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

Variety ^ | 12.4.08

[swordfishtrombone]

[DemforBush]

Hadn’t heard of this, but I’ll be sure to see it if it runs in my area. Eastwood’s one of my faves.

[Michael.SF.]

Actually, I think the first review on Gran Torino was in Hemmings:

[the invisib1e hand]

what, no euthenasia apologetic this time?

[jessduntno]

He was an old guy when he told everyone in town that he better not shoot or he would kill them all and burn down their houses in “Unfogiven.” I believed him...Clint is the man.....

[max americana]

I was actually thinking Gran Turismo from my Playstation 1 days..

[swordfishtrombone]

what, no euthenasia apologetic this time?

Dirty Harry never apologized

[Poser]

I went to the web link and it launched a pop-up. You know the one. It was the one that says you have spyware and tries to get you to install the Vundo virus.

[the invisib1e hand]

true enough.

“go ahead, punk, put me out o’ my misery.”

[jessduntno]

“He was an old guy when he told everyone in town that he better not shoot or he would kill them all and burn down their houses in “Unfogiven.” I believed him...Clint is the man.....”

Geesh, my keyboard battery was low...looks like I was typing Ebonics...”Unfogiven” indeed...

[TheConservativeParty]

I saw the trailer for “Gran Torino” this week. It looked OK. The trailer had many good lines from crusty old Clint. Was set in some urban hell hole though. Waiting for good reviews before forking over the bucks to see this one.

PS-saw “Australia” and if you like old American Westerns, this aussie western is sure to please. Very long movie...go easy on the soft drinks!

[Carpe Cerevisi]

Trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9teLeXZ3XMU

[Popman]

Thanks. Looks pretty good.

Not nearly as good as the tour de force "Don't mess with the Zohan" < / s >

[macamadamia]

Just watched the trailer. It’s like Eastwood went back in time and was asked to direct an ABC Afternoon School Special. A PC morality play.....with an EDGE! (Why is it EVERY SINGLE trailer now begins with one of those ominous echoey bass drum sounds, lol?)

[Born Conservative]

I learned to drive on a 1974 Gran Torino Elite with a .351 Windsor engine; that car had testicles!

[norton]

Reviewer couldn't help loading up on President Elect bull sh*t;

"In a way that clearly could not have been intended, Eastwood could be said to have inadvertently made the first film of the Obama era.
followed by...
Eastwood has dealt very intelligently and matter-of-factly with race throughout his career..."

In fact, this sounds to be entirely in keeping with just about everything Eastwood has done throughout his career.
Good guys and bad guys came in all colors long before the media discovered the O'Messiah.
Eastwood recognized that long before Barry bought the "president elect(ancy)".

[Tainan]

Thanks for the link. Looks like a good one.

My only quibble...IMO he should have been a Viet Nam vet. Glad to see some Hmong get screen time.

[SoConPubbie]

Of late, I have really disliked Clint’s movies. Seems as he gets older, he gets more and more liberal and PC-orientated.

He also doesn’t seem to miss an oppurtunity to direct a movie that is somehow negative or deals with an issue in from an immoral perspective.

I can safely say I will not bother watching this one because it will also have some Liberal message buried in it that you won’t find out about until you have wasted the $10 on the ticket.

[weegee]

A lifelong auto worker after his Army stint, Kowalski has seen his contemporaries die off or move on, replaced by immigrants and assorted ethnics he despises. His racist mutterings, which employ every imaginable epithet for Asians, are blunt and nasty, but Eastwood grunts them out in an over-the-top way that provokes laughs, and his targets are no less sparing of him.

Blah blah blah. Agit prop. It's sure to win an Oscar.

[weegee]

Religion hovers in the background; a very young priest (Christopher Carley), determined to fulfill the final request of Kowalski's wife to get her husband to confess, keeps getting the door shut in his face, the old man feeling he knows a lot more about life and death than this green seminary product. Climax is heavier and more sobering than expected, but it's quietly foreshadowed by narrative and character elements.

We've gone from Talkies to Preachies.