DECRYPTAGE – A binary analysis of Clint Eastwood’s work would classify the director as a man of the right who gradually veered to the left. This overlooks the populist nature of his cinema, which transcends the left-right divide.
This article was excerpted from Figaro Hors-Série “Clint Eastwood, the last of the giants”.
Le Figaro
When the lights go out for good, what will be left of Clint Eastwood ? Will he be seen as a giant of American cinema, or a reactionary filmmaker to be consigned to the dustbin of history? For a long time, until the early 1990s, the actor-director was considered unpalatable by the majority of critics: “ too fascist ” ; “ too macho “. In 1974, the magazine Positif will even go so far as to qualify as ” Mein Kampf of the West “the western Man of the High Plains. Today, Eastwood is almost untouchable. Embalmed during his lifetime, he is considered one of Hollywood’s last legends. But in this age of cancel cultureThere’s no guarantee that his statue won’t one day be taken down.
If Eastwood is nothing like the caricature that has sometimes been made of him, his cinema is no less…
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