Throughout his lengthy career as both an actor and a director, Clint Eastwood has appeared in virtually every major film genre and, at this point in his career, has emerged as one of America's most popular, recognizable, and respected filmmakers. He also remains a controversial figure in the political landscape, often characterized as the most prominent conservative voice in mostly liberal Hollywood. At Eastwood's late age, his critical success as actor and director, his combative willingness to confront serious cultural issues in his films, and his undeniable talent behind the camera all call for a new and comprehensive study that considers and contextualizes his multiple roles, both on and off screen. Tough Ain't Enough offers readers a series of original essays by prominent cinema scholars that explore the actor-director's extensive career. The result is a far-reaching and nuanced portrait of one of America's most prolific and thoughtful filmmakers.

Throughout his lengthy career as both an actor and a director, Clint Eastwood has appeared in virtually every major film genre and, at this point in his career, has emerged as one of America's most popular, recognizable, and respected filmmakers. He also remains a controversial figure in the political landscape, often characterized as the most prominent conservative voice in mostly liberal Hollywood. At Eastwood's late age, his critical success as actor and director, his combative willingness to confront serious cultural issues in his films, and his undeniable talent behind the camera all call for a new and comprehensive study that considers and contextualizes his multiple roles, both on and off screen. Tough Ain't Enough offers readers a series of original essays by prominent cinema scholars that explore the actor-director's extensive career. The result is a far-reaching and nuanced portrait of one of America's most prolific and thoughtful filmmakers.

Nominated for both an Academy Award for scriptwriting and a National Book Award, John Sayles has written screenplays, teleplays, short stories, and novels and has worked as a script doctor for a virtual who's who of Hollywood film and television talent. He has acted in films and on stage and even directed a music video for Bruce Springsteen.

In making movies, Sayles has handled subjects as diverse as seventies activists in "The Return of the Secaucus Seven" (1980); a 1920s Appalachian miners' strike in "Matewan" (1987); the 1919 Black Sox scandal in "Eight Men Out" (1988); the Selkies of Ireland in "The Secret of Roan Inish" (1994); and Latin American guerilla warfare in "Men with Guns" (1997).

Conducted over a period of twenty years, these interviews span Sayles's career as a writer, director, and sometimes actor. Whether he is interviewed in "The Progressive," "Film Comment," "Sight and Sound," or Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone Magazine," Sayles is always direct and candid. In each conversation, he cuts to the core of the film business and to the meat of what he is trying to accomplish as an artist.

Known for his fiercely independent vision, his authentic characters, and his provocative observations on the human condition, Sayles demonstrates in these interviews what an endurably original director and artist he is. As he tells "Sight and Sound," "First of all, I'm not afraid of failure. I don't get upset if people don't like it. I'm doing it because I'm interested. . . "Return of the Secaucus Seven"] was the start, because even if I hadn't got it released, at least I've made a movie I wanted to make."

Diane Carson is Professor of Film Studies at St. Louis Community College at Meramec and Adjunct Professor of Film at Webster University, both in St. Louis, Missouri. A film critic for "Riverfront Times" and KDHX in St. Louis, she is also the editor of "Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism."

His name is synonymous with ""independent film,"" and for more than twenty-five years filmmaker John Sayles has tackled issues ranging from race and sexuality to the abuses of capitalism and American culture, aspiring to a type of realism that Hollywood can rarely portray. This collection offers unprecedented coverage of Sayles's craft and content, as it employs a rich variety of critical methods to explore the full scope of his work. Together the essays afford a deeper understanding not only of the individual films - including his 1980 ""The Return of the Secaucus Seven"" (named to the National Registry) and the recent ""Limbo and Men with Guns"" - but also of Sayles's unusual place in American cinema and his influence worldwide. The focus of Sayles's films is frequently on peoples' lives, not on stories with tidy endings, and often a main goal is to alert viewers of their complicity in the problems at hand. One might assume his style to be content driven, but closer inspection reveals a mix of styles from documentary to postmodern. In this anthology, international scholars address these and many other aspects of Sayles's filmmaking as they explore individual works. Their methodological approaches include historical and industry analysis as well as psychoanalysis and postcolonial theory, to name a few. ""Sayles Talk"" is both an in-depth and wide-ranging tribute to the ""father"" of independent film. In this volume, readers can find discussions of Sayles's films together with a comprehensive introduction to his film practice, an annotated list of existing literature on Sayles, and information on resources for further inquiry into his fiction, film, and television work. Film students as well as seasoned critics will turn to this book time and again to enrich their understanding of one of America's great cinematic innovators and his legacy.

This timely volume addresses those who teach and study multicultural         topics. Rather than offering a Band-Aid approach to curricular offerings,         the contributors demonstrate inclusive, innovative ways to integrate multicultural         issues and media into existing courses.       In "Struggling for America's Soul: A Search for Some Common Ground         in the Multicultural Debate," Lester Friedman leads off the volume         with an analysis of the value and necessity of multicultural approaches         for today's students and for society at large. The essays that follow         provide a wealth of material for organizing courses, including week-by-week         syllabi detailing specific writing assignments, bibliographical information         on readings, and sources for films and videos. The contributors, who teach         at institutions ranging from community colleges through major research         universities, describe their experiences teaching students of various         ages, backgrounds, and interests.       Shared Differences will be of value to all who use media as a         tool in their teaching, whether in history, literature, or the social         sciences, as well as to those who teach film and video production.