MovieChat Forums > The Eiger Sanction (1975) Discussion > Eastwood Is A Rebel Who Always Took Chan...

Eastwood Is A Rebel Who Always Took Chances

posted 19 years ago by Redeemer123
6 replies | jump to latest

I had forgotten about the interracial love scenes in this movie until a friend told me about i about it.Ive never this flick,but i knew the story line.Clint just always took chances in his career.No body really cares about interracial love now a days,but in the 70's that was taking a chance.He always said he was a rebel,and went his own way.I love the fact that he is really a fan of great jazz as Miles Davis,Ray Charles,John Coltrane,Thelonius Monk,etc.He fellows his own road in his movies.I love the guy.

[–] joekiddlouischama 19 years ago

I had forgotten about the interracial love scenes in this movie until a friend told me about i about it.Ive never this flick,but i knew the story line.Clint just always took chances in his career.No body really cares about interracial love now a days,but in the 70's that was taking a chance.

Very true. To quote myself:

And speaking of "forbidden fruit," consider Eastwood's languorous interracial sex scenes with the black Vonetta McGee and the Native American Brenda Venus in The Eiger Sanction. Interracial sex scenes (primarily between black men and white women) had become a staple of the low-budget Blaxploitation genre, starting with Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971) and Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971). But in terms of mainstream, "white" Hollywood fare, they remained rare, and Eastwood was pushing the envelope there. There is an interracial sex scene in the Blaxpolitation-oriented Bond film Live and Let Die (Hamilton, 1973) between Roger Moore and the black Gloria Hendry, but it's not nearly as sensual, explicit, and visually spectacular as the one between Eastwood and McGee in The Eiger Sanction. Plus, in Live and Let Die, Hendry is merely a secondary Bond girl who is killed off rather early in the film. But in The Eiger Sanction, the intelligent and articulate McGee is the main "spy girl" and is with Eastwood at the end of the movie.

At the end of the day, Eastwood took social risks—in one direction or the other—that most superstars have been unwilling to attempt.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068699/board/thread/1307224?d=40820437#40820437

[–] Lonixcap 13 years ago

I think the first interracial sex scene in a major-studio Hollywood movie was with Jim Brown and Raquel Welch in 1968's "100 Rifles".

Caused quite a stir back in the day. Brown also nailed Stella Stevens in 1970's "Slaughter" as he became top male blaxploitation star.

[–] pbl1 17 years ago

you're overstating your case. No sex scene with Jemima was "shown", just implied.

Further, he was just following the script/novel. Not really a rebel.

What the $%*& is a Chinese Downhill?!?

[–] c-huddleston 17 years ago

So who else would have dared to "just follow the script/novel" - then or now?

[–] joekiddlouischama 17 years ago

you're overstating your case. No sex scene with Jemima was "shown", just implied.

So you wanted a pornographic scene?

Further, he was just following the script/novel. Not really a rebel.

In that case, I guess that only writers challenge the status quo. However, we know that many Hollywood filmmakers tone down or alter iconoclastic and risque material in order to play it safe, commercially and socially. Certainly, Eastwood could have done that here.

[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

Absolutely! Clint also had an affair with an Asian woman in an earlier Dirty Harry film. I don't want to overstate those relationships because women were generally Clint's babes in his films, but he had a camaraderie with them that was impressive. Unfortunately, one of those women was a pretty bad actress actress, but she was Clint's girlfriend so she got a lot of roles.

And the use of jazz on the soundtrack is an Eastwood staple you can always depend on. Clint blazed his trail in films early on, and he's still on the path. Great actor, director, integrationist.