The PhilosoPhy of ClinT easTwood The PhilosoPhy of ClinT easTwood Edited by Richard T. McClelland and Brian B. Clayton Copyright © 2014 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The philosophy of Clint Eastwood / edited by Richard T. McClelland and Brian B. Clayton. pages cm. — (The philosophy of popular culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8131-4263-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8131-4264-7 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8131-4265-4 (epub) 1. Eastwood, Clint, 1930—Criticism and interpretation. I. McClelland, Richard T., 1947- editor of compilation. PN2287.E37P48 2014 792.02’8092—dc23 2013039727 This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses To Roger Ebert (1942–2013), film critic par excellence C ontents Introduction: Eastwood as Philosopher 1 Richard T. McClelland and Brian B. Clayton From Solitary Individualism to Post-Christian Stoic Existentialism: Quests for Community, Moral Agency, and Transcendence in the Films of Clint Eastwood 13 David H. Calhoun Hereafter and the Problems of Evil: Clint Eastwood as Practical Philosopher 41 Brian B. Clayton The Smile and the Spit: The Motivational Polarity and Self-Reliance Portrayed in The Outlaw Josey Wales and the Dollars Trilogy 61 James R. Couch The Representation of Justice in Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter 77 Erin E. Flynn Bad Men at Play: On the Banality of Goodness in Unforgiven 95 Richard Gilmore Aristotle, Eastwood, Friendship, and Death 111 Jason Grinnell Giving up the Gun: Violence in the Films of Clint Eastwood 131 Karen D. Hoffman Eastwood, Romance, Tragedy 157 Deborah Knight and George McKnight The Use of Silence in Hereafter: A Study in Neurocinematics 175 Richard T. McClelland The Mortal Hero: Two Inductions on the Meaning of Loss 191 Richard T. McClelland Eastwood’s Dream: The Philosophy of Absence in Hereafter 213 Douglas McFarland Desperate Times Call for Existential Heroes: Eastwood’s Gran Torino and Camus’s The Plague 229 Jennifer L. McMahon Acknowledgments 249 List of Contributors 251 Index 255 I ntroduCtIon Eastwood as Philosopher Richard T. McClelland and Brian B. Clayton It is easy to forget that philosophy has not always been practiced as it com- monly is today. Most philosophers working today (and over the last couple of centuries) have been academics, usually in universities. There they teach, do research, write for publication, gather to present at professional meetings, and the like. Professional journals and monograph series are often sponsored by university departments, and conferences of all kinds commonly convene on university campuses worldwide. Most philosophers these days possess advanced degrees from universities (though increasingly such degrees do not ensure employment in academic positions). Considered in terms of these traditions of professional formation and deployment, there is ample reason to doubt that Clint Eastwood could plausibly be taken to be a philosopher or to be doing the work of a philosopher in his filmmaking (as actor, direc- tor, producer, and/or musician). After all, he does not possess an advanced degree in philosophy (or any closely related discipline), he does not work in an academic institution, he does not present his own creative work in the usual venues that philosophers use. Nevertheless, it is our view that East- wood is doing substantial philosophical work in and by means of his films. It is the purpose of this introduction to say what we mean by this claim. In doing so we also wish to direct our readers toward the specific essays that make up this volume and some of their distinctive themes. It may be, also, that our notion of practical philosophy (which is what we think Eastwood is doing) will have application elsewhere in the arts and sciences. One reason for thinking that Eastwood might be philosophizing in his creative work is almost purely negative. Philosophy has not always been practiced as it is today. Indeed, throughout most of its long history it was not. In the ancient world most philosophers (including the few women 1