Play Misty for Me: A Cautionary Tale of Sticking Your Dick in Crazy in Clint Eastwood's Directorial Debut

Play Misty for Me - Clint Eastwood - 1971  

 

★★★ - “I did it because I LOVE YOU!” Terrifying shit. What I call “Dude doesn’t know crazy pussy” movies. Pretty good, though not a sensitive portrayal of mental illness. Nor does it pass the Bechtel Test. But it’s fine. Not trying to be a nuanced exploration of mental health. It's a horror movie, and it does that job pretty well. 

The film stars Clint Eastwood, in his directorial debut, who plays a character that's too horny and dumb to survive in society. He's the kind of guy who sleeps with a woman who is stalking him. She does some creepy shit. Then she sleeps with him again. If you’ve ever fantasized about how to blow up your life spectacularly and then went through with it, you probably get what’s going on.  

Eastwood can’t leave it alone either. Blows off the chick he was into to canoodle his stalker. Keeps letting her into his life. Then she gets copies of his keys made, and shit really hits the fan.    

In one of my favorite scenes, two dudes see Eastwood and Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) fighting over his keys. They are like, “you okay lady?” and she loses her mind. They are like, “uh, that guy seems to be in enough trouble.” They see the crazy from a mile away, but this idiot, not so much.   

Fatal Attraction takes a lot of inspiration from this flick, another classic in the "fucking crazy pussy" genre. In both films, men aren’t so much oblivious to the clear signs of danger, they just don’t care. Testaments to the power of keeping your dick in your pants.   

In another cool, but gratuitous, scene, Eastwood, his main chick, her roommate, and some stoner work buddy go to the Monterey Jazz Festival which is awesome. Then we get a 70s cliché portrayal of a gay guy, which is less awesome. Eastwood's character tells him to "go cruise some sailors or something", to which he retorts something about hating seafood. Real nice. Not exactly a shining moment for representation.   

The violence in the film is intense and realistic. Been watching a lot of O.J. stuff. The idea of being attacked by someone with a knife is terrifying, and the film doesn't shy away from showing the brutality of it.    

Like when Walter slices the cleaning lady up for seeing her out of her fucking mind. Though it gets unrealistic, or some weird statement about the justice system from old right-wing Eastwood, when dude is at work and gets a call from Walter after she’s gotten out of the psych ward. He takes all this way too nonchalantly. Then he wakes up to her trying to stab him. But it’s cool as this guy takes stab wounds like a champ, which is also obviously not super realistic.   

In summary, if upon meeting a woman, she knows everything about you and tells you she loves you within a couple of minutes, don't fuck her.