The London Daily Mail reports on everybody's favorite sensitive tough white guy's opnions on political correctness interfering with a good racist joke, as told to Germany's Der Spiegal magazine. Sounds like maybe Dirty Harry wasn't just PLAYING a bigot in his latest movie. No wonder he didn't win "best actor." Sad. Just, sad.
Clint Eastwood goes gunning for PC killjoys by saying we should laugh at race-based jokes
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 1:16 AM on 26th February 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1155360/Clint-Eastwood-goes-gunning-PC-killjoys-saying-laugh-race-based-jokes.html
Clint Eastwood, who is promoting his new film Gran Torino, says political correctness has gone too far
Clint Eastwood believes the rise of political correctness is no laughing matter.
He says the world would be a better place if we could still laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races.
The Hollywood actor and director, 78, said we live in constant fear of being labelled racist for simply laughing about national stereotypes.
'People have lost their sense of humour,' he told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
'In former times we constantly made jokes about different races.
'You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.
'I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a "Sam the Jew" or "Jose the Mexican" - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist
thought.
'It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem.
''I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.'
Holiday cheer.
4 days ago
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3 comments:
Wow...that is all I can say.
To be fair, Eastwood's "Gran Torino" is decidedly not racist, despite the racial slurs Eastwood's character, Walt Kowalski, throws around.
Kowalski has little love for his family (all white.) They have lost all their traditional values, and have become obsessively materialistic and cold to him.
Mr. Kowalski is initially wary of his Hmong neighbours, calling them racist words. Sue, the elder of the Hmong children, merely laughs at his racist jokes and invites him over for barbecue and beer.
Kowalski soon bonds with his Hmomg neighbours. While Kowalski's true, white, grandchildren are text-messaging and playing Playstation portable and giggling at their grandmother's (Walt's wife), Kowalski bonds with Thao, the Hmong boy next door, helping him find a job and teaching him and mentoring him.
Racial slurs aside, "Gran Torino" is truly about judging someone not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
Thanks for filling me in on Gran Torino, Jordan--I haven't seen it, and based my comparison of Eastwood's attitudes and that of his latest character solely on the previews/trailers I'd seen of the movie.
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