Henry Sheehan's interview with and essay on Clint Eastwood

An interview and an essay can be found her on Clint Eastwood as a director

http://www.henrysheehan.com/interviews.html

"Genre or Auteur Theory?"

This is a MUST READ for students to understand the topic and therefore be able to list arguments for the benefits and limitations of each theory. Of course, you can make great points if you tie your arguments to specific directors and genres like John Ford and Clint Eastwood westerns.

http://sismedia.wetpaint.com/page/Genre+and+Auteur+Theory?t=anon

"Rethinking Authorship, Theories of Authorship"

by Barry Grant. A useful read for understanding auteurs as an issue in film world.

http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC31folder/TheoAutCaughie.html#n

Charlie Rose's TV interview with Clint Eastwood

"An hour with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood"

Clint Eastwood
in Movies, TV & Theater
on Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Another interview worth watching to get the bigger picture on Eastwood as a director. Rose mostly focuses on "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" (2006)

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/82

Philip French's Interview with Clint Eastwood published February 27th 2007

"An Audience with Clint Eastwood" by Philip French, published on 27th of February 2007.

The discussion touches on "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and a number of Eastood's other film. French is an incisive critic and he gets Clint to reveal which directors and films he most admires and which also influenced him.

"Our conversation ranged widely, taking in the director's Iwo Jima companion pieces, his collaborations with Leone and Siegel and his masterpiece, The Outlaw Josey Wales. It even included a duet."

http://download.guardian.co.uk/sys-audio/Film/Film/2007/02/23/ClintEastwood.mp3

The Seven Basic Plots of Westerns

Frank Gruber, a veteran writer of pulp Westerns, argued that there are seven basic plots in Westerns:

Some of these plots are derived from time and place

1. Cavalry and indians

2. The Union Pacific or Pony Express story

3. The homesteaders or squatters theme

4. The cattle empire story

5. The lawman story

6. The revenge story

7. The outlaw story.

Other plots can be distinguished outside the genre, so the genre's durability can sometimes be explained by its ability to digest and shape any source material.

The frontier experience, civilisation/wilderness and east/west themes are omnipresent in most of the themes above.

FM2 Example Exam Essay Question and Plan - Concept Map

Click on the images to enlarge. The case study film is "Juno" from 2007.

See also the film poster of  There Will Be Blood ( 2008 ).

Both the exam question and poster were drawn from WJEC exemplar exam material.