In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

7 Shades of Recognition: Privilege, Dignity, and the Hubris of White Masculinity As I have mentioned throughout the book, many of Eastwood’s most important meanings are captured in the dramatic details—in how he tells his story as much as what he tells. In Million Dollar Baby, for instance, the central narrative is told entirely from the perspective of a black man, whose voice we hear from almost the very beginning to the end when he closes the film with his own conclusions. It is almost unheard of for a Hollywood film to tell a white man’s story from the perspective of a black man who interprets the action for the viewer.1 We have also seen how Eastwood has profoundly redone the ‘‘colored’’ sidekick of the traditional Western, making him more of an equal of the white protagonist of Unforgiven. In this chapter we will discuss three films—White Hunter Black Heart, True Crime, and Bird—from very different genres and with very different narrative lines, but with one key feature in common: they all explore the issue of race. At least two of them also connect white racism to the hubris of masculine narcissism, which does not recognize limits and therefore tends to confuse fantasy with reality. Before we turn to these films, however, I want to speak somewhat generally to the issue of race as it appears in the Dirty Harry films, though Eastwood directed only the last film in the series. As Dennis Bingham has correctly noted, the popularity of Dirty Harry among both white audiences and audiences of color has much to do with Callahan’s ambivalent relationship to authority.2 Even though Callahan has a badge, he clearly does not represent the establishment; he is rather a white working -class hero, who often aligns himself intentionally with society’s outsiders . As Bingham points out, in The Enforcer he even cooperates with a 169 170 Shades of Recognition group of black revolutionaries.3 I agree with Bingham’s point that throughout the series, Callahan’s identification with minorities, outsiders , and even revolutionary groups is closer to white paternalism than to the kind of equality granted to Morgan Freeman’s characters in Unforgiven and in Million Dollar Baby. However, I would like to emphasize that whether Callahan’s associations with people of color reflect his own ambivalent antiestablishment attitudes or something deeper, they have clearly set him up in a position that is strikingly different from the stereotypical role of the white do-gooder. It would, of course, be somewhat ridiculous to claim that Harry Callahan or the Dirty Harry films are genuinely antiracist. Still, by the time he directs Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood has challenged in a variety of ways the cinematic conventions that dictate that white people tell the stories and black people are merely the minor characters the white people meet along the way. White Hunter Black Heart (1990) In White Hunter Black Heart4 Eastwood plays director John Wilson, who is shooting a film on location in Africa, and the character Eastwood has created delivers a striking example of the hubris that is so integral to the white male narcissism, which we have discussed throughout this book. Wilson, it seems, has become so obsessed with the idea of shooting an elephant that he neglects the duties required to produce his own film; he puts them off time and time again while he indulges in his fantasy conquest . Pete Verrill (Jeff Fahey), a white screenwriter, becomes increasingly impatient with the constant delays in the making of the film; he is outraged as well about the director’s perverse fantasies of conquest and inhumane treatment of the Africans whom he drags along as guides. Ultimately, Verrill proclaims that the elephants Wilson wants to kill are possessed of far more dignity than he is. The outcome of Wilson’s hunt is truly tragic. Finally within range of an elephant, Wilson tries to shoot it but fails, sending it on a violent rampage. His African guide bravely leaps in front of him to protect him from the attack, and the guide is brutally mauled as the elephant tosses him into the air. The elephant and Wilson survive; the black guide does not. The villagers are absolutely horrified and grief-stricken as they carry the body away for a burial ceremony, while Wilson finally returns to shoot his film. He slowly climbs into the director’s chair and gives the order to roll...

Share