American Rebel (46 page)

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Authors: Marc Eliot

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Soon enough, but not quite yet.

*
The six men were Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, Michael Strank, John Bradley, Ira Hayes, and Rene Gagnon. The three who survived the battle were Bradley, Hayes, and Gagnon.

*
A few other films had tried to show both sides, without much success. The biggest was Richard Fleischer and Kinji Fukasaku’s
Tora! Tora! Tora!
(1970), about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film, which had two directors, did not succeed at the box office and discouraged further attempts to show World War II from more than one point of view. No American film before
Letters from Iwo Jima
was ever made that showed any war issue completely and solely from the other side.

*
Clint was no stranger to public battles with other filmmakers. In 2005 he publicly vowed he’d kill Michael Moore if the documentarian ever showed up at his house, the way he had at Charlton Heston’s in
Bowling for Columbine
.

*
Flags of Our Fathers
received two nominations, for Sound Editing (Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman) and Sound Mixing (John T. Reitz, David E. Campbell, Gregg Rudloff, Walt Martin). It lost the first to
Letters from Iwo Jima
and the second to
Dream-girls
(Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, Willie D. Burton).

*
A “changeling” is a being in West European folklore and folk religion, the offspring of a fairy, a troll, an elf, or other legendary creature, that has been secretly left in the place of a human child.

*
Age had taken its toll on Clint as well. His six-foot-four frame had “shrunk” to six foot one due to chronic back problems.

*
“Clint Eastwood, who has played strong, silent types on-screen for more than 50 years, is done with acting. Eastwood, 78, says he has no plans to step in front of the camera after
Gran Torino
, which he directed, and starred in … ‘That will probably do it for me as far as acting is concerned,’ the Academy Award–winning director told Britain’s
Sunday Express
. ‘But I’ve got no plans to stop making films.’”—Cathy Burke, various newswires, December 15, 2008.


In an interview in the
New York Times
to promote
Gran Torino
, Bruce Headlam asked Clint about the persistent Internet and wire service stories that this was to be his last acting assignment. Clint’s reply: “Somebody asked what I’d do next, and I said I didn’t know how many roles there are for 78-year-old guys. There’s nothing wrong with coming in to play the butler. But unless there’s a hurdle to get over, I’d rather just stay behind the camera.”
New York Times
, December 14, 2008.

*
Best Director nominees were Daldry, Fincher, Boyle, Howard, and Van Sant. Best Actor nominees were Brad Pitt
(The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
, Richard Jenkins (Tom McCarthy’s
The Visitor)
, Sean Penn
(Milk)
, Frank Langella
(Frost/Nixon)
, and Mickey Rourke (Darren Aronofsky’s
The Wrestler)
.

SOURCES

         Research Institutions

Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California

New York Public Library, New York City

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City

Los Angeles County Court, public records, Los Angeles

British Film Institute

Cinémathèque, Paris, France

Library of the
Los Angeles Times
(librarian Scott Wilson)

              Bibliography

Albert, James.
Pay Dirt: Divorces of the Rich and Famous
. California: Diane Publishing, 1989.

Bach, Steven.
Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate
. New York: William Morrow, 1985.

Bingham, Dennis.
Acting Male: Masculinities in the Films of James Stewart, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood
. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Biskind, Peter.
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Bragg, Melvyn.
Richard Burton: A Life
. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.

Clinch, Minty.
Clint Eastwood
. London: Coronet Books, 1995.

Duncan, Paul, ed.
Movie Icons: Clint Eastwood
. Los Angeles: Taschen, 2006.

Eliot, Marc.
Burt!
New York: Dell, 1983.

Engel, Leonard, ed.
Clint Eastwood: Actor and Director
. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2007.

Frayling, Christopher.
Clint Eastwood
. London: Virgin, 1992.

Haskell, Molly.
Holding My Own in No Man’s Land
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Kaminsky, Stuart M.
Clint Eastwood
. New York: New American Library, 1974.

Kapsis, Robert E., and Kathie Coblentz, eds.
Clint Eastwood Interviews
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.

Kinn, Gail, and Jim Piazza.
The Academy Awards
. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal, 2002.

