No Mentors Except Fate

I watched a documentary conversation with Clint Eastwood made in 2007. It was really a retrospective of his films. And, it seems clear to me that when the objective history of filmmaking in the last quarter of the 20th century is written, Clint Eastwood and his films will be the point of departure for evaluating all other directors. He has swept across the modern psyche like a hot wind generated by a forest fire - burning bare its landscape to reveal the bones and topography of post-Vietnam America. He has done it without resorting to gimicks or computer-generated images or photographic tricks. Eastwood's art, his genius is in taking ordinary human emotions and moral dilemmas and putting recognizable flesh and blood around them. One has only to call up the permanent wound he delivered to all of us who watched the final scene of Million Dollar Baby to understand his unique gift. He ended the filmed conversation by saying, "I never had any mentors except fate." That reverberating phrase made me think of Chris Stevens,the American Ambassador to Libya, who was stalked and assassinated last week in Benghazi by Jihadist terrorists. By all accounts, he was a professional of high quality, an expert in Arab affairs and a man who knew that to help, he needed to see and be seen in Libya. He took his conviction out onto the streets of Benghazi where he was known and appreciated for his concern and compassion for ordinary Libyans and their problems. In a way, Ambassador Chris Stevens, like Clint Eastwood, had no mentors but fate. He was badly protected, apparently ignored by the US State Department - which was proved wrong while he gave his life as proof of his correct evaluation about the deteriorating situation in Libya and the rise of well-armed Jihadist cells. Dying for America is not often the fate of US Ambassadors. Chris Stevens' assassination reminds us all that fate is a sly and efficient master.