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Hereafter and the Problems of Evil
- The University Press of Kentucky
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41 hereaFter and the Problems oF evIl Clint Eastwood as Practical Philosopher Brian B. Clayton Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand. —C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter (2010) begins peacefully enough: we hear Bruce Forman playing on acoustic guitar the film’s simple musical theme, composed by Clint Eastwood—a theme that is then joined by the sound of waves gently washing up on a shoreline. The sights are equally peaceful and tranquil: the camera first pans to show us a beautiful tropical beach filled with families and vacationers before it moves to the interior of a suite in a luxury seaside hotel. There we first see Marie Lelay (Cécile de France) as she gets out of bed and awakens her companion Didier (Thierry Neuvic) to remind him, in French, that they must go buy gifts for his children back home in Paris. Didier leaves the errand to Marie, who emerges from the hotel to cross the beach and visit the street vendors who cater to the tourists . The first sign that something is wrong is a low rumbling sound and the cries of alarm we hear from the perspective of Didier’s room. Didier rises and goes to the balcony in time to see the ocean waters rapidly receding as an immense wave begins to rush toward the shore. The tsunami overwhelms children, adults, buildings, and trees and carries with it the debris created by its impact. Back in the street market, Marie and others seem at 42 Brian B. Clayton first to be puzzled by the roaring sound and by the sight of trees toppling at the far end of the street. As the waters roar up the street, pushing cars, bodies, telephone poles and other debris with them, Marie and the others realize the danger and try futilely to escape. Marie is eventually knocked unconscious and we see her beneath the waters and hear what seems to be the beating of her heart slow down and eventually cease. Eastwood shows us Marie’s experience of a white light that backlights the figures of various people and then shows us two men who are attempting, apparently without success, to revive her. She is not breathing and has no pulse, while all around her the destructive work of the tsunami continues. Eastwood again shows us her vision of the white light and indistinct shapes and muffled sounds. The vision comes to include a helicopter overhead and then Eastwood returns to a shot of Marie as she vomits up the seawater, coughs, and returns to consciousness and to life. We next see Didier wandering through the devastation left after the floodwaters receded and running to take Marie in his arms when he spots her stumbling through the debris. All of this takes place within the first ten minutes of the film and sets out the general concern of the film with the “hereafter.” However, the possible reality and nature of a “hereafter” is not the only theme that the film raises and explores. The same tsunami that leads to Marie’s fascination with the “hereafter” is also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the loss of homes, businesses, and property. Thus, the film also provides examples of the kinds of data that raise the perennial philosophical problems of evil. These data I will call instances of suffering, in a sense to be explained below. It is with the philosophical and pastoral problems of evil raised by suffering and with Clint Eastwood’s treatment of these problems that the present essay will concern itself. As both actor and director, Eastwood has dealt in many of his films with the kinds of suffering that generate the problems of evil. One has only to look at a partial list of the films since 2001 that Eastwood has directed or in which he has acted to get a sense of the various contexts in which he has addressed these experiences. One encounters suffering in the forms of a serial killer (Blood Work, 2002), child abuse and the murder of a child (Mystic River, 2003), severe physical injury (Million Dollar Baby, 2004), the horrors of war (Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo...