Rating: 8.2/10 --> Classic Clint Eastwood
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Gran Torino, plain and simple, is a great film. Directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, there was no doubt in my mind that this was going to be thriller worth watching on my Monday afternoon. I never got around to seeing it when it first came out in 2008, and I heard great things, so naturally I was extremely pleased that I enjoyed it so much.
The Summary: Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), just lost his wife. He is a crass, angry old war veteran, and doesn’t want anything to do with anyone, except for his dog Daisy. His neighborhood has evolved into a neighborhood predominantly of Hmong immigrants, and so he is constantly mean to everyone around him, including his Hmong neighbors. Harassed by his cousin, who is a member of a Hmong gang, Thao, Walt’s young neighbor, tries to steal Walt’s prized Gran Torino as a part of his initiation into the gang. Walt catches him, and as repayment, Thao’s mother insists that Walt let Thao work for him. Throughout Thao’s work, Walt grows to actually like the boy, and is taken in by his sister, Sue, who teaches him about Hmong life. Walt, who was never close to his own two sons, takes Thao under his wing, so that he can teach him to be a man, and protect him from the Hmong gang.
The Good: Nick Schenk wrote the screenplay, and it was one of the films strongest points. Walt is a complete character, as he started out mean, disgruntled, and absurdly racist, then through different obstacles, grows into a better person. Walt always had a good heart, he was just plagued by the sins he committed in war, and the loss of the love of his life. Walt is the type of character that you love to hate, he is extremely racist and vulgar, but you know deep down that there’s something else, and you see that when he starts to teach Thao how to be a handyman and gets him a job in construction.
Clint Eastwood is the quintessential badass. He has to be up there for top badass of all time. Eastwood could make Chuck Norris wet his pants and cry like a baby… Anyway Eastwood’s acting is phenomenal. From the very first scene you see it on his face that Walt isn’t gonna take shit from anybody. The very way he talks makes you think of Eastwood in the old Westerns such as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or A Fistful of Dollars. “Go ahead, make my day.” Yet, his ability to show emotion, and visualize the pain that he had been bottling up inside was amazing. Clint Eastwood is the man, there’s no doubt about it.
The Bad: There were times where the acting of everyone else was pretty awful. There was no motivation behind their words. There’s one scene where the priest is talking to Walt about life and death, and there’s simply no feeling behind his words. He actually took away from the powerful performance of Eastwood. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world though, considering that nobody has heard of the majority of these actors. Luckily, Eastwood brought everyone else's performance up.
Result: Clint Eastwood directing + good writing + Clint Eastwood as a BAMF = Awesome movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, rent it. If you’ve seen it, and enjoyed it, then I finally know what I was missing. This movie is great, and I still don’t understand how it wasn’t even NOMINATED for ONE Academy Ward. How does that make any sense? The only thing I can think of is that the Academy wanted to give every other movie of 2009 a chance to in something.
Rayner … Out…
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