Some Thoughts on Clint Eastwood and Heidegger by Bruce Jay Friedman : I don’t much know what to make of this. I know I like it, and that it made me laugh a couple of times, but it also has some sort of wierd, deep quality to it. On the surface its a spastic and completely absurd article, but its actually quite complex. In fact, thats the point Friedman makes about Eastwood.
If you must know, I believe Clint Eastwood’s remote, alienated style is a goddammed metaphor for our time. Which is why I salute him�as a man, as an artist, as a professional (and I understand he’s an outrageous stickler for detail on the set, even though the net effect emerges as being casual), and as a complex human being.
The article is an excerpt from Friedman’s book Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos and was originally published in Harpers in 1976. Friedman sounds like an interesting fellow. I shall have to check out some more of his work…