Clint Eastwood: Interviews, Revised and Updated

America on the Brink of the Void

156 America on the Brink of the Void Henri Béhar / 1993 Published as “L’Amérique au bord du vide” in Le Monde, December 16, 1993. Reprinted by permission; translated from the French by KC. In A Perfect World the chief players are a child and his kidnapper (Kevin Costner) on the run. If the film describes an intimate, complex relationship , which allows Clint Eastwood to reflect on the relations between a father and a son, it brings to the screen one of the wounds of American society—and certainly also of ours: the irruption of violence. Furthermore , the film is the occasion for a confrontation between two moralities , two purely American types of hero, two generations of actors. All of this is high stakes, as Clint Eastwood explains here. Q: After Unforgiven and the Oscars, was it difficult to approach a new project? A: Wait, let me think back . . . That’s a long time ago already. Q: A long time, barely a year? A: (He laughs.) Let’s see . . . In the Line of Fire lasted until the Oscars . . . Yes, A Perfect World was already underway. Q: The theme of fatherhood, of the absence of the father . . . A: . . . was very clearly developed in the original script, which the film stayed close to. Q: You seem to consider the default of the father, a poor understanding of the notions of “machismo” and virility to be responsible for many social problems . . . A: There’s been a lot written about that, it’s a major preoccupation of contemporary society, especially in the United States. henri béhar / 1993 157 Q: However, A Perfect World takes place at the end of 1963, just before the arrival in Dallas of President Kennedy, whose bodyguard you were in In the Line of Fire. A: This “Kennedy connection” was already in John Lee Hancock’s script. I didn’t discuss it with him, but it’s always seemed interesting to me to deal with the present day in the context of the past. Unforgiven took place in 1880, but it dealt with armed violence, a problem that couldn’t be more contemporary. A Perfect World takes place at one precise moment of one precise year, just on the brink of a great turning towards the void that will take hold of America. Q: This casts a tragic shadow on the whole of the film . . . A: Yes. You don’t really know where this element has its place in the picture , or if there is a place for it directly. But you feel it like an echo of Red’s disenchantment and his rebellion with regard to the political system. I thought it was good to situate this film at this particular time, which was a bit strange and as though in a state of suspense. Q: The action of A Perfect World takes place around the time of Halloween also . . . A: Halloween is a holiday when kids disguise themselves as monsters or witches. That gave me a chance, in the middle of this chase, to play with the Casper the Ghost costume, which the boy is wearing for the first time in his life. Q: . . . thus maintaining a constant presence of death . . . A: Skeletons, masks, yes . . . Q: . . . in a film that’s sunny for nearly all of its length. A: Exactly. Q: The scenes between Kevin Costner and the child, almost always in a moving car, have something very free, nearly anarchic. Your scenes most often immobilize you inside the metallic trailer that serves as your headquarters . A: That was entirely deliberate. Butch is in search of freedom—even though he doesn’t have any illusions about his “new frontier,” Alaska. He only knows it from a postcard sent long ago by a father who probably doesn’t exist and who, if he exists, doesn’t have anything to do with him. Then there’s Red in his steel shell, who maybe, at an earlier point in 158 clint eastwood: inter views time, could have helped Butch, but he’s messed up a number of things in his own life. Among which, specifically, is fatherhood. The two characters have their attractions, but also their limitations. Q: There’s no winner in the moral fight. A: No. Unless, maybe, it’s the child—at least the hope that, in spite of his emotional injuries, he’ll profit from the adventure, and will be able to...