Cowboys de Clint Eastwood: fronteira, identidade nacional e masculinidades em Gran Torino (2008) e Sniper Americano (2014)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze Mith of the Frontier and the cowboy in the 21st century Hollywood. In addition, we intend to understand how cinema constructs meanings about the nation and its national identity in the United States, also how it participates in the construction of gender discourses, more specifically the masculine gender. The main themes are analyzed from two Clint Eastwood movies: Gran Torino (2008) and American Sniper (2014), which tells conflict stories between two sides of a border. It is understood that cinema not only appropriates, but participates actively by elaborating the images of the myths, the nation and the masculinities. In addition to the analysis of the audiovisual elements of the two movies, this paper establishes an approximation between cinema and theoretical references about themes that permeates all the work, as well as the frontier, myths, the wilderness, the nation, the violence and the masculinities. In conclusion, cinematographic critiques available in the American press and other films are put in dialogue with Eastwood’s work for a broader understanding of the society that consumes these productions.