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<v Speaker 1>This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

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<v Speaker 1>Clint Eastwood turned 96 recently, which means that he is

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<v Speaker 1>older than the talkies. He was born the same year

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<v Speaker 1>that sound in movies came in. So think about that.

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<v Speaker 1>There's never been a moment in the history of movies

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<v Speaker 1>that talk when Clint Eastwood was not alive. That is

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<v Speaker 1>not a man with a career. That's like a geological formation.

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<v Speaker 1>And it got me thinking about a movie of his

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<v Speaker 1>that I love, Dirty Harry, from 1971. And yeah, I

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<v Speaker 1>know it's, talking about this movie, it's one of those

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<v Speaker 1>oily rags in the garage kind of things, dangerous to

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<v Speaker 1>bring up, one little spark and the place goes up

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<v Speaker 1>in flames. But it's a pretty gripping thriller. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a pretty terrific movie. But it is also a

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<v Speaker 1>lot like another movie, a movie that almost nobody remembers,

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<v Speaker 1>called The Sniper from 1952. They are basically... Honestly, they're

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<v Speaker 1>the same movie. They're both set in San Francisco. They're

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<v Speaker 1>both about a guy shooting strangers from the rooftops, both

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<v Speaker 1>with a tense police stakeout on the hills of the city.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, the rooftop sequences are so similar that you

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<v Speaker 1>have to assume that somebody on the Dirty Harry crew

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<v Speaker 1>had seen the earlier picture and just quietly helped himself,

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<v Speaker 1>which is more than okay to do. I personally have

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<v Speaker 1>helped myself many times to plot devices and scraps of

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<v Speaker 1>dialogue from the Dick Van Dyke show. That's sort of

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<v Speaker 1>how show business works. So Dirty Harry and the Sniper.

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<v Speaker 1>Same city, same crime, same rooftops, but 19 years apart.

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<v Speaker 1>And completely different movies because they were made by and

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<v Speaker 1>for completely different Americas. In The Sniper, the hero isn't

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<v Speaker 1>the cop. It's the psychiatrist. There's a doctor in that

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<v Speaker 1>movie who keeps insisting the killer doesn't need punishing, he

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<v Speaker 1>needs help, they have the right tools and a little understanding,

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<v Speaker 1>this poor lonely man can be fixed. And here's what's amazing.

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<v Speaker 1>In 1952, Nobody in the audience laughed at that. That

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<v Speaker 1>was considered a sensible position. That was the optimistic, modern,

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<v Speaker 1>can-do American thing to believe. We have the technology. We

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<v Speaker 1>can fix this man. Cut to 1971. Harry Callahan would

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<v Speaker 1>have thrown that psychiatrist off the roof. When the bureaucrats

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<v Speaker 1>and the shrinks and Dirty Harry start talking about the

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<v Speaker 1>killer's rights and the killer's troubled childhood, Harry's lip curls

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<v Speaker 1>up and Probably so does the whole audiences, because by 1971,

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<v Speaker 1>America had spent the past 10 years watching riots and

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<v Speaker 1>assassinations and actual Manson family psychos on the actual news,

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<v Speaker 1>and nobody was in the mood to hear about understanding

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<v Speaker 1>or anything like that anymore. They just wanted the 44. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, stipulate it. Neither of those movies is right

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<v Speaker 1>about crime or psychology or Anything else, probably. That is

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<v Speaker 1>not the point. The point is that you could hold

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<v Speaker 1>them up next to each other and read the country

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<v Speaker 1>off of them like rings on a tree. Same story,

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<v Speaker 1>told 19 years apart. That's only 19 years. But the

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<v Speaker 1>whole national mood had rotated underneath it. You could learn

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<v Speaker 1>more about 1952 and 1971 from those two movies than

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<v Speaker 1>I think you'd get from a stack of history books.

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<v Speaker 1>But neither movie was actually trying to tell you anything

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<v Speaker 1>about America at all, actually. They weren't making a sociological argument.

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<v Speaker 1>They were just telling a story. They were just trying

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<v Speaker 1>to scare you for 90 or 120 minutes. The America stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>that leaked out around the edges. Which brings me to

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<v Speaker 1>a word I've started to hate, and that word is dated.

