The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood (Sara Vaux)
Review by Jared Austin
While many films Hollywood produces excel aesthetically, most are full of postmodern secularism and lack common ground with the Christian viewer. Conversely, directors such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and the Coen brothers make films many Christians have analyzed because of their religious themes which inform and shape public thought.
Another such director is the iconic Clint Eastwood. In her book The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood (Eerdmans, 2011), Sara Vaux celebrates Eastwood’s work as a director and explains how ethical and theological themes consistently appear throughout Eastwood’s oeuvre. For brevity’s sake, only two themes will be discussed here: the angel of death and hope for a better world. Here I will share Vaux’s interpretation of Eastwood’s films and explain how a modern Christian should respond to these two specific issues. I will then offer a personal critique of Vaux’s work.
The Angel of Death
Not surprisingly, Vaux focuses primarily on Eastwood’s westerns when discussing the angel of death theme. Her essays cover such films as High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Unforgiven. She points out how “[t]he American western has offered an endless parade of angels of death, suspended between human and heavenly realms” [1]. In these westerns, God’s wrath is brought about through the actions of a gunslinger seeking to protect the innocent. Hence, he is the angel of death. No other movie proves her point better than Pale Rider which especially exemplifies the biblical concept of a divinely appointed agent sent to exact punishment on evildoers.
Pale Rider is ambiguous in its explanations of the arrival of the Preacher, played by Eastwood, who appears at the request of a young girl’s praying to God for a miracle to save her town from the marauders terrorizing it. As Vaux points out, “[T]he Preacher’s appearance is imaged almost literally as coming ‘out of the clouds,’ the biblical poetic image of the Son of Man” [2]. The camera then shows the Preacher’s arrival into town on a white horse while the young girl is reading aloud the words of Revelation 6:8: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him” (KJV). Hints abound throughout the movie that this Preacher has other worldly origins as he goes about fulfilling the young girl’s request by exacting judgment.
As a result of the angel of death’s actions, the town is saved in Pale Rider; in doing so, Vaux believes Eastwood answers the ethical questions raised by the Preacher’s killing of so many men. Since the Preacher has such a positive impact on the community (under the leadership of the Preacher, the men band together to fight the raiders), Vaux argues, “Two contrasting biblical images collide in the movie: the avenger (the angry God; Jesus in the Temple driving out the money-changers) and the community organizer (Jesus and the outcasts)” [3]. According to Vaux, such an interpretation validates the violent actions of the Preacher and proves his divine appointment.
What are we as Christian supposed to do with the idea of an avenging angel? Should we applaud the vigilante efforts of such an individual if done in the name of peace and goodwill? Such questions wrestle with the fine line that exists between justice and revenge. Of course, we know God says, “To me belongeth vengeance and recompence;” (Deut. 32:35, KJV), but at what point are men allowed to become instruments of justice? Is only a civil leader given the authority to be “the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Rom. 13:4)?
From what Paul and others write, personal conduct should be subject to the authority God has placed over it (Rom. 13:1-7). Today, the legal system fulfills most of the requirements needed to maintain civility in society and mete out justice. Movies like Pale Rider, though, are still aligned with biblical teaching because justice is enacted whenever no higher authority is present to enforce the necessary punishment. The Preacher is the only true source of justice in Pale Rider because society is basically lawless in the community in which the movie takes place. Therefore, such actions do in fact validate his actions as an avenging angel.
A Better World
What becomes apparent while reading Vaux’s work is that she sees the world primarily through the lens of deficiency—a lack of both social justice in the world and America’s lack of proper provision for the marginalized of society. As a result, she consistently propounds the theme found in Eastwood’s films of the desire for a better world.
She argues how Eastwood’s most recent films such as Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Invictus all illustrate Eastwood’s pacifist leanings and hopes for a world where war is unnecessary and peace remains supreme. She notes how in Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood’s character reads to Hillary Swank’s character the beautiful Yeats’ poem, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” capturing their longing for a private paradise. Of course, the title alone of Eastwood’s film, A Perfect World, further confirms the theme. For Vaux, one film in particular argues for the hope of a better world: Gran Torino.
According to Vaux, Gran Torino’s main objective is to illustrate the transformation of an isolated racist into a hero who eventually brings together a divided community through his sacrificial death, thereby creating a better world. The film opens with Eastwood’s character, Walt, mourning the death of his wife. He is voluntarily estranged from his friends as well as the religious community. He now finds himself alone in a changing Detroit neighborhood where he has become the minority. Over time, Walt begrudgingly becomes acquainted with his Hmong neighbors. According to Vaux, Walt’s transformation begins when “he enters a relationship with the Hmong, [and] shifts from a stagnant person into Nicodemus, someone ready to be reborn” [4]. As a result of his transformation, Walt compassionately becomes a surrogate father to a young Asian boy and girl.
Unfortunately, Asian gang members rule the neighborhood, and one of them rapes the young Asian girl Walt has befriended. At this time, every audience member seeing the film fully expects the Eastwood character of old, “Dirty Harry” Callahan, to emerge and avenge the young girl in a fiery gunfight. Instead, Eastwood does the exact opposite and peacefully confronts the gang members, sacrificing his life in the process to bring the killers to justice. Vaux concludes that Walt has enacted the beginning of a better world in his community where whites and minorities can live together peacefully in an American society that ignores creed and color.
But is the world truly becoming a better place? Vaux certainly seems to believe so. She champions herself as a leader of civil rights and equality, and celebrates the progress being made in such arenas. Currently, the parallel issues in America are the legalization of gay marriage and continued advances in the area of “reproductive rights,” and Vaux would definitely argue that such progress is for the betterment of society.
Of course, most evangelical Christians would argue otherwise. Such legal privileging of sins like homosexuality and abortion only supports the belief that moral decay is running rampant. If this is so, how should a Christian best appreciate the conclusion of Gran Torino? Yes, Walt’s actions certainly improve his community as Vaux argues, but such a sacrificial action should be embraced by Christians because he has fully subjected himself to the higher authorities when seeking justice. He doesn’t need to take same course of action as the Preacher in Pale Rider because he knows that the legal system will take care of the gang members. Thus, obedience to God’s commands in matters such as vengeance and justice is one way of shining a light in a dark world that is not getting any better.
Conclusion
Vaux does a good job of highlighting overarching themes in Eastwood’s films, but, regrettably, she almost focuses exclusively on issues related to racism and classism. For example, she concentrates strongly on topics like the treatment of Morgan Freeman’s character in Unforgiven or the underprivileged background of Hilary Swank’s character in Million Dollar Baby. By narrowing her lens to such issues, she does a disservice to fully understanding Eastwood’s work because the question arises whether or not Eastwood intended his films to be viewed in such a manner. Isn’t the theme of redemption or lack thereof regarding the characters Eastwood portrays in Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby what most audiences leave the theaters discussing? She also takes unnecessary petty jabs at conservatives like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh in her book; such jabs come across as juvenile.
Withstanding all the criticisms, we can see valid arguments made such as her emphasizing the themes of the avenging angel and the desire for a better world. Eastwood’s legacy onscreen is undeniable, and her book does offer some aid in interpreting the ethical and theological implications of his films.
_______________________________________
[1] Sara Anson Vaux, The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 12.
[2] Vaux, 42.
[3] Ibid., 47.
[4] Ibid., 181.
_______________________________________
About the Author: Jared Austin is an editor with a Christian publishing house associated with the National Baptist Congress. He is a 2008 graduate of Welch College as well as a 2010 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with a M.A. in English. He resides in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Recent Comments