{"id":3705,"date":"2010-10-18T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2010\/10\/clint-eastwood-spiritual-after.html"},"modified":"2010-10-18T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2010-10-18T09:00:12","slug":"clint-eastwood-spiritual-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2010\/10\/clint-eastwood-spiritual-after.html","title":{"rendered":"Clint Eastwood: Spiritual after all?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Critics are abuzz with praise for Clink Eastwood’s newest film, ‘Hereafter,’<\/a> which just released in New York City on Friday. But I have to say, as much as I respect this actor and his moviemaking sensibilities, when I first saw the trailer for ‘Hereafter’ I cringed, winced, then cringed some more, all before it was revealed to viewers that Eastwood was behind this cheesy, little trip to heaven. Then I almost choked.I thought to myself, Clint Eastwood? Really?! Eastwood is the last person I would imagine to walk down a path similar to Jennifer Love Hewitt, of the “I see dead people” variety in ‘Ghost Whisperer.’ That Matt Damon (Matt Damon of all people) would be taking such a turn on the big screen doesn’t seem to fit either. The trailer seemed straight out of such eye-roll inducing, Lifetime movie, pulpy “spiritual” fare.Am I alone in reacting this way? Yet the critics are out trying to convince skeptics like myself to give ‘Hereafter’ a fair chance, especially since it comes with such a strong pedigree. In Charles McGrath’s recent essay about the film, “Eastwood Breaks Another Mold,”<\/a> in The New York Times, comments that Eastwood “has never seemed remotely spiritual,” and asks whether, “Mr. Eastwood, famously flinty and cold-eyed, at long last gone squishy?” Yes, exactly, I was thinking when I read this question. Eastwood tells McGrath that, basically, ‘Hereafter’ was his chance to deal with one of life’s and religion’s biggest questions:””Is there an afterlife? What’s it like? All the great religions have tried to deal with these questions.” [Eastwood] added that what he liked about the script is that “it has a spiritual feeling without any particular religious touch.””Perhaps its Eastwood’s age (he is eighty now) that is provoking such interest in the afterlife, which would be understandable. I still don’t know if I can get over my aversion to the film’s subject matter. No matter how pedigreed it may be, I cringe when I watch this trailer. Do you?<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics are abuzz with praise for Clink Eastwood’s newest film, ‘Hereafter,’ which just released in New York City on Friday. But I have to say, as much as I respect this actor and his moviemaking sensibilities, when I first saw the trailer for ‘Hereafter’ I cringed, winced, then cringed some more, all before it was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nClint Eastwood: Spiritual after all?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2010\/10\/clint-eastwood-spiritual-after.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clint Eastwood: Spiritual after all?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Critics are abuzz with praise for Clink Eastwood’s newest film, ‘Hereafter,’ which just released in New York City on Friday. 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