CHAPTER 4 Clint Eastwood and the Western Hero/Antihero
4.1. The Significance of Clint Eastwood's Persona and Movies There are many reasons for which, after my analysis of the origins and evolution of the image of the Western hero/antihero in some of the main representative stages of American popular culture, I have decided to draw my attention in the last chapter to the work of one of the most famous American "starteurs" of the twentieth-century movie production, Clint Eastwood. The term "starteur" is used by Lawrence F. Knapp in the introduction of his book, Directed by Clint Eastwood: 18 films analyzed (1996), to define the small number of star-auteurs who on the one hand affirm the basic assumption of the "auteur theory," according to which the directors should express themselves in a personal and consistent manner, and on the other hand have been able to distinguish themselves maintaining their independence intact (Knapp, 1996:1-4). In particular, "starteurs" are those artists who both interpret and direct their movies, and therefore create their screen personae by themselves or, as Knapp puts it,
[those artists who] have a self-reflective relationship to their work; their films are an extended dialogue with their screen personae, an attempt to shape, reshape, and break the mould that gave them their initial creative and commercial independence. (Knapp, 1996:2) This is clearly Eastwood's case, as he himself has claimed, "To me, what a Clint Eastwood picture is, is one that I'm in" (quoted in Knapp, 1996:4). Eastwood's complete control of his screen persona in most of his movies thanks to his condition of actor-director is among the reasons 171