Butch
acting out role of protector, 102
attempt at redemption in Phillip’s eyes, 103
background with Garnett, 101–2
capture, 103–4
history, 100
killing and, 68
as masculine abuser, 103
relationship with Phillip, 98
shooting by Phillip, 103
shooting by police, 104
teaching Phillip moral lesson about stealing, 99
father-son relationship, 120
Garnett, Red
background with Butch, 101–2
hubris, 104
introduction, 97
relationship with Gerber, 104–5
sexism of, 97
Gerber, Sally, 97
invasion of home, 96–97
kidnapping of boy, 97
night with farmhand, 102–3
penis versus phallus, 99
Phillip
Buzz, 99
father and, 99
relationship with Butch, 98
shooting Butch, 103
trick-or-treating, 101
Absolute Power
failed fatherhood, 95
McCarty, Mike, initial interaction with Whitney, 106
phallic assertiveness and, 108
rape scene, 105–6
Whitney, Kate, 107
abuse of power, 108
abuser, trauma and, 103
Adorno, Theodor, 8
allegory
evil and, 16
High Plains Drifter, 17
as retinue of destruction, 16
Arendt, Hannah, 60
complexity of, 40
Tightrope, 41
beatings, masculine self-restraint and, 11
Benjamin, Jessica, 50–51
The Bonds of Love, 50–51
pornography’s complexity, 45
recognition, 51
sexuality and aggression, 47
violent sexuality, 46
Benjamin, Walter, 16
betrayal, In the Line of Fire, 54, 59
Bingham, Dennis
on handcuffed woman (Tightrope), 45
High Plains Drifter, Stranger as phallus, 33
sex and violence connectedness, 47–48
Thibodeaux as peripheral to plot (Tightrope), 50
Tightrope’s contradictions, 49–50
Bird
bebop and white people’s attitudes, 177
Chan, 177
depiction of drug use, 179, 180–81
Gillespie, Dizzy, 178
music in film, 179
Parker
decline of, 180
early life, 176
jazz as art form, 180
jazz theories, 179–80
player’s inability to follow, 176–77
suicide attempt, 176
white masculinity, 179
black Other, 178
black sidekick, Unforgiven, 38
Blood Work
Buddy, 62
death of as baptismal redemption, 64
discovery as murderer, 63–64
identification with McCaleb, 78
sexuality, 65
trauma, 65
double, death of, 64–65
eroticism, 65
first sexual encounter between characters, 63
Winston, Jaye, 62
woman’s heart in male, 63
body’s restoration, 11
Bordo, Susan, The Bridges of Madison County
Francesca’s first move toward Kincaid, 85
woman’s point of view, 81
Boyd, Jerry, 111
boyhood gone wrong, 4
Breezy, 80
broken narrative, High Plains Drifter as, 11
Bronco Billy, 5–6
Bronfen, Elizabeth, 28–29
brutality against male body, 11
Callahan, Harry. See Dirty Harry
castration
dwarfism and, 35
fear of, Mystic River, 136–37
shooting in head and, 22
threat of, masculine narcissism and, 8
change, self-disgust and, 48
child
as center of attention, 92
mother’s desire and, 93
seeing self as object of mother, 92
community, violence and, 11
connecting to women, 22
control over one’s self, exaggerated sense of, 8
Bronco Billy, 5–6
Eastwood’s restoration of humanity, 8
as folk hero, 38
Unforgiven undermining myth, 38
dead woman
Bronfen, Elizabeth, 28–29
Munny’s fidelity (Unforgiven), 29
Unforgiven, 28
death, of double, phallic wholeness and, 65
Derrida, Jacques, 67
dignity, technological progress and, 36–37
Dirty Harry, 1–2
establishment and, 169
minorities and, 170
as white working-class hero, 169
disorienting experience of violence, 19
dopplegänger as device, 40
double
death of, 40
Buddy (Blood Work), 64–65
phallic wholeness and, 65
killing of, 48
Rank, Otto and, 48
doubling, 23–24
identification and, 52
In the Line of Fire, 59
introduction, 52
dwarfism, castration and, 35
earth mother, Tightrope, 43
Easthope, Anthony, on masculine body, 66
Eastwood, Clint
as character actor, 37
direction of self in Firefox, 148
essence of heterosexual love (Tight-rope), 50
macho hero as front, 50
erotic transport (The Bridges of Madison County), 85
eroticism, bond between men, 78
ethic of mercy, 72
ethic of retribution, 72
ethical demand, Other and, 118
ethical meaning, struggle for, 8
evil
forgiveness and, 18
In the Line of Fire, 60
as possibility, 7
reparation and, 18
trauma unleashing, 10–11
vulnerability to, 74
evil woman, Fatal Attraction and, 2
faith
Pale Rider, 24
Santa Claus and, 175
fantasy rescuer, 71
Fatal Attraction, 2
father
Absolute Power, 189
admitting to failure, 95–96
Phillip (A Perfect World), 99
father-daughter relationship, Million Dollar Baby, 3
female sacrifice, 87
femininity
as danger to masculine survival, 2
limits of law and, 76
Munny (Unforgiven), 37–38
as role, 67
feminism
limits of law and, 76
male violence and, 45
Tightrope, 43
feminist heroine, Space Cowboys, 7
feminists, 52
gender roles and, 50–51
Tightrope, 50
fidelity, 134–35
Firefox, 147–48
Flags of Our Fathers, 139, 151
Block, Harlon, 159
deaths of friends, 158
Iggy, finding body, 157
killing Japanese soldier, 153
silence of, 162
Bradley, James, telling of story, 160
camera work, 156
difficulty in watching, 162
fathers and sons, 162
flag raising, 157–58
flag raising as publicity stunt, 157
Gagnon, Rene, 154
Hansen, Hank, 159
Hayes, Ira
admittance to bar, 159
heritage, 154
trip to Block’s family, 160
heroes, 160–62
loss of soldier overboard, 154
narrative coherence, 153
“no man left behind,” 154
publicity tour from photograph, 158–59
raising flag, 153–54
return to civilian life, 159–60
The Sands of Iwo Jima, 160–61
veterans’ responses to war, 152
Ford, John, 143
forgiveness, as gift, 29
free will, Kant and, 73
Freud, Sigmund, 135–36
friendship, Space Cowboys, 6
gender, affairs breaking conventions, 89
gender performances, 51
gender roles
feminists and, 50–51
reversal, 87
reversal, The Bridges of Madison County, 86
as stereotypes, 50
gender stereotypes, rape and, 10
generations, play between, Space Cowboys, 7
genre, comments on, 3
good man
arising out of ashes of bad man, 40
sexuality and, 188
Tightrope, 41
grief, love and, 119–20
Gurewich, Judith, 92
Haggis, Paul, 111
Heartbreak Ridge
cigar, and classic image of manhood, 149
Highway, Tom, 148–50
Hegel, G. W. F., Tightrope and, 48
heroes
Flags of Our Fathers, 160–61
namelessness, 8
heroic artisan, 22
High Plains Drifter
as allegory, 35
allegory and, 17–18
as broken narrative, 11
castrated masculinity of townsmen, 16
Dollar trilogy and, 13–14
flashbacks, 17
lake, tranquility and life, 10
law
progress and, 23
versions of, 17
Leone, Sergio and, 10
Marshal Duncan
as moral force of law, 35
silence about, 11
virtues of masculinity, 17
moral resignation in the name of progress, 36
rape, Stranger’s anguish of, 35
as satire on capitalism, 35
sounds when stranger enters town, 34
spectator and, 33
ambivalence in, 35
identification with Stranger, 34
toleration of rape, 34–35
Stranger
as ghost, 36
Mrs. Belding’s passion for, 16
Mrs. Belding’s smile for, 18
no-self of trauma survivor, 13
as phallus, 33
as psychically dead Marshal Duncan, 36
rape, 10
Stranger
flashbacks, 11
as living dead, 14
sexual potency, 17
trauma of, 17–18
what people know about themselves, 12
synopsis, 12–18
town’s descent into Hell, 18
townspeople’s awareness of identity, 35
violence, 10
trauma, violence and, 36
hobbyhorse as symbol for penis, 68
homosexuality, criminality and, 65
honor code, In the Line of Fire, 59
Horney, Karen, 121–22
human dignity, technological progress and, 36–37
