The late 60’s were not a good time for either man.nEastwood was cast in a number of Westerns, watchable nownonly because they include him. The nadir was the incrediblencatastrophe of Paint Your Wagon (1969), a musical Westernnthat combined appalling immorality with unbelievably badnsinging. Eastwood’s walk through a forest singing, “I talk tonthe trees,” may be the musical low point of a decade thatnlistened to Herman’s Hermits. The waste of money appallednEastwood as much as the aimlessness of his career,nand he finally founded Malpaso Productions and signedncontracts to produce his own movies with complete artisticncontrol.nHow the critical world howled with laughter at thatnproviso. Eastwood proceeded to make a series of movies,nsexy teasers like Play Misty for Me (1971), Westerns, andncop movies. It was the last that won him the most enduringnfame and that alienated permanently the Hollywood elite.nToday after nearly two decades we can see Dirty Harryn(1971) for what it is, a film masterpiece, directed by thengreat Don Siegel, the most influential work of popular artnsince Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Although Don Siegel is a veryndifferent director from Sergio Leone, the Italian’s vision ofnBronco Billy’s Wild West Show isnEastwood’s vision of America. In one sense,nit is a weird congeries of misfits, deserters,nand losers. Bronco Billy, however, gives tonthese people the chance to create the worldnthey need to live in. In fact, none of thenmembers of the show is authentic. Not evennthe Indian is a real Indian.nthe American West can be felt in the film’s ethical tensions.nEastwood’s Westerns were made in the Leone mold. Innfact, his Westerns were the true continuation of Leone’snproject, as the Italian’s later movies became increasinglynbizarre and out of touch with popular feeling. As in For anFew Dollars More, an act of immorality is avenged after anlong time by a tough but honest hero. The humor that wasnso essential for Leone’s first trilogy (and risks taking overnThe Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) is developed andnmatures. Already with Joe Kidd (1972) we begin to see thenadmiration for the hard-working ordinary competent personncontrasted with the immoral rich and the professionalnrevolutionary. It is a theme found in the Dirty Harrynmovies. Even so. The Outlaw Josey Wales came as ansurprise.nDirected by Eastwood himself, Josey Wales (1976) wasnbased on real incidents, the massacre of surrenderingnConfederate soldiers by Union armies at the end of the CivilnWar. The title of the movie is dripping irony. Wales has lostnhis family to Yankee raiders, as we see in staccato flashbacksnused with a power and control that Eastwood has not beennable to recover. Wales refuses to ride down to surrender tonthe Yankees, and so he witnesses the massacre that ends then22/CHRONICLESnnnsurrender. He charges and rescues one friend and becomesnan outlaw. Fleeing the relentless pursuers, he gathersnaround him a motley family of those who have suffered fromnthe Union, including an Indian and some women who havenlost their husbands and fathers. Finally he establishes a newnhomestead and turns to face his tormenters. Directed withnrestraint and considerable humor, Josey Wales is nownrecognized as one of Eastwood’s best movies, but he hasnbeen forgiven for it just as little as for Dirty Harry. There isnno clearer statement that in America, ordinary people canncreate a community without giving in to history’s victors.nThe picture of a true community that survives andnprospers while at odds with the official successful society isnfound again in Bronco Billy (1980), Eastwood’s mostnsuccessful comedy and yet one of his most serious films.nBronco Billy’s Wild West Show is Eastwood’s vision ofnAmerica. In one sense, it is a weird congeries of misfits,ndeserters, and losers. Bronco Billy, however, gives to thesenpeople the chance to create the world they need to live in. Innfact, none of the members of the show is authentic. Notneven the Indian is a real Indian. They are all fakes. Theynhave, however, created their own personas, and in the finalnscenes, the Show performs in a tent made up of Americannflags sewn by lunatics, and Eastwood tells the little pards tonlive up to the American ideals of law and order. Thenaffirmation of his country and its mores manages to bensplendidly absurd and deeply moving at the same time.nFifteen years ago the Greek scholar Jean-Pierre Vernantnsaid of Greek tragedy that it ceased to use the tragic hero as anmodel and treated him as a problem. The same change tooknplace in the popular art of the 50’s and 60’s, most strikinglynin John Ford’s later Westerns, The Searchers and The MannWho Shot Liberty Valance, and in John Le Carre’s spynnovels. The popularity of Sergio Leone’s Westerns, withntheir violence and superficial cynicism, can be placed in thisncontext. Most of the products of this time are dated. Whoncan watch Alfie or Morgan anymore? Typical of the agenwere the scenes added to Patton to cut the general down tonsize when it became obvious that George G. Scott’s tour denforce performance had made the man too heroic.nEastwood’s contribution was to show how the newnproblematic hero could be rescued, could be made a modelnagain. As in so many other ways. Dirty Harry is crucial. Thenearly scenes of the movie consistently show Harry breakingnthe rules of sensitive, caring Liberal America. We are deeplyninto the movie before we recognize with Harry’s partnernthat Harry is “dirty” because he is competent and so can benused to do all the dirty jobs. Similarly in Bronco Billy wenlearn only slowly that the Wild West Show is a PotemkinnVillage for people who are not really cowboys and Indians,nbut shoe salesmen and deserters. It is nearly the end beforenwe discover that creation of a new world by people fleeingnfrom a failed old wodd is the definition of America.nPale Rider (1985) is a typically misunderstood Eastwoodnmasterpiece. Eastwood has often borrowed key scenes fromnimportant earlier movies, but he had never attempted ancomplete mimesis of an earlier movie. Here he takes Shanenand refilms it with an Eastwood avenger in the lead. UnlikenHigh Plains Drifter (1973), where a corrupt community isndestroyed by the avenger, here the hero’s revenge saves ancommunity of miners, who face destruction at the hands ofn