Knapp, Laurence F.
Directed by Clint Eastwood
. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996.

Locke, Sondra.
The Good, The Bad & The Very Ugly
. New York: William Morrow, 1997.

McGilligan, Patrick.
Clint: The Life and Legend
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Nichols, Peter M., ed.
The New York Times Guide to the 1,000 Best Movies Ever Made
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004.

Randall, Stephen, ed., and the editors of
Playboy
magazine.
The Playboy Interviews: The Directors
. Milwaukee, Ore.: M Press, 2006.

Reynolds, Burt.
My Life
. New York: Hyperion, 1994.

Richards, David.
Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story
. New York: Random House, 1981.

Rickles, Don.
Rickles’ Book
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

Rose, Frank.
The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business
. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

Sarris, Andrew.
The American Cinema
. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968.

___, Confessions of a Cultist: On the Cinema, 1955–1969
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.

Schickel, Richard.
Clint Eastwood: A Biography
. New York: Random House, 1996.

Siegel, Don.
A Siegel Film: An Autobiography
. London: Faber and Faber, 1993.

Thompson, Douglas.
Clint Eastwood: Billion Dollar Man
. London: John Blake, 2005.

Verlhac, Pierre-Henri, ed.
Clint Eastwood: A Life in Pictures
. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008.

Wallach, Eli.
The Good, the Bad, and Me
. New York: Harcourt, 2005.

Wiley, Mason, and Damien Bona.
Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards
. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.

Zmijewsky, Boris, and Lee Pfeiffer.
The Films of Clint Eastwood
. New York: Citadel Press, 1993.

NOTES
Epigraphs and Introduction

“You go to an Eastwood movie …”: Molly Haskell,
Playgirl
, November 1985.

“Clint Eastwood is a tall …”: James Wolcott,
Vanity Fair
, July 1985.

“Eastwood has …”: Robert Mazzocco, “The Supply-Side Star,”
New York Review of Books
, April 1, 1982.

“People can know …”: Quoted in John Love, “Clint Eastwood at 50,”
San Antonio Light
, November 2, 1980.

“There is something …”: Quoted in Haskell,
Playgirl
.

“I’m an actor …”: Quoted in
Newsweek
, July 22, 1985.

“I grew up …”: Interview by Charlie Rose, PBS, October 8, 2003.

Chapter One

“My father …”: Quoted in Dick Kleiner, syndicated Hollywood columnist, collection of columns and notes, Margaret Herrick Library.

“Well, those were the thirties …”: Interview by David Thomson,
Film Comment
20, no. 5, September–October 1984.

“My father was big on …”: Interview by Bernard Weinraub,
Playboy
, March 1997. This was the second interview Clint gave the magazine.

“I can’t remember …”: Quoted in Wayne Warga,
Washington Post
, July 8, 1969.

“I remember Gertrude Falk … she made up her mind …”: Zmijewsky and Pfeiffer,
Films
, 9.

“dummy”: Thompson,
Billion Dollar Man
, 19.

“When I sat down …”: Ibid., 20.

“I would lie …”: Weinraub interview,
Playboy
.

“I’d never seen a musician …”: Quoted in Schickel,
Eastwood
, 40.

“really adrift”: Quoted in Frank Thistle, “Filmland’s Most Famous Gun-slinger,”
Hollywood Studio
, February 1973.

Chapter Two

“Basically I was a drifter …”: Quoted in Frank Thistle, “Filmland’s Most Famous Gun-slinger,”
Hollywood Studio
, February 1973.

“You can only dig …”: Quoted in Dick Lochte,
Los Angeles Free Press
, April 20, 1973.

“One of my auxiliary …”: Interview by Michel Ciment, “Entretien avec Clint Eastwood,”
Positif
31 (May 1990).

Clint getting a Seattle girl pregnant: “Clint handed the money over to the woman and left for L.A.” McGilligan,
Life and Legend
, 54. McGilligan cites as his source a story that appeared in the
Valley Daily News
in July 1993. Eastwood has never confirmed this story.

Chapter Three

“I had a premonition …”: Quoted in Dick Kleiner column, Margaret Herrick Library.

