Mechanisms of Violence in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and Mystic
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Mechanisms of Violence in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and Mystic River Allen Redmon 315 Mechanisms of Violence in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and Mystic River Allen Redmon Following his first international success as an culture depends on violence for social cohesion actor in the Man with no Name trilogy, Clint and interpersonal concord.1 Girard’s recognition Eastwood formed his own production company, of the way in which violence galvanizes society Malpaso. The name was not selected for artistic and eases personal and communal tensions and his purposes, at least none that has been professed to theory’s ability to explain human fascination with this point, but Eastwood’s selection does have and reliance upon violence is quite useful. In literary significance. With the release of Unfor- Violence and the Sacred, Girard proposes that given (1992), Eastwood fully explores the ‘‘bad human life is engulfed by mimesis that results in step’’—one English variation of malpaso—that paroxysms of violence. Surprisingly, the violence culture has made throughout human history and that is generated by the rivalry in which two in- that nearly all of his earlier films had identified in dividuals are locked is not directed against the ri- part: namely, that society is typically founded on val, but against a common enemy upon which the the mistaken notion that order can be achieved rivals can invent some degree of guilt. A syn- through ‘‘good’’ or ‘‘sacred’’ violence. That Amer- chronization against a common one takes place, icans and other cultures have invested themselves an entity that has been deemed guilty in the eyes in such a fable cannot be debated; beyond the way of the two rivals, if not the entire community, in which daily events support this statement, the which itself is always already equally injected success of films that openly embrace this fiction is with rivalries and tensions that cannot find relief abundant, films in which a virtuous or an injured apart from acts of violence. The conflagration that hero overcomes all obstacles to see that evil is results in a communal act of violence against this eradicated using whatever means necessary. The other temporarily reduces hostility between indi- purpose of this article is to demonstrate the way viduals and allows discord to subside for a season. in which Eastwood’s most recent film, Mystic Girard refers to this phenomenon as the scapegoat River (2003), reaches an uncompromised expose´ mechanism, and claims that this apparatus can be of the consequences that follow reliance on mech- located at the foundation of all human interac- anisms of violence. tions and social formations. For more than a decade, Eastwood has been Rather than occurring in a translucent manner, producing films that seem to stage the very ten- the scapegoat mechanism’s operation is veiled, at dencies that Rene Girard (anthropological and least when employed properly. The community, literary perspective) and Walter Wink (theological now enjoying unprecedented cohesion, remem- perspective) have been working to investigate, bers the way in which the violent action against each in an attempt to reveal the way in which the one2 inspired camaraderie between the once Allen Redmon is an assistant professor in the English department at East Texas Baptist University. He is interested in violence in film, film genres, the Bible in film, and examining the Bible as literature. 316 The Journal of American Culture Volume 27, Number 3 September 2004 warring parties. The comrades attribute their reported from the perspective of the ruling class newfound unity to the act of violence that has or the victors. The victim’s perspective must never just been committed, and in so doing, begin to be observed. Culture is safe and the scapegoat name as sacred that which might otherwise be mechanism is intact only as long as the violence is considered a profane act. The now sacred event is viewed from the perspective of the perpetrators. often reenacted in officially sanctioned ritual, Also recognizing culture’s fascination with and maximizing the effect of the original murder and dependence upon violence, but believing that the concealing and making permissible the continued scapegoat mechanism offers only a partial expla- use of the scapegoat mechanism. nation for why societies begin to trust violence The usefulness of Girard’s observations does in purgative ways, American theologian Walter not end with simply identifying the way in which Wink advocates his own mechanism: the myth of humans rely on mechanisms of violence to mod- redemptive violence. Wink suggests that human erate ever-increasing tensions and rivalries; he also history has been forged on the misguided notion reveals the resulting ‘‘bad step’’ that occurs as a that chaos is subdued and order