human frailty, Kant and, 73–74
ideals for masculinity, Western genre, 5
identification, doubling and, 52
imaginary, 185–86
In the Line of Fire
camera’s gaze, 55
D’Andrea
death, 57
quitting, 56
rationale for murder, 60
doubling, 59
introduction, 52
eroticism, 65
evil, 60
honor code, 59
Horrigan, Frank
discovery of Leary, 56
giving up job for Raines, 54–55
as hostage, 58
as Leary’s equal, 55
loneliness, 55–56
as mentor, 52
overreactions, 55
psychological reductionism, 61
Raines and, 54
Leary, Mitch, 40–41
camera and, 55
chase, 57
connection with Horrigan, 53
discovery, 56
Horrigan as equal, 55
last words to Horrigan, 58
loneliness, 55–56
mercy and, 74
psychological reductionism, 61
responsibility for own death, 62
retribution, 73
taunting of Horrigan, 53
projective identification, 60
requirements of agencies, 52
individuation, 51
intimacy
The Bridges of Madison County, 85
fondling clothes and, 90
jazz, black Other and, 178
Jazz, 178
job as identity, 171
John Wayne figure, revenge and, 124
just war, World War II, 151
Kant, Immanuel, 73–74
Kimmel, Michael
English Bob (Unforgiven), 26
European patriarch, 26
Lacan, Jacques, 91–93
law
Pale Rider, 20
progress and, 23
versions of, High Plains Drifter, 17
Lee, Spike, on Bird, 179, 180–81
Leone, Sergio, 8
A Fistful of Dollars, Unforgiven and, 26
High Plains Drifter and, 10
violent acts, 11
Letters from Iwo Jima, 139, 151
capture of Mount Suribachi, 164–65
compared to Flags of Our Fathers, 164
enemy as human, 167
face of the enemy, 167
Japanese discovery of similarities between enemies, 165
Japanese last charge, 166
Japanese surrender, 165
Kuribayashi, Tadamichi, 163
burial request, 166
Nishi, Baron, 163
suicide, 165
wounded G.I. and, 165
Saigo, 164
film’s end, 166
retaliation toward Americans, 166
Shimizu, 164
wounded G.I. and Baron Nishi, 165
Levinas, Emmanuel, 118
loneliness, trauma and, 59
lovance (Derrida), 67
love
grief and, 119–20
Oedipal complementarity and, 120
vengeance born of, 130
lovemaking, versus sex, 3
lustful female, 85
macho hero, as front, 50
male body, brutality against, 11
male masochist, 88
malignant dissociative contagion, 11
man and machine, Space Cowboys, 7
man as protector, 130
manhood gone wrong, 4
masculine innocence, stereotype of, 2
masculine narcissism, 170
threat of castration and, 8
masculine Oedipal ideals, 102
masculine rage, impotence and, 109
masculine self-restraint, beatings and, 11
masculinity
connecting to women and, 22
corruption by government, 78
fantasized, 186–87
fetishism (Blood Work), 66
foundational fantasy, Other and, 88
humanity of, 122
ideals for, Western genre, 5
as imaginary ideal that turns to violence, 78
impenetrability and, 126
kingship and, 133
phallic fantasy and, 171
psychic risks and, 110
as role, 67
stereotypes, 186–87
thief outside conventional symbolic order, 107
virtues of, Duncan in High Plains Drifter, 17
white masculinity, 179
memory, flashbacks, 6
men and women, concern for relations between, 5
men as protectors, 43–44
mercy
Kant and, 74
Leary, Mitch (In the Line of Fire), 74
Michael Kohlhaas, 125
Miller, William Ian, revenge films, 124
Million Dollar Baby, 188–89
boxers and pain, 111
Dunn, Frankie
guilt over daughter, 113
history with Dupris, 111
immobility at returned letter, 117
killing Maggie, 119
Maggie’s first fight, 113–114
outburst at Dupris over Maggie’s injury, 116
priest’s advice, 118
second chance, 120
Dupris, Eddie
discussion after Maggie’s accident, 118
history with Dunn, 111
letters to Dunn’s daughter, 119
failed fatherhood, 95
father-daughter relationship, 3, 189
