Amber: Hello, I'm Amber, and you’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com.

In Entertainment today, we listen to an interview with the legendary American

actor and director, Clint Eastwood.

He talks about his new film, ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’. Clint Eastwood was

nominated for a Best Director Oscar for the film, which tells the story of the

battle for control of the Japanese island during World War II.

It’s the second of two films Eastwood’s directed about the battle of Iwo Jima.

The first, ‘Flags of our Fathers’, looked at events through the eyes of US

soldiers, while ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ shows the reverse side. It shows events

from the perspective of Japanese soldiers, and is filmed in Japanese.

It shows how Japanese soldiers tried unsuccessfully to defend the island from

American troops. Sacks of letters, written by the Japanese soldiers, were found

decades later, buried in caves where they died. The letters were the inspiration,

the idea or stimulus, for Clint Eastwood’s film.

Here is Clint Eastwood talking about why he’s made two films on the same

subject. He says he’s interested in the personal stories of the people who were

sent off to fight. The films ‘personalise’ the historical story – they focus on the

human details and feelings.

As you listen, try to catch the two words Clint Eastwood uses to describe the

way in which stories of war always end.

Clint Eastwood

‘What I tried to do with these particular films is just personalise it and tell stories about the

people other than the war itself. The frustrations of war are obvious, you know, people being 

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taken away from their families and sent off to fight for causes they’re either in sympathy with

or they have little knowledge of, but they’re still sent to fight regardless, and it’s fun to delve

into that because it eventually winds up with the same thing – it’s going to be the tragedy and

the futility of it all. ’

Amber: Did you catch them? Clint Eastwood says that he finds it ‘fun’ to delve into, to

explore, the situations of the soldiers sent to fight because the terrible truth is

that war ‘winds up’, or ends, with ‘the same thing’ – ‘tragedy’ and ‘futility’.

Tragedy is a disastrous event. Futility is uselessness or pointlessness or

senselessness.

Listen again.

Clint Eastwood

‘What I tried to do with these particular films is just personalise it and tell stories about the

people other than the war itself. The frustrations of war are obvious, you know, people being

taken away from their families and sent off to fight for causes they’re either in sympathy with

or they have little knowledge of, but they’re still sent to fight regardless, and it’s fun to delve

into that because it eventually winds up with the same thing – it’s going to be the tragedy and

the futility of it all. ’

Amber: Next, Clint Eastwood talks about whether he found it difficult to understand

the point of view of the Japanese soldiers.

As you listen, try to catch what says the ‘good guys’ wear to mark them out in

a propaganda film – a propaganda film is made to spread a particular view of

events – and what the bad guys would wear in such a film.

Clint Eastwood

‘It wasn’t difficult - it’s a question of just curiosity. If you’re curious about how people feel in

other societies, in other cultures, then you can be curious about it – and you’ll be interested in

exploring it. But if you’re not curious about it, if you just think of it in terms of World War II 

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movies where it was a propaganda thing – where there’s the good guys with the white hat, and

the black hat guys on the other side, then, if you keep it that simple, then you’re not curious

about it, then you don’t give a damn. But I – at this point in life – it seemed like it was

interesting to explore the feelings of other people.’

Amber: So Clint Eastwood jokes that in propaganda movies the good guys wear white

and the bad guys wear black – just to indicate who is who. He explains he is

driven by ‘curiosity’, by a desire to know. He says the opposite of being

curious, is not giving a damn – a very informal expression meaning you don’t

care at all.

Listen again.

Clint Eastwood

‘It wasn’t difficult - it’s a question of just curiosity. If you’re curious about how people feel in

other societies, in other cultures, then you can be curious about it – and you’ll be interested in

exploring it. But if you’re not curious about it, if you just think of it in terms of World War II

movies where it was a propaganda thing – where there’s the good guys with the white hat, and

the black hat guys on the other side, then, if you keep it that simple, then you’re not curious

about it, then you don’t give a damn. But I – at this point in life – it seemed like it was

interesting to explore the feelings of other people.’

Amber: Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

to personalise

to delve into something

tragedy

futility

curiosity

More entertainment news stories and language explanations next time at