achieved through consequence of this reliance on violence. The acts of violence that very often need not involve a peace that the scapegoat mechanism affords does third party, which the scapegoat mechanism re- not continue indefinitely for at least two reasons. quires. Instead, the myth of redemptive violence First, because human relations are negotiated relies on the emergence of a stronger hero who is through imitation—or, what Girard labels mime- able, through surpassing violent force, to annihi- sis,3—civilization is perpetually fated to exist in a late the powerful evil that threatens human exis- world of violence. The effects of the rituals meant tence. In this way, life is reduced to combat, and to diffuse rivalries will diminish, and when they personal and communal concord is sustained do, humans will be forced to enact the scapegoat through the perpetuation of the notion that the mechanism once again or risk apocalyptic vio- physically powerful can purge the world of evil lence.4 Because of the way in which each prior act through righteous violence. very much determines all future acts, this cycle Several aspects of American culture demon- can never terminate unless a model emerges that strate the extent to which Americans depend on avoids participation in the mechanisms of vio- Wink’s myth, be it the trends that emerge in lence, or a community is willing to recognize the American history books, the way in which the innocent face or voice of a victim crushed in this American judicial system operates, or the manner social apparatus. Without such a model or a public in which this society entertains itself. The plot for expose´, humanity can only respond in violence to most American history books revolves around a the hostility it encounters, leading to a second stronger people throwing off the oppression or ‘‘bad step.’’ threat imposed by an ‘‘evil.’’ Each war is cham- Disillusioned into believing that one can never pioned as a march to greater freedoms. In his ar- escape the mechanisms of violence on which so- ticle ‘‘The War for Independence and the Myth of ciety depends, culture is forced to begin to deem Redemptive Violence,’’ James C. Juhnke shows some violent acts as ‘‘good.’’ That such a distinc- this tendency: tion can never be offered objectively and there- fore is inherently slippery is never fully con- The average American citizen celebrates the sidered. Contemplation of the potential flaws glorious march of freedom: the American in society’s assessment of the ‘‘good’’ violence ex- revolution won freedom from colonialism; the Civil War won freedom from slavery; ecuted can only frustrate the mechanisms on and the great world wars of the twentieth which that same society depends for some meas- century won freedom from totalitarian op- ure of harmony. To ensure that violent acts earn pressors. The foundational structure of the designation they deserve and that the com- American history is that of freedom won munity at large requires, violence must always be through violence. (438) Mechanisms of Violence in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and Mystic River Allen Redmon 317 When history is told in this manner, moments and not contested or that the innocence of the of freedom and progress are found only in times perpetrator is never suspected, the victim’s voice of war and violence. Such a position extends be- must never be heard, nor should the victim’s yond the history books and into the way in which face ever be perceived. In his seminal book, Vio- the American judicial system operates, a system lence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads,Gil founded on the belief that the worst ‘‘evils’’ can Bailie has shown that the world’s societies have only be corrected through state-sanctioned exe- always gone to great lengths to keep the victim cutions. Furthermore, Wink shows that the en- concealed and silent, thereby allowing a belief in the tertainment industry, for adults and children alike, mechanisms of violence on which the world depends relies on the myth of redemptive violence. For to continue to function. The timelessness of this example, Wink presents the classic cartoon Popeye propensity is illustrated in Aeschylus’s ancient play as an affirmation of the myth of redemptive Agamemnon, a brief discussion of which will lead to violence: a better understanding of the method Eastwood uses In a typical segment, Bluto abducts a to expose the mechanisms of violence found in screaming and kicking Olive Oyl . When Unforgiven and Mystic River. Popeye attempts to rescue her, the massive To ensure success for him and his fleet, Bluto beats his diminutive opponent to a Agamemnon brings himself to slay his daughter, pulp . At the last moment, as our hero Ipheginia, who is well known and loved by all, oozes to the floor . a can of spinach pops each man having heard her sing ‘‘in celebration for from Popeye’s pocket and spills into his her father/With a pure voice, affectionately, vir- mouth.