Description
Book SynopsisClint Eastwood has appeared in virtually every major film genre and, at this late point in his career, has emerged as one of America’s most popular and respected—though controversial—filmmakers.
Tough Ain’t Enough offers readers a series of original essays by prominent cinema scholars who explore the actor-director’s extensive career.
Trade Review"The editors have assembled a diverse group of scholars and turned them loose to make sense of the vast array of contradictions that is Clint Eastwood. This is a unique and extraordinary collection with not a weak chapter in it." -- Dennis Bingham * author of Whose Lives Are They Anyway?: The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre *
"Chronicle of Higher Education 'New Scholarly Books' Weekly Book List, August 31, 2018," compiled by Nina C. Ayoub * Chronicle of Higher Education *
"Highly recommended." * Choice *
Table of ContentsChapter 1: The Teller and the Tale: An Introduction to the Films of Clint Eastwood
Lester D. Friedman and David Desser
Part I: Crosscurrents
Chapter 2: “I Don’t Want Nobody Belonging to Me”: Riding the Post-Leone Western
Stephen Prince
Chapter 3: “God/Country/Family:” The Military Movies
Lester D. Friedman
Chapter 4: “A Man’s Got to Know His Limitations”: The Cop Films from Nixon through Reagan
Jonathan Kirshner
Chapter 5: “I’m Not So Tough”: Melodrama and Performance in the Later Films
Diane Carson
Chapter 6: “Heroes are Something We Create: The Biopics”
David Sterritt
Part II: Controversies
Chapter 7: “I Am a Camera”: Clint Eastwood’s Performative Gaze
Murray Pomerance
Chapter 8: “You ain’t ugly like me; it’s just that we both got scars”: Women in Eastwood’s Films
Lucy Bolton
Chapter 9: “I know I'm as blind as a slab of concrete, but I'm not helpless”: Eastwood and the Aging Action Hero
David Desser
Chapter 10: “Seems like we can’t trust the White Man”: The Theater of Race in and out of Eastwood’s Films
Alexandra Keller
Chapter 11: Play Music for Me: Eastwood’s Film Scores
Charity Lofthouse
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Index
