Clint Eastwood and the Evolution of TV Swirling

So Encore on Demand has a bundle of old Clint Eastwood movies in homage of the swagger, gorgeousness, rough-around-the-edges, grisly, gritty eternal HAWTNESS the is him.

And since I love most of Clint’s movies (yes; he and I are on a first-name basis) I decided to give The Eiger Sanction (circa 1975) a watch. Here’s the skinny:

Hee. Hee. Did you see what I saw? Of course I wouldn’t, couldn’t, never would have been allowed to watch this movie at two years old, I’m glad it took so long.Â Because now, as I am definitively NOT a toddler, I can take all that is Clint. Alas, now that I am of age, he is geriatric.

Boo!

He’s still got it, though. Sexiest 70-something-year-old I’ve ever seen.

First thing I notice about the movie (aside from Clint’s deliciousness) is that his character, “Mr. First-Name-I-Forgot Hemlock” and Vonetta McGee, a black actress who plays “Jemima Brown,” is the first woman he beds. Pretty typical, right? But she’s not exactly a jump-off; she’s an integral part of Hemlock’s experience throughout the flick.

No lie, Jemima Brown is Category Sapphire, just with a Category Mammy name. Even Clint Eastwood’s character scoffs when he hears it and even asks if it bothers her.Â And OF COURSE NOT!, Jemima Brown is content to have been named after pancake syrup because, “People remember you when your name id Jemima.”

Yeah; they do. But not in a good way.

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Nia-Maya

Sidebar about Sean Connery: The black singer Maxine Daniels (birth name - Gladys Lynch) recounted a story about meeting him in the 1950s and how he asked her to dinner (this was when he was known as Tommy Connery and not Sean; birth name is Thomas Sean Connery). She accepted the invitation and was surprised how the looks and stares of other people did not bother him at all. He walked into the restaurant with her on his arm as if it was a common sight. She did not accept any of his other "invitations" because she was happily married with a daughter. I'm not mad at her about it but we could have had another "Robert Deniro" in our pockets (smile).

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Nadell

After searching Vonetta McGee, she also starred in "The Great Silence", a western never released in American theaters. Again, she played opposite a white male. I even think she portrayed a Native American.
She is definitely a legend who was a pioneer in film!
http://youtu.be/4CLH4SEBlww?t=2m12s

Betty Boo

Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford the HUBBA HUBBA FACTOR never dies with those two in my book!

Lili

LOL @ the look on Clint's face in that picture. He saying, "A little less conversation, alittle more action!"

Name

Oh yeah, he is fine!!!! And I also had a crush on Sean Connery and David Bowie.

Eugenia

I love Clint Eastwood, yea I said it. That steely-eyed glare turns me on, the man is hot. Love all his movies and his spaghetti westerns are classics, reminds me of my daddy and Saturday afternoons spent watching Clint Eastwood and the Duke.

Robynne

Clint's good looking for an older guy. I was subjected to his movies as a child, because my Dad is a huge fan of western movies, and I certainly am not, especially as a child haha.

Karla

I am a Clint Eastwood fan of the first order. Because I'm older, I can remember him being voted as "the world's sexiest man" in Life magazine in 1968. I was in 4th grade and when the mag arrived in the mail, I drooled all over it. I have seen every one of his movies and have most of them on Blu-Ray now. "The Eiger Sanction" came out when I was 16, in high school and beginning to swirl. I had read the book and luckily, knew someone at the theater on the military base where I was living. He sneaked me in and when Clint and Vonetta started their bantering, I was back to that Life magazine. I also saw the Star Trek episode but I didn't that as seriously because when Kirk kissed Uhura, he was angry and with his eyes open; it wasn't romantic and done under duress. Clint can attribute that kiss to making me a fan for life. He actually made swirling look sexy before people even accepted it for BW. Lucky Vonetta!

glamdll

Wow! I had forgotten about my crush on Clint!! I had never heard of this movie and I enjoyed watching it yesterday. My dad was a big fan of his. I was too young to know anything about crushing, but even then I had a thing for rainbeau men...lol

Caparice

Is this on Netflix now I'm gonna have to watch it, I have never seen a Clint Eastwood movie, I hope its good!

In 70s and 80s there a few examples of bw swirling up a storm on television and movies, what the hey happened?

I wonder about TV nowadays. The 70s were far edgier and daring than the 21st century and shows starring black actors were huge network hits. Now, you'd be hard pressed to find any color among the homogeny that are "The Big Three" networks.

It is puzzling.

Christelyn Karazin

Might have been all the drugs they were taking?

SF Kim

I was watching 60 minutes last night and they had an interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They created South Park and one of the ways they came up with the characters was by asking themselves what would Archie Bunker be like as an 8 year old. They said you would never find a show like that on TV these days because everyone is so PC.

But does anyone remember the show "Soap"? They had an IRR on that show. I was really young but I do remember the show. I've since seen re-runs and I don't know what my parents were thinking by letting me watch that show! haha

I remember 'Soap' and I remember that storyline. Maybe everybody was getting high, maybe they pass a fatty right now b/c I'm sick of all shows centered around the 1960s where the black chick has to hid out as the love interest. Ugh.

He also had a flirty/implied past dalliance with a black female cop in his latter day movie Blood Work, I kind of chuckled at that thinking, "HA! He thinks he's still got it!" Back in the day, he could've been playing a son of a b, but, in those westerns, he was extremely sexy.

gagagirl

You know what they say about men......they're like wine, they get better with age!!!!!!!

What use to turn me on the most was he would put his cigarette to the side of his mouth and squint his eyes to avoid the sun while ridding on is horse swaying back and forth. The entire package was so sexy!

Raine

Did you know that Clint's wife Dina Ruiz is part African American? Her father is half black and half Japanese and was adopted as a child by a Mexican family, hence the name Ruiz. Her mother is German I think. Dina talks poignantly about how racist people were to her in the small, nearly white California town where she was raised and called the N word. Clint still looks good for his age and his daughter with Dina is a knockout.

Luna Noire

Just as a sidebar, those of you that are familiar with Eastwood's personal story know that he is a jazz fan of the highest order (even more of a sidebar - his own son is a jazz musician).

Eastwood's labor of love was "Bird", the biography of Charlie Parker, starring Forest Whitaker in the title role. Eastwood knew he would never make his money back (he financed the film, directed it, etc.), but he didn't care. He loved the saxophonist's work so much that he did the movie anyway. Clint Eastwood reveres the art and work of the black jazz musicians from the 40's, 50's and 60's. You can draw your own conclusions as what effect that love of jazz has had on his personal life, his art, and so forth.

LorMarie

Man oh Man Clint Eastwood was a hottie back in the day!!!

Jamila

Hey! I like the name Jemima. Unfortunately the syrup company got ahold of it and ruined its image.

Valda.DeDieu

I remember I used to hunger to see the mix in older features: White and Black (all are precious in his sight) particularly when Kojak would, always end up with a white woman. I didn't mind, but...Reciprocity for the black women! So Grace Jones, in her turn on James Bond was good...

You should do a feature where we name our faves. I know I'm going to look up Eiger Sanction now. I like Clint, agree he's sexy, but blond men have a way of slipping off my radar...

But speaking of the oldie, but goodie--what about Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek and Captain Kirk's liaison? That was refreshing to watch.

But it is fitting that the most recent, and memorable, was to me, Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry in Die Another Day...I thought Pierce had the most delicious lips and I'd had a crush on him since Remington Steele...And in the way of the Universe always granting my requests, I wanted him to be James Bond so badly, which he ended up being, with Halle Berry, a black woman who, like we all know is true for black women, gets only better with age, God bless her!

I like Halle, but some of her acting in Die Another Day was terrible. They "ghettoized" her character to an extent by having her intentionally hold weapons like she was fighting in a street brawl rather than a trained assassin.

I think she did some of her best acting in MONSTER'S BALL, which I bought on DVD long ago (I rarely watch anything but action movies at the theater) and watched only for the second THIS year.

It is a poignant, puling story--heart-breaking, yet curiously full of redemption. And Heath Ledger FINALLY caught my attention. And for me, it disputes what I privately believe i.e., that racists cannot change. The Billy Bob Thorton character was an "opportunistic" racist, with no basis for his beliefs except convenience, which he readily altered once events threw him into a meaningful dissect with Halle's character.

Halle's been around a long time, and to only get better with age, refutes a lot of negativity that black women have had to deal with. So I give her a pass--on every role.