Gran Torino 1st Review - Clint Eastwood [Get off my lawn]

Variety ^ | 12.4.08

[swordfishtrombone]

At 78, perhaps the only actor in the history of American cinema to convincingly kick the butt of a guy 60 years his junior, the hard-headed, snarly mouthed Clint Eastwood of the 1970s comes growling back to life in "Gran Torino." Centered on a cantankerous curmudgeon who can fairly be described as Archie Bunker fully loaded (with beer and guns), the actor-director's second release of the season is his most stripped-down, unadorned picture in many a year, even as it continues his long preoccupation with race in American society. Highlighted by the star's vastly entertaining performance, this funny, broad but ultimately serious-minded drama about an old-timer driven to put things right in his deteriorating neighborhood looks to be a big audience-pleaser with mainstream viewers of all ages.

In his first screen appearance since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby," Eastwood revives memories of some of his earlier working-class characters; Korean War vet Walt Kowalski suggests a version of what Dirty Harry might have been like at this age, and there are elements as well of the narrow-minded, authority-driven figures in "The Gauntlet" and "Heartbreak Ridge," as well as those films' humble settings and plain aesthetics.

[narses]

+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[lainie]

Thank goodness there are forums where people reside, who don’t kiss the butts of these movies.

gmta

[lainie]

link

Beginning to take an interest in his young charges, Kowalski learns from Sue that, among Hmong kids in the U.S., "The girls go to college and the boys go to jail." Once he spends more time with the siblings and sees their desire to raise themselves up, Kowalski admits that, "I have more in common with these gooks than with my own spoiled, rotten family."

ugh

[BurbankKarl]

It was a pretty good movie

[mysterio]

This movie is on my must see list.

[Callahan]

There’s not much PC in this one. I went to see it in Lower Manhattan and few minorities walked out once they heard Clint’s character hilariously insulting everyone he meets. The scene where he rescues a girl from a gaggle of ghetto toughs is an aging Freeper’s dream. He ends up befriending his Asian neighbors but doesn’t exactly turn into an Obama supporter either LOL.. Worth it to see Clint acting like a badass one last time.

[nufsed]

It's clear the old grizzled guy actually likes his neighbors. he teaches the son to pay back his debt for trying to steal and make him really work. He tries to teach him to act like a real man so he can work in construction. In the end it's a revenge movie.

This is the closest Eastwood fans will get to a Dirty Harry-like swan song.

If that doesn't do it for you, good luck finding something else.

[af_vet_rr]

Saw it, liked it. A lot rougher than I expected - it’s not going to sit well with a lot of people.

[rabidralph]

We had a Gran Torino station wagon, I don’t know if had testes, I was only 11 back then.

[Born Conservative]

I’m sure the scenes in the barbershop didn’t go over well with that crowd. And I hope that this movie is not the last one with him acting like a badass.

[gogogodzilla]

And I definitely didn’t see the ending coming in the way it did.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the movie when I saw it, but it was *D@MN* good.

Archie Bunker + Dirty Harry