Waiting for Clint

Speaking of pace...

Wait for it...

We can be an impatient bunch, us humans, I mean. As I said in my last post, the other weekend movie that got me thinking about pace was The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood. I have seen this movie many times, it seems to pop up on TV quite a bit. As a kid, I remember loving it, but I loved all the things Eastwood - even weird stuff like Paint Your Wagon, where Clint and a furry Lee Marvin warbled about Maria.

The Eiger Sanction is full of cheesy lines, misogynist overtones (lots of girls getting slapped on the butt) and some not so subtle racist jokes. It is not primo Eastwood - but there is something that entices. I think it is the way the story unfolds, for an action film it is quite leisurely (as a lot of action films were in the 70's - certainly compared to now). Even the climactic sequence on the ice covered mountain is a bit on the slow side. So why is it so compelling? I think it has a lot to do with the character development that has been allowed to happen. We care about Clint, we want him to get the bad guys and the girl, we want him to figure it out and go back to his swinging art pad with Jemima Brown (like I said, not so subtle racism).

The key is you gotta care. I think if I care enough about a character the pacing of a story is ALMOST inconsequential. That is an important "almost" because pace does matter. I am thinking of Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer winning novel, Gilead. The pace of that book makes you feel yourself aging. It was also the most compelling book I read last year and contains a character that will resonate with me for years.
Simply put, you gotta care.

Next time on pace - more about Lansdale. Now that's a different pace!

Link to Eiger Sanction Trailer - you gotta watch this one just to hear the voice over. You know this guy, he did all the voice overs back then.