When Clint Eastwood Surprised the Republican National Convention
What that Performance Reveals about Hollywood Groupthink
Dear Readers,
After the 2011 Tucson Shooting, I made this video (below), which is unfortunately timely once again.
Thanks for making Shiny Herd a part of your day.
All the best,
Ted
Presidential conventions are known for being highly scripted affairs, but one year a mystery guest took a different approach.
The primetime speaker addressed the audience without a teleprompter, script, or prepared remarks. He decided to wing it in front of 30 million people. He even made a last-minute decision to add a sight gag, and delivered his remarks to an empty chair.
What might have been more surprising than Clint Eastwood’s 2012 Republican National Convention performance was that he was there at all. Political Hollywood includes many stars, but they’re almost always on the left. Of course, the fact that progressives dominate the entertainment industry isn’t surprising, but what might be is that groupthink’s grip on pop culture is even tighter than it seems.
Just Try to Be Different
Imagine you’re an actor or director who breaks into the industry, and you’re determined to be true to your heterodox beliefs—maybe you’re a conservative, a libertarian, a TERF, an observant Jew or Christian or some other type of nonconformist. You’ll soon discover that you face an ideological gauntlet—comprised of agents, producers, distributors, reviewers and others—that pushes you to choose between your career and your problematic beliefs.
Let’s focus on movies and television shows, and consider some problematic entertainment industry stars who have been active over the past 30 years: Jerry Seinfeld, Denzel Washington, J.K. Rowling, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Vince Vaughn, Roseanne Barr, Mike Judge, Robert Duvall, Macy Gray, Jon Voight, James Woods, Bruce Willis, Rob Schneider, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Sylvester Stallone, Adam Sandler, Joel Surnow, Andy Garcia, Drew Carey, Mel Gibson, David Lynch, Kelsey Grammar, Patricia Heaton, Heather Locklear, Kurt Russell, Tim Allen, Dennis Quaid, and, of course, Clint Eastwood.
Now, how many of those began their careers as out-of-the-closet dissidents? I can’t think of a single one. (If I’m overlooking something, let me know.)
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My hunch is that nearly all heterodox stars begin their careers as members of the monoculture. Maybe they haven’t yet developed their problematic world views. Maybe they mouth the correct in-group platitudes. Maybe they simply keep their mouths shut.
And when they do open their mouths, what happens next?
It’s one thing if they merely slip some incorrect comments into an interview, but it’d be a bigger deal if they add some intellectual variety to our tedious entertainment offerings.
So let’s consider that question: How many of the above incorporated their heterodox views into film or television projects?
Here are the only ones that come to mind: Andy Garcia (example: For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story), Mel Gibson (The Passion of the Christ), Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider (Leo), Tim Allen (No Safe Spaces), Dennis Quaid (Reagan), Jon Voight (Reagan) and, my former boss, Drew Carey.
As The Drew Carey Show was winding down, I co-created the Drew Carey Project, which was a series of documentary shorts about topics ranging from school choice to the criminalization of bacon-wrapped hotdogs. That effort spawned another project I helped produce, the 2009 ABC News Special Bailouts and Bull, which was hosted by another former boss of mine, John Stossel.
Looking for Exceptions
Now let’s return to the earlier question: How many recent big stars began their careers as openly problematic? I can’t identify a single one from the list above, but maybe Eastwood deserves a closer look.
He played the culturally conservative Harry Callahan fairly early in his career (he was complaining about DEI before those infamous letters were ever stuck together). That counts for something, but Dirty Harry’s broad cultural conservatism is a far cry from the overt political messaging delivered by, say, Michael Douglas in The American President.
Eastwood was still just playing a role, which is different from so many Hollywood progressives who often make no bones about on-screen messaging reflecting her personal worldviews. And it seems like many 92 percenters who claim Eastwood as an ideological ally, overstate the degree to which his films challenged Hollywood dogmas.
Fans often cite 2008’s Gran Torino as a movie that the industry wouldn’t usually make. They’re probably right about that. Today’s Hollywood would howl about it advancing the white savior trope, but that’s mostly evidence of why Eight Percenters wouldn’t like it. I’m wondering about something else: Why is the movie so popular among non-progressives?
You could say it depicts a law-and-order worldview or that it’s vaguely pro-gun. That’s not nothing, but it doesn’t seem like enough to earn Eastwood’s reputation as someone who regularly defies the monoculture on screen.
A Very Small Club
There must be some modern-day film and television stars who started their careers as vocal monoculture dissidents, and continue to stick it to the man today.
You could probably make the case for Dave Chappelle (considering his work on Chappelle's Show), and Bill Maher and (Coddling movie fan!) John Cleese definitely make the cut. But I’d point first to Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
We know the South Park creators as the mischievous libertarians who delight in plunging into just about every taboo subject you might imagine. That’s who they are today and that’s who they were when South Park debuted in 1997. Perhaps no entertainment duo has ever cheated career death as often, as successfully, and as gleefully as Parker and Stone.
Alas, Hollywood gives us so many Matt Damons and so few Matt Stones.
That makes our Netflix queues rather bland, and it makes awards shows seem like black tie political rallies.
But today’s exercise suggests that Hollywood’s enforced conformity delivers more serious consequences. What do I mean? I’ll explain next week in Part 2.
Ted Balaker is a filmmaker, and former network newser and think tanker. His recent work includes Little Pink House starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, Can We Take a Joke? featuring Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Jillette, and the new feature documentary based on the bestselling book, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. Stream the very first “Substack Presents” feature documentary here.
Just go to newspapers.com or the like. It was a regular election feature each presidential election.
I’m old enough to remember the days (1960s and 1970s) when newspapers each presidential election year published side-by-side lists of which movie stars were endorsing the Democratic nominees and which ones were endorsing the Republican nominees. Both lists were lengthy.