Fitzgerald, Maggie
amputation of leg, 117
beginning training, 113
broken nose in fight, 114–15
desire to fight, 112
final fight, 116
first fight, 113–14
injuries from final fight, 116
last request of Dunn, 117–18
presentation of house to family, 115
speedbag, 113
story of father killing dog, 115
suicide attempts, 118
truth of her life, 113
visit from family, 116–17
Haggis, Paul, 111
relationship between Dunn and Fitzgerald, 119
remorse, 3
Mitchell, Lee Clark
decent burial among cowboys, 31
male friends and dignity in death, 31
Unforgiven’s break from traditional Western, 31
Western genre, 5
moral repair
possibility, 120
psychic risks and, 110
mother, desire, children and, 93
Mystic River
Boyle, Dave
accusation by Jimmy at gunpoint, 127
beating death of rapist, 127
as boy, 126–27
feeling self as monster, 127
kidnapping, 126
trauma and, 122
wife’s suspicion as murderer, 127, 130
castration, fear of, 136–37
Devine, Sean, 188
calls from wife, 135
fidelity, 134–35
loyalty, 126
meeting with Jimmy at curb, 137
transformation of, 134
trauma and, 122
wife, 135
wife as living woman, 137–38
wife’s challenge to masculine control, 126
wife’s mouth, 135
Horney, Karen and, 122
love that requires and justifies violence, 130
man as protector, 130
Markum, Jimmy, 187–88
Catholic faith, 129
cross to bear, 129
escape from kidnapping as boy, 129
as king, 131
as king in his own house, 126
as leader, 133
as leader of gang, 129
murder of daughter, 128
repentance, 129
trauma and, 122
masculinity
different versions, 138
humanity of, 122
perspective of characters, 124
revenge and, 123–26
as right of kings, 132–33
Ndebele, Njabulo S., 187
neurosis as alternative to revenge, 121–22
“no man left behind” military slogan, 154
Nussbaum, Martha, 74
Oedipal complementarity, 93, 94, 99, 100, 120, 150, 186–87, 188
Oedipal fantasy
Million Dollar Baby, 189
A Perfect World, 189
Oedipal feelings of son in The Bridges of Madison County, 90
Oedipal ideals
masculine, 102
pretend (A Perfect World), 101
Oedipal ideals of masculinity, A Perfect World, 104–5
Oedipal masculine identity, hubris and, 104
Oedipal myth
dispelling, 94
as effect of human subjectivity, 92
potency of paternity, 162
Other
black Other, 178
ethical demand and, 118
ethical relationship and, 118
recognition by, 51
sexual drive and, 136
outlaw-hero, phallic power of, 2
Pale Rider
Coy LaHood, 19
complaint about Preacher, 20
death of dog, 19
destruction of mining machinery, 22
doubling, 36
faith and, 24
gun battle with company gang, 22
law, 20
progress and, 23
Preacher
compassion, 37
helping Barret from beating, 20
marshal and, 21
Sarah’s and Megan’s declarations of love, 21–22
as union organizer, 21
vengeance and, 24
Shane and, 23
shooting in head as symbolic castration, 22
Tin Pans, 19
penis
difference from phallus, 31
hobbyhorse as symbol, 68
performance, Tightrope, 50
phallic assertiveness
absolute power and, 108
controlling world and, 108
settling scores between men, 109
phallic fantasy
masculinity, 171
racism, 171
phallic power
evil woman and, 2
of outlaw-hero, 2
thief outside symbolic law of phallic authority, 107
phallic pretentions, vulnerability of, 4
phallus
difference from penis, 31
rejection of in Unforgiven, 37
sexual differentiation and, 91
Play Misty for Me, 2–3
police, from a woman’s perspective (The Gauntlet), 77
potency of paternity, 162
powers of moral repair and repentance, 7
progress
human dignity and, 23
law and, 23
projective identification, 60
prostitutes
good girl/bad girl, 51
Tightrope, 41–42
psychic illness caused by trauma, 146
