hero."
Abstract This paper discusses the main characters, plot, and themes of Clint Eastwood's 2003 film, "Mystic River". The paper explains that, although the focus of the film is the investigation of the murder of the daughter of Jimmy, one of the main characters in the film, the actual investigation is almost only a background for the entire history of the film's three main characters and to the core themes of loss of innocence and of life's limitations.
From the Paper "One of the final scenes in the movie takes place after Jimmy murders Dave. It again shows Sean and Jimmy engaged in conversation. The location of the conversation is out on the street, mirroring the opening shot of the film in which the boys are shown hanging out in front of their homes. Sean has struggled throughout the film to balance his role as a Massachusetts cop with his inescapable connection to his childhood persona. This scene finds him once again reflecting on Dave's abduction and molestation."
Tags: murder memories, sexual molestation, emotional darkness, storytelling
