Hold It Real Still: Clint Eastwood, Race, and the Cinema of the American West

In the late 1970s, the American Western film genre rebranded itself in response to global and domestic political affairs, shifting from an initial doctrine of racial liberalism to a motile agenda of substitution, exclusion, and false equivalency. Clint Eastwood's work, particularly The Outlaw Josey Wales, responded to social and political upheavals in America, such as defeat in Vietnam, riots in northern cities, the civil rights movement, and the Great Migration. Lawrence Jackson's book examines how these films contain strategies to stymie civil rights progress and racial equity in the United States, offering an astonishing revision of what audiences and critics thought they understood about the genre.

Format: Hardback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 15 November 2022
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

In his book "Hold It Real Still", Lawrence Jackson delves into the profound impact of Clint Eastwood on the Western film genre and explores how it has evolved into the twenty-first century as an ideological tool for expressing ideas about race and imperialism. Jackson argues that the Western genre underwent a significant shift, moving from an initial doctrine of racial liberalism during the John Wayne era to a more complex agenda of substitution, exclusion, and false equivalency during the Clint Eastwood period. The book meticulously traces how Eastwood, initially associated with the avant-garde, anti-colonialist discourse of spaghetti western cinema, reversed himself in the second half of the 1970s with the film "The Outlaw Josey Wales". This film, at its core, embodied the fantasy of Black erasure from American life.

By situating Eastwood's work within the context of massive social and political upheavals in America, including the defeat in Vietnam, riots in northern cities, the civil rights movement, and the Great Migration, Jackson offers a unique critique that sheds light on the contradictory symbolic structures at work in these masterpieces. Through a close reading of four blockbuster films, namely "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", "Josey Wales", "Ride with the Devil", and "Django Unchained", Jackson highlights the ways in which these films continue to shape discourses in cinematic arts, American liberalism, the Western genre, and race relations today.

By juxtaposing the films' motifs, tropes, and hidden Black figures with historicist readings, Jackson exposes the containment strategies employed by the 1970s and beyond to stymie critical thinking and challenge dominant narratives. His analysis provides a valuable lens through which to understand the complexities of the Western genre and its ongoing relevance in shaping our understanding of race, power, and identity.

Weight: 612g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781421444130