psychic rebirth, McCaleb (Blood Work), 66
psychic risks
masculinity and, 110
moral repair and, 110
racism
phallic fantasy and, 171
True Crime, 175
Rank, Otto, double in psychological literature, 48
rape. See also sexual violence
as castrating act to man, 15
gender stereotypes, 10
High Plains Drifter, 10
rebellion through vengeance, 122
recognition, 51–52
Benjamin, Jessica, 51
relationships with women, 2
remorse
experience of, phallic fantasy and, 2
Million Dollar Baby, 3
Play Misty for Me, 3
responsibility, vulnerability and, 110
responsibility to save others, 4
restoration of the body, 11
retribution
ethic of, 72
Kant on, 73–74
Lear, Mitch (In the Line of Fire), 73
retributive justice, 74–75
revenge
alternatives to, 121–22
becoming human and, 122
dangers of, 121
as defensible urge, 125
divinity and, 132–33
innocent man, 124–25
John Wayne figure and, 124
masculine rage and, 109
as response to trauma, 123
as right of kings, 132–33
rightness of, 131
safety-valve, 121
seduction of, 121
revenge movies, 124–25
rightness of revenge, 131
sadistic sexual behavior, masculine unconscious, 77
Santa Claus, 175
saving others, 4
Saving Private Ryan, myth of, 154–55
self-disgust, change and, 48
self-restraint, beatings and, 11
sex, versus lovemaking, 3
sexism, in heroes, 97
sexual aggression, masculine unconscious, 77
sexual differentiation, 91
sexual drive, 135–36
sexual subjectivity of women, censorship of, 81
sexual violence. See also rape class and, 77
High Plains Drifter, 16
sexuality
power and, 46
violence and, 44–48
Shane, Pale Rider and, 23
shooting in head as symbolic castration, 22
Silverman, Katja, male masochist, 88
single parent, Tightrope, 4
Smith, Paul, 76
masculinity and sexual violence, 77
Something’s Gotta Give, 80
Space Cowboys, 6–7
Spaghetti Westerns, 8
Stryker, Sergeant, 160–61
Sudden Impact
discussion of justice, 69
fantasy rescuer, 71
formulaic nature, 67–68
hobbyhorse as symbol for penis, 68
humility of Callahan, 76
King, Horace, murder of, 69
men and the law, 76
police chief’s son, 70–72
rape, trivialization, 76
rescue of Spencer, 71
retribution, 72
Spencer, Jennifer, 68, 70–71, 75
women and the law, 76
survivors of trauma, 13–14
technological progress, human dignity and, 36–37
The Bridges of Madison County
Bordo, Susan, 81
comment about getting out, 83
couple’s language of sex, 86
daughter fondling Francesca’s clothes, 90
female sacrifice, 87
healing of Johnson’s children, 92
initial attraction between characters, 82
intimacy, 85
Johnson, Francesca
confession of affair to friend, 89
consequences of leaving, 86–87
death of, 90
death of Kincaid, 89
desire, children and, 94
dissociation and, 87
erotic thoughts in bath, 84–85
first move toward Kincaid, 85
journal, 81–82
love of husband, 89
note left for Kincaid, 84
opening of robe, 83–84
reclamation of desire, 84
scattering of ashes, 90
two women of, 87
Johnson children’s relationships, 93
Kincaid, Robert
death of, 89
declaration of love, 86
physical appearance of, 84
pleading with Francesca, 87
respect for Francesca, 90
lustful female, 85
male masochist, 88
as mature romance, 80
meeting in town after affair, 88
Oedipal feelings of son, 90
society’s expectations, 91
the third, 83
“we are the choices we have made,” 89
woman’s point of view, 80–81
“the darkness within,” 51
The Gauntlet, 76–77
The Godfather, 125
The Jack Bull, 125
The Outlaw Josey Wales
as antiwar piece, 139
civilized tribe, 141
confrontation with Union soldiers, 145
death of family, 139–40
female characters’ development, 146–47
Grandma Sarah, 141–42
joining with army, 140