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<v Speaker 1>We use it now like an insult. Oh, that movie's dated,

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<v Speaker 1>meaning it belongs to its moment. It reeks of when

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<v Speaker 1>it was made. You can tell exactly what year it

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<v Speaker 1>was from the haircuts and the assumptions and the clothes

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<v Speaker 1>and the things everybody took for granted. And maybe I

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<v Speaker 1>am sensitive to that word because it was my birthday yesterday.

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<v Speaker 1>Thank you. And I know that I'm dated, but You know,

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<v Speaker 1>so what? So is everything. I am extremely dated. I

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<v Speaker 1>was made in a particular year, out of particular materials,

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<v Speaker 1>and I reek of my moment. I mean that metaphorically.

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<v Speaker 1>And if you held me up next to a version

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<v Speaker 1>of myself from 20 years ago, or even 40 years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>you could read the rings just fine. And it would

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<v Speaker 1>be the same for you, for everybody else. We're all dated.

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<v Speaker 1>We're all stuck right here on the one timeline we

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<v Speaker 1>got issued, giving off the unmistakable smell of exactly when

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<v Speaker 1>we happen to be alive. And again, I use smell

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<v Speaker 1>here in the metaphorical sense. I mean, I hope. Just

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<v Speaker 1>trying to, you know, liven up the language. Look, the

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<v Speaker 1>sniper is dated. And Dirty Harry is dated. Clint Eastwood,

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<v Speaker 1>bless him, at 96, is the most magnificently dated object

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<v Speaker 1>in America right now. A man who has been alive

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<v Speaker 1>for the entire talking picture era. Basically, the entire American century.

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<v Speaker 1>And he carries all of it around with him. And

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<v Speaker 1>the point is, in show business, we run away from

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<v Speaker 1>the dated. But maybe we need to, you know, stop

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<v Speaker 1>running and steer into it. Because here's what those two

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<v Speaker 1>movies understood that we seem to have forgotten in show business.

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<v Speaker 1>Their job was to scare you, not to school you.

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<v Speaker 1>The Sniper is not a lecture on mid-century psychiatry. Dirty

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<v Speaker 1>Harry isn't a position paper on law and order, even

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<v Speaker 1>though we treated it like that, especially the Eastward titles

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<v Speaker 1>that exactly that way but but they are basically thrillers

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<v Speaker 1>and they trusted you enough to just tell the story

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<v Speaker 1>and let you make up your own mind you could

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<v Speaker 1>love both of those movies without signing on to the

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<v Speaker 1>worldview of either one you don't have to agree with

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<v Speaker 1>the shrink and the sniper and you don't have to

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<v Speaker 1>agree with harry to be gripped for 90 minutes by

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<v Speaker 1>a guy on a rooftop with a rifle But somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>along the way, show business decided that every story had

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<v Speaker 1>to mean something, had to teach you the correct lesson,

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<v Speaker 1>and then check that you learned it. And the irony

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<v Speaker 1>is that those are exactly the movies that curdle the fastest.

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<v Speaker 1>Because a lecture is only as good as its moment,

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<v Speaker 1>and the moment always passes. And what Hollywood needs is

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<v Speaker 1>to make fewer sermons, you know, and more thrillers. Tell

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<v Speaker 1>me a story about right now, set it on a

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<v Speaker 1>real rooftop in a real city, and don't tell me

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<v Speaker 1>what to think about it. Just trust that the America...

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<v Speaker 1>will leak out around the edges, because it always does,

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<v Speaker 1>in ways that you can still read years later like

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<v Speaker 1>rings on a tree. You, me, show business, Clint Eastwood,

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<v Speaker 1>we are all dated and getting dated-er by the minute,

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<v Speaker 1>and that is okay as long as we also don't

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<v Speaker 1>get tedious. And that is the only permanent and unchangeable

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<v Speaker 1>rule in Hollywood. You can get old, but you cannot

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<v Speaker 1>get boring. And that's it for this week. Next week,

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<v Speaker 1>the vicar of show business. For The Ankler, this is

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<v Speaker 1>Rob Long with Martini Shots.