Saturday, July 18, 2015

Peanuts A-Flyin'

I noticed three or four interesting things about the Clint Eastwood movie famously costarring an orangutan (EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE), but rather than focusing on them I'll just say how weird the first scene is, with a guy repeatedly calling Clint Eastwood a "squirrel" because Clint wants some peanuts. Is that a really big insult? And anyway, THAT guy was just eating peanuts! Does he consider HIMSELF a "squirrel"? The guy throws taunts at Eastwood like, "What's the matter, SQUIRREL? You gonna go to your tree and eat peanuts?" etc. etc. Really the guy doesn't want to share his peanuts but he's expressing it in an odd, self-lacerating way, isn't he? Clint doesn't like being referred to as a squirrel. He hits the guy and peanuts go flying! (You know, now that I've seen the whole movie I can get something even out of this... the way the guy is unable to say what he really means and is therefore helplessly compelled to provoke violence in order to feel a sense of resolution... this is a problem with masculinity as the movie sees it... an interpretation borne out with surprising vehemence at the emotional climax of the film - which wasn't directed by Eastwood, by the way, but certainly seems to reflect his usual thematic concerns. Well, see, I started off wanting to goof on the peanut thing but I couldn't.) Pictured, foreground, the guy getting worked up and starting to call Clint Eastwood a squirrel.