revenge and, 140
Lone Watie, 141
men buried to necks, 142
rape of Cheyenne woman, 141
Texas home, 142
Wales
on dying, 142–43
as Outlaw, 140–41
rides off alone, 146
Ten Bears and, 142–43
The Sands of Iwo Jima, 160–61
Scar, 144
thief
as outside order of masculinity, 107
symbolic law of phallic authority, 107
Tightrope
Block
dual roles, 42
encounter with murderer, 48
face-to-face with murderer, 49
failure to protect daughters, 48–49
relating to women as whole individuals, 51
and Thibodeaux as partners, 50
change, self-disgust and, 48
darkness in everyone, 42
dinner with Thibodeaux, 43
doubling of murderer and Block, 44
erotic interest of Thibodeaux, 43
feminism, 43
graveyard as turning point, 49
handcuffing of Thibodeaux, 44–45
Hegel and, 48
macho hero as front, 50
male violence, 188
male violence, Thibodeaux and, 43–44
men as protectors, 43–44
performance, 50
prostitutes, 41–42
rape counselor, 42–43
rape self-defense class, 42
recognition, 51
single parent, 3
strong women, 4
Thibodeaux
background, 50
centrality to narrative, 44
drawing out contrast, 51
encounter with murderer, 49
train yard as symbol of intersection, 49
violence against women, ubiquity of, 44
woman as earth mother, 43
women’s intuition, 43
transgender, McCaleb (Blood Work), 67
trauma
acceptance of, 122
collapse and, 122
defense, 121
definition, 95
effects of on shared meaning, 11
evil, unleashing of, 10–11
impact of on ethical life, 7
loneliness and, 59
psychic illness caused by, 146
rebellion and, 122
revenge as response to, 123
survivors
High Plains Drifter and, 13–14
no-self of, 13–14
reproduction of evil, 14
revictimization, 14
as theme, 39
violence and, 36
woman’s, impact on male protagonist, 68
True Crime
Beechum, Frank Louis, 171
devotion to family, 172
Everett, Steve, 172–75
racism, 175
Unforgiven
biographer as stand in for society, 32
black sidekick, 38
Eastwood’s rejection of phallus, 37
English Bob, 26
first meeting with cowboys, 27
forgiveness as gift from woman, 29
Leone, Sergio, A Fistful of Dollars, 26
Logan, 25–28
Munny, 25–32
femininity, 37–38
phallus, penis and, 37
Schofield Kid, 27
undermining cowboy myth, 38
women, redemption, 29
uprightness, 187
vengeance
born of love, 130
defense of (Mystic River), 131
kings and, 132
man’s on a woman, 36
masculinity and, 121
overcoming, 123
psychological foundations, 123
and rape, 15
rebellion through, 122
recognition and, 17
violence and, 121
veterans’ responses to war, 152
violence
community’s fall into, 11
disorienting experience of, 19
High Plains Drifter, 10
Leone, Sergio, 11
No Name (Dollar trilogy), 13–14
standing silently by, 36
trauma survivors and, 13–14, 36
against women, ubiquity of (Tight-rope), 44
vulnerability
phallic pretentions, 4
responsibility and, 110
Waller, Robert James, 80
war
expendability of humans, 155–56
glorification of, 156
understandability, 156
veterans’ responses to, 152
Western genre
ideals for masculinity, 5
landscape, moral meaning and, 10
Mitchell, Lee Clark, 5
Westerns, Walter Benjamin, 16
whipping, brutality against male body, 11
White Hunter Black Heart, 170–71
woman’s heart in male (Blood Work), 63
women
characters’ respect for, 4
connecting to, 22
dead, Unforgiven, 28
death, regeneration of order of society, 29
as earth mother, 43
evil woman, Fatal Attraction, 2
High Plains Drifter, stereotypic narrowness, 17
redemption and, Unforgiven, 29
relationships with, 2
stand up and be a woman, 92
Tightrope, 4
trauma, impact on male protagonist, 68
troubled, men and, 3
women’s intuition, Tightrope, 43
World War II, as just war, 151