My favorite movie? A response to Steemit's second writing challenge

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One of my personal failings is that, where entertainment is involved, I always seem to forget the movies I watch and the books I read. Two weeks later, I often won't remember that I watched a movie, or what it was about. It's so bad that it has become a running joke with my family.

So, needless to say, I had a hard time picking a favorite movie for this challenge. One movie that came to mind was, "A Beautiful Mind", but @cmp2020 beat me to it, so you'll have to go read his post about that one.

After that one, the next thing that occurred to me was that I should pick one of the movies by Clint Eastwood. I may have a hard time thinking of a favorite movie, but Eastwood is definitely one of my favorite Hollywood personalities. I haven't watched many of his movies recently, but I watched a number of them dozens of times during the last century - and astonishingly, I still remember a bit about them.

But the next question is, which one? There are a number of different movies that I could have chosen, but I'll discuss four, all Westerns and all similar. I have picked a favorite, but first I'll write briefly about the others, since they all appeal to me for similar reasons. I'm writing from memory (remember the part about forgetting movies?) so bear with me if I don't remember things quite right.

In A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Eastwood plays a drifter who rides into a Mexican frontier town and sets himself up in the middle of two families who control the town, hiring on as a gunslinger for one family, but actually playing each family off against the other. As Eastwood tries to profit from the conflict between the two powerful families, one of the families pulls off a heist to steal gold from the Mexican army. Eastwood figures out what's going on, and tries to use it to his advantage, but the family who pulled off the heist kills off the other one, and Eastwood almost gets himself killed as a result of his scheming. After escaping and recovering from his injuries, he returns to town, and the movie ends with a stereotypical gun fight between Eastwood and the members of the family that came out on top.

In High Plains Drifter (1973), Eastwood is again a drifter who rides into a town filled with corruption. This time, he quickly establishes himself at the top of the pecking order and spends most of the movie bullying the townsfolk, in exchange for a promise to protect the town from a group of criminals who have a history with the town and are set to be freed from prison. At the end of the movie, Eastwood takes a hands-off approach when the criminals ride into town, letting them destroy most of the town, but the movie again ends with a stereotypical western gun fight between Eastwood and the criminals. This movie takes a surprise turn, though, when it suggests that Eastwood actually has a history with both the townsfolk and the crime gang.

The third movie, Pale Rider (1985), is nearly the same story as High Plains Drifter, just a decade newer. In this movie, a group of small scale gold prospectors are being threatened and driven out of town by a large mining company who wants to take over the small-scale miners' claims. Eastwood arrives in town and begins to protect the miners from the corporate thugs. After a time, the company hires some mercenary "law men" to finish running off the small-scale miners. A twist in this movie is that Eastwood is not just a gun-fighter, but also a preacher, and he seems to have some sort of romantic history with the wife of one of the miners. As with the others, the movie ends with a stereotypical gunfight, and like High Plains Drifter, the end of the movie seems to reveal a history between Eastwood and his adversaries.

So after all that, what is my favorite movie? At the moment, I'd have to say that my favorite movie was Unforgiven (1992). In addition to Clint Eastwood, this film also stars Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. In this movie, Eastwood is a retired gun-fighter who is persuaded to pick up his gun again to collect a bounty that was raised to revenge a woman who worked in a brothel and was assaulted by her customers. He learns about the bounty from a young man who is looking to launch a career as a gunfighter, and brings Morgan Freeman along too. Eastwood and Freeman appear to have been partners before retiring from the gunfighting business. Gene Hackman is the local sheriff where the bounty has been issued, and he's intent on preventing anyone from collecting it.

Here is the trailer.

In a now-familiar pattern, Eastwood arrives in town, ruffles some feathers, finds himself injured to the point of near-death, escapes and returns to town for a climactic gun fight to end the movie.

The thing that I like about Unforgiven, and these other movies too, is that it depicts the true complexity of human ethics in that there is no true "good guy" or "bad guy". Eastwood, Freeman, and their younger counterpart (Jaimz Woolvett) are sympathetic characters, so it's easy to forget that their entire goal is to murder people in exchange for money, but that is the reality. On the other hand, Gene Hackman weighs in on the side of law and order, but he is particularly cruel in his approach to it.

Eastwood's characters in the other movies are all similarly conflicted. As a member of the audience, you hope and expect that he will come out on top, but in order to feel that way, you have to be willing to overlook some truly reprehensible behaviors.

Beyond considering any of these movies in isolation, I think it's also interesting to think of the four as a collection and to observe the ways that Eastwood matured when approaching a very similar story line four times over the course of about 30 years. It's also worth noting that in addition to acting in them, Eastwood also directed the last three: High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, and Unforgiven.

So there you have it... and as long as I'm talking about Clint Eastwood, let me also recommend Million Dollar Baby and Richard Jewell. I think that Million Dollar Baby represents a sort of pivot point for Eastwood, where he distanced himself from the "tough guy" characters that he was known for in the 20th Century. He did not act in Richard Jewell, but he directed it. My family happened to watch it recently, and I definitely think it would be worth your time.

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Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

Steve is also a co-founder of the Steem's Best Classical Music Facebook page, and the @classical-music steemit curation account.

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