Lubin taken to meet Clint: Clint Eastwood interview by Arthur Knight,
Playboy
, February 1974 (Clint would do a second interview for the magazine in March 1997, conducted by Bernard Weinraub);
Crawdaddy
, April 1978.

“I thought I was …”: Knight interview,
Playboy
.

Mamie Van Doren: “[Clint] was always straight and direct—he always knew the most straight and direct path to my dressing room,” said Van Doren, quoted in “Chatter,”
People
, May 26, 1986.

“the first year of marriage …”: Quoted in Clinch,
Eastwood
, 29.

“He is very much …”: Maggie Eastwood, quoted in Tim Chadwick, “We Don’t Believe in Togetherness,”
Screen Stars
, July 1971.

“They made a lot of cheapies …”: Quoted in Ann Guerin,
Show
, February 1970.

“Don’t worry …”: Burt Reynolds, quoted in Eliot,
Burt!
, 42.

“the lousiest western …” Quoted in Carrie Rickey,
Fame
, November 1988.

Chapter Four

“I was set to direct …”: Quoted in Bridget Byrne, “Eastwood’s Round ‘Em Up, Move ‘Em Out Film Making Style,”
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
, June 24, 1973.

“fairly open relationship …”: Interview by Arthur Knight,
Playboy
, February 1974.

Leonard reportedly kept two sets of books: See McGilligan,
Life and Legend
, 105. McGilligan cites “unnamed sources.”

PR tour of Japan: Clint told Japanese reporters, whenever asked, that Maggie did not want to come. But, in an interview with
Photoplay
magazine in 1961 entitled “Clint Eastwood: Hollywood Loner,” he is quoted as saying, “I just didn’t want her along. I felt like going myself.”

Maggie never said anything and never complained: Tunis never publicly discussed her relationship with Clint, but Clint talked about the uniqueness of his marriage, both in
Playboy
in 1974 and in Tim Chadwick, “We Don’t Believe in Togetherness,”
Screen Stars
, July 1971. About his quite-rare interview with the Eastwoods, Chadwick stated, “The only way Clint and Maggie Eastwood have managed to keep their marriage alive all these years is by having kept their distance from each other most of the time. They have stayed together by staying apart.” Maggie is quoted as saying, “Clint is definitely a loner … he holds so much back.” And Clint said this: “We’re not advocates of the total togetherness theory.”

“I knew I wasn’t …”: Interview by Bernard Weinraub,
Playboy
, March 1997.

“Sergio Leone had only …”: Ibid.

Chapter Five

“What struck me …”: Sergio Leone, quoted in Duncan,
Icons
, 26. Unattributed.

British critic and film historian Christopher Frayling: See
The BFI
[British Film Institute]
Companion to the Western
(Deutsch, 1988). Frayling says Leone traced his plot back to Hammett. In
Spaghetti Westerns
(1988) Frayling quotes Leone saying, “Kurosawa’s
Yojimbo
was inspired by an American novel of the serie-noire
[sic]
so I was really taking the story back home again.”

“We were shooting some vast cattle scenes …”: Quoted in Patrick McGilligan,
Focus on Film
25 (Summer–Fall 1976).

“Finally, I asked Eric Fleming …”: Interview by Bernard Weinraub,
Playboy
, March 1997.

“An American would be afraid …”: Ibid. Clint’s reference to a “tie-up” refers to the Hays Code prohibition against showing explicit scenes of murder: “Murder scenes had to be filmed in a way that would discourage imitations in real life, and brutal killings could not be shown in detail. ‘Revenge in modern times’ was not to be justified.” A tie-up would be an explicit depiction of a murder. “Revenge in modern times” means that biblical depictions were acceptable.

“Every time they wanted a format …”: Quoted in Dick Lochte,
Los Angeles Free Press
, April 20, 1973.

“Why should I be pleased …”: Interview by Hal Humphrey,
Los Angeles Times
, September 16, 1965.

Chapter Six

“I came back …”: Quoted in Thompson,
Billion Dollar Man
, 67.

“The stories … didn’t mean …”: Quoted in Tim Cahill,
Rolling Stone
, July 4, 1983.

passionate affair with Catherine Deneuve: McGilligan,
Life and Legend
, 151.

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