Jan 03 2009
Gran Torino Starring Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley and Bee Vang
I previously reviewed this movie and thought since it was a limited release before and now will be in theaters all over on January 9th that I would tell you about it again. Watching the trailer for this film I thought it was going to be a really good film. Negative!!
I was highly disappointed with this film. I expected more out of a film in which Clint Eastwood starred and directed. Not that his acting was bad because he was his normal bad ass self. It was the younger supporting cast of the Hmong family that lives next door to him and the gang members that ruined the film. Their inexperience as actors truly shows making them seem very lifeless and non believable characters. Not only that but parts of the story like where Eastwood is teaching the neighbor boy how to talk like a man it just doesn’t fit into the movie. I am sure that some people will find these scenes to be quite hilarious, but to me it was down right stupid.
To summarize the movie is about a disgruntled old war vet who is a racist that suddenly becomes the most indiscriminate person near the end of his life and in the process finds a true friend. The ending of the movie is sad but so predictable. I would say one of the worst films Eastwood has made. If you really want to see a good Clint Eastwood film I would recommend you renting Million Dollar Baby.
You couldn’t be more wrong in your review. Eