Posted on 09/01/2012 12:15:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Politicos and policy wonks have been parsing every major speech offered at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, each with his or her own lens. (The exception is MSNBC, which apparently declined to parse several speeches by ethnic minorities.) Some have commented on the gender-war content of Ann Romney’s statements; some have focused on the deep policy weeds of Vice-Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan.
But the most transformative moment — in its way, the most redolent of the Tea Party revolution — was Clint Eastwood’s conversation with an empty chair in which President Obama was not sitting.
One of the clearest tidbits recalled from my playwright studies was a device that effectively made a murder victim present on the stage. On a set of his house, during an interview scene with family members, the script called for the actor playing a detective to lean his hand on the dead character’s favorite rocking chair and “inadvertently” set it in motion.
What Clint Eastwood emphasized, with his seemingly improvised chat with the invisible Obama was the absurd notion of having a man-to-man talk with the Vogue-interviewee president. Eastwood was a real celebrity expressing common-man ideas to a celebrity commander in chief.
Even more, Eastwood’s fame is founded in his being a character actor whose chief characteristic is to cut through nonsense. Tough and real; doing what needs to be done.
Viewers who found the speech peculiar (mainly those in academia, entertainment, and media, I’d wager) may have done so because Eastwood used a theatrical device in the service of the wrong script… from their point of view and according to their expectations. As a thought experiment, they should imagine some other actor’s using the exact same gimmick at the Democrat National Convention, with a non-present Mitt Romney.
To be sure, an invisible, unapproachable businessman would be much more to type than a “populist,” progressive community organizer, just as the Occupy movement is much more in keeping with the established images of grassroots activism than the Tea Party.
Beyond the screen writer’s flair, though, the feel of Clint Eastwood’s convention speech was not of soaring political rhetoric, but of a movie awards ceremony, as if he were speaking to an audience of peers. And there again is the unique character that he has been in the public imagination, as if we the people are his peers, not the glitzy stars. He introduced himself to the GOP audience as a “movie tradesman.”
What Eastwood did, with his extemporaneous air and unfilled chair, was to call bull**** on the increasingly untenable narrative that the Left has been weaving through all of the public institutions that it has spent decades infiltrating. He elevated to TV Land the shocking breach of story line and etiquette that hit YouTube years ago when angry citizens shouted down their Senators at town hall meetings.
The speech may not be a pivot point to a new reality in Hollywood, and the political side it serves may not win the day in November, but to the guardians of the elite, it was definitely a statement new, even though to the rest of us it was a very familiar sensation.
It’s a pity that Gov. Bob McDonnell caved to the MSM within minutes of Eastwood’s brilliant speech. When will Republicans grow a set?
Dirty Harry Meets Clean Mitt
Saturday, September 01, 2012 1:47:14 PM · 28 of 28
KeyLargo to Kaslin
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE
www.nationalreview.com
The Corner
The one and only.
Play Clinty For Me
By Mark Steyn
August 31, 2012 3:08 P.M.
Like William F. Gavin, I hugely enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s turn last night, but I’m not sure I agree that it was “unintentionally hilarious” and that “he forgot his lines, lost his way.” Clint is a brilliant actor, and a superb director of other actors (and I don’t just mean a quarter-century ago: In the last five years, he’s directed eight films). He’s also, as Mr. Gavin observed, a terrific jazz improviser at the piano — and, in film and music documentaries, an extremely articulate interviewee. So I wouldn’t assume that the general tenor of his performance wasn’t exactly as he intended. The hair was a clue: No Hollywood icon goes out on stage like that unless he means to.
John Hayward writes:
The intended recipient was not Mitt Romney, the convention delegates, or even Republican voters, but rather wavering independents. Clint was there to tell them it’s OK to find Obama, his ugly campaign operation, and his increasingly shrill band of die-hard defenders ridiculous. It’s OK to laugh at them.
I’m not sure he could have pulled that off if he’d delivered a slick telepromptered pitch.
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/315658
What did McDonnell say?
Empty-chair interviews officially a trend after Clint Eastwood RNC speech
Clint Eastwood interviewed an empty chair Thursday night at the RNC, in a speech that took a remarkably maverick tone even without the stunt.
Punks on Twitter couldn’t believe how lucky they got. (Except Tom Brokaw.) A British correspondent tried to make sense of American Democracy. People took their own photos of empty chairs, and naturally there’s now a Twitter account for Clint’s.
More important, this was the fourth incidence of an Elijah seat on TV since the beginning of the year. Piers Morgan had one on his CNN show this month after U.S. Rep. Todd Akin canceled an appearance. Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed a chair in March, after a lawyer for George Zimmerman left the studio unexpectedly. Also on MSNBC that month, Thomas Roberts interviewed an empty chair after a guest didn’t show — and had to apologize after the network admitted it had brought her to the wrong studio.
It may be difficult for print journalists to hop on this trend, which, it should be noted, has only a 50 percent success rate. But please send examples of your own attempts. Here’s one guy who tried to capitalize on it:
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST
It's been totally entertaining to follow the twitter explosion as well, this thing has a life of it's own!
We have Dirty Harry. The dems. have Dingy Harry.....no contest.
Alinsky's Rules For RadicalsRule 5:
Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
He missed the chance to put an empty suit on the chair, that would have been great symbolism right there...
Eastwood kicked ass and took names. Just as he has done throughout his entire career. Spin it any way you want but them’s the facts.
This has really turned the table on the Obamaites!
Hope and Chair - Twitter Explosion
"Liberals cannot stand being laughed at."
They have an overblown sense of self worth and ANYTHING that threatens that sense of worth is to be feared....deprecating laughter more than anything drives them ape-sh*t.
By making it an empty chair only, he also reinforced Obama’s penchant for never making himself available to any real questions...........In this sense even the media has to acknowledge the message was spot on.
An Observation:
Anything similar the democrats do to imitate and retaliate will be seen as sour grapes and will fall flat on its face with everyone except Obama die-hards.
“It’s a pity that Gov. Bob McDonnell caved to the MSM within minutes of Eastwood’s brilliant speech. When will Republicans grow a set?”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Look at the bright side. It’s almost become a “good-cop, bad-cop” thing. Either way, people are talking about US, not THEM.
Embrace it. Run with it. Be positive about it.
“Eastwood kicked ass and took names.”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Yeah - until his pen ran out of ink.
Then he just kicked ass.
The real genius was that he managed to keep his performance under two hours for once ...
Brilliant, I think Eastwood was talking directly to independent voters with that line. Those voters are the key to defeating Obama.
“What did McDonnell say?”
To quote creatively, “BURRRRRRRPP!!!” After eating a burger, super-size fries, and a milkshake. - Beyond that, WHO CARES!?!!
Clint rocked. Period.
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