Be Someone's Clint Eastwood

I decided as part of my birthday celebration yesterday that I would take myself to a movie. I love sitting in a darkened theater on a weekday afternoon, wearing my favorite jeans and long-sleeved tee shirt, knowing that most of the rest of the world is at work. It feels decadent and decidedly celebratory. 

I chose to see J. Edgar. I knew Leonardo DiCaprio would turn in a solid performance and I wasn't disappointed. The film will be Oscar-worthy but a movie review isn't the point of this post. 

(The following does not contain spoilers, I promise.) 

I was sitting alone in the theater until just a few minutes before the film began when four different groups of senior citizens arrived and sat within a few seats of me, in all directions. If I had to guess, I would estimate the median age to have been 78 years old. Due to varying degrees of social manners and hearing loss, I was privy to most of their incessant conversations throughout the showing, though I didn't expect the insights I would gain. 

During one scene, Mr. Hoover was watching a television news program when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came on and began to speak. Mr. Hoover rose from the sofa, turned off the television, and left the room. One elderly woman behind me asked her husband, "Do you suppose Hoover was racist?"  He responded, "Probably. But everyone was. We didn't know not to."  

That took me a few minutes to digest. I'm choosing to see a glimmer of hope in what he said. Perhaps continual messages from leaders, media, and society that racism is a negative force based in ignorance and fear, and that it tears us apart as a nation, rather than builds us up... maybe they do help to soften hardened hearts, over time. (I didn't see Hoover's reaction as racist, given the context, but I promised no spoilers. Neither am I insinuating that racism is extinct. Unfortunately, that scourge will probably be around as long as there are two people on earth who don't resemble each other.) 

I wasn't as heartened by most of the rest of what I heard. If you are familiar with J. Edgar Hoover's reputation, you will remember that it was rumored that he was a closeted homosexual. The film portrays his relationship with Agent Clyde Tolson (brilliantly portrayed by Armie Hammer) tastefully and with great respect to the admiration between the two men but if I were to elaborate, it may lead to spoilers, so I will leave it at that. 

Taste and respect were not on display in the theater, however. Every scene that contained the tiniest innuendo was met with exaggerated sighs, groans, and disgruntled commentary. At first it made me angry but when I tried to understand them (my minor in psychology makes an appearance once again), something clicked. The men in the audience, being of a certain age, didn't feel as though they would be seen as "real men" if they didn't publicly show disgust at even tasteful displays of affection between two men. It made my heart hurt... for them, and all the decades of men who have been on either side of that line. 

Then the credits rolled. Director: Clint Eastwood.  Producer: Clint Eastwood.  Music: Clint Eastwood. 

The icon of "real men" everywhere was all over this film. I could feel the atmosphere in the room change. I could almost hear the inner dialogues of the men around me. Here was someone they all looked up to, all admired, and he had produced the "garbage", as one man had remarked during a scene, they had just watched. The disconnect was palpable.

Did the men leave the theater mulling over the decisions and directions given by one of their role models? Perhaps. Will they be more tolerant tomorrow? Probably not. But perhaps, over time, messages of tolerance and acceptance and inclusion will soften hardened hearts once again.

In my mind, we have one reason for being. We are here to love one another. Not just those who look like us, act like us, and believe like us. We are here to love one another. 

If we have a second reason for being, it might be this:  Remind others of their reason for being. Be someone's Clint Eastwood. 

Comments

[Jerry Shannon]

Nice article. The last two paragraphs are very profound. You have an obvious talent for writing, and a better one for reaching out to others through your writing. I have to say that this was a most pleasant and unexpected surprise.