Clint at Four Seasons
The legendary Clint Eastwood answered questions this morning about Flags of Our Fathers (Dreamamount, 10.20). Tall and trim, a model of silver-fox urbanity, he strode in and sat at a table in front of 60 or 70 seated entertainment journalists inside a small "ballroom" inside the Four Seasons hotel, and talked straight and plain about his World War II drama for just over 47 minutes.
The guy looked only slightly (or do I mean vaguely?) bowed by his 76 years. Tanned face, tight features, perfectly cut grayish-white hair, and wearing a beautifully tailored gray suit and light blue shirt with a tie with some kind of conservative dazzle pattern.
Before listening to this recording of the q & a, you should recall a few things.
Flags is Eastwood's sad and elegaic drama that's partly about the Marines who fought and died during the battle of Iwo Jima in early '45, but is mostly about three veterans of that battle who raised the American flag on a pole atop Mt. Surabachi during the fighting, resulting in a photo that was sent around the world and came to symbolize the valor and sacrifice of U.S. forces.
These three men -- -- John Bradley (Ryan Phillipe), Ira Hayes (Adam Beach) and Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) -- were sent home to take bows and raise funds and build morale on a big public relations tour arranged by the military. Flags partly deals with the conflicted and/or buried feelings that arose from this effort, and from the conflict between two worlds -- the godawful battle-of-Iwo-Jima world where everything was ferocious and pure and absolute, and the confusing, lost-in-the- shuffle world of back home, where almost everything felt off and incomplete.
This isn't a review or reaction of any kind -- that won't happen for another several days. But I can at least say that Flags is a mature and very soulful meditation piece with its head and heart in the right humanistic place, and that a couple of hot-shot critic friends are feeling a good amount of respect and admiration for it.
It was also obvious that the room this morning was full of respect for Eastwood and his storied career as a director, with the critical highpoints (prior to Flags of Our Fathers) being Bridges of Madison County and the Oscar-winning Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.
Now that you know the basics, listen away.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 7, 2006 at 1:13 PM
comment #1
Daniel Fienberg
says ...
I'm trying to decide if your posting of full MP3 files of non-one-on-one interviews is more lazy or more ethically problematic.
Regardless, you can be 100% certain that if every online "reporter" started posting full mp3 files within minutes of junkets, publicists would start craching down.
Dan
Posted by Daniel Fienberg
at October 7, 2006 3:05 PM
comment #2
jeffreywells
says ...
Wells to Daniel: What's your problem with this exactly? Are you saying that running an account of a press conference (i.e., a q & a transcript) in written form is okay, but it's bad if I run an mp3 file? I'm not following the thread. Clint Eastwood comes into a roomful of journalists, says a bunch of stuff and the only right way to convey what he said, you're saying, is to what? Quote him piecemeal in the format of a standard interview piece -- opening graph or two or three, quote... graph/ question/comment, quote...graph/question/comment, quote...graph/question/ comment, quote?
Posted by jeffreywells
at October 7, 2006 3:20 PM
comment #3
austin111
says ...
.....a fair amount of respect and admiration for it.
Why does that not sound like a kind of outright "Clint hits another one out of the ballpark" endorsement? Interesting.....not that I'm thinking this will be bad or anything of the like. But that's an interesting thing to say.
Posted by austin111
at October 7, 2006 3:36 PM
comment #4
jeffreywells
says ...
Wells to austin11: I'm just saying these guys are feeling respect and admiration...no qualification implied. I changed the adjective from "fair" to "good", just to emphasize this.
Posted by jeffreywells
at October 7, 2006 3:48 PM
comment #5
austin111
says ...
austin111 to Jeff -- no matter, "good" is still not quite "great", is it?
But we'll let that go for now. This may well be the best film of the year. Hopefully it'll be better than Million Dollar Baby, at least.
And, yes, Emanuel Levy clearly hearts it (FOOF, that is).
Posted by austin111
at October 7, 2006 4:08 PM
comment #6
Zac Bertschy
says ...
Uh, speaking as a journalist and someone who has been in MANY press conferences, it is absolutely understood by everyone in the room that everything that gets asked or answered will be run in full by everyone in the room, be it by transcript or video or MP3.
Something tells me Daniel is very good at making himself SOUND like he's some kind of final arbiter on what is or isn't appropriate in journalism but odds are he has absolutely not a single clue what he's talking about. Everything he said is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Publicists have no reason to crack down. A press conference is a highly orchestrated event in the first place, they obviously EXPECT it all to get out.
In conclusion: Daniel, if you want to sound like an authority on something, maybe you should know what the hell you're talking about first. Christ.
Posted by Zac Bertschy
at October 7, 2006 6:39 PM
comment #7
kates09er
says ...
I second Zac
I've been to dozens of sports press conferences, everything goes out on video and Mp3, no reason Hollywood is any different.
They way any corporate entity "controls" a press conference is through press credentials, not by controlling whether or not video/mp3 goes online. As long as they have who they want on the floor, its Mission Accomplished as far as their concerned.
Posted by kates09er
at October 7, 2006 8:32 PM
comment #8
Nate West
says ...
Where do the publicists who are ethically opposed to publicity work? Which firm is that?
Posted by Nate West
at October 7, 2006 11:07 PM
comment #9
Daniel Fienberg
says ...
Well put, Zac. And tactfully put!
Am I really wrong? "Wrong, wrong, wrong"? Do I really not have a single clue ("absolutely not a single clue," at that) what I'm talking about? Or do I not know what the hell I'm talking about? Would you like to repeat your point several other different redundant ways?
Christ, indeed.
Something tells me that you're very good at DRAMATICALLY over-reacting in a situation where you could have just said, "I have many decades of reporting under my belt [as I'm assuming you do, from your endearingly superior attitude] and Daniel is incorrect in his opinion" and that would have sufficed.
Heck, if everybody figures that this is OK, it must be.
My sincerest apologies Jeff.
And my sincerest apologies to you, Zac, for offending your expertise through my mistaken concerns and, clearly, my ignorance.
Christ.
-Daniel
Posted by Daniel Fienberg
at October 7, 2006 11:34 PM
comment #10
Nick Rogers
says ...
Just me, but I would substitute "Mystic River" for "Million Dollar Baby" in that list of highpoints. I have yet to be blown away by anything Paul Haggis has done, with Eastwood or anyone else.
Posted by Nick Rogers
at October 8, 2006 9:33 AM
comment #11
kojled
says ...
jeff
nice job. i'm posting a link over at mb
ag
Posted by kojled
at October 8, 2006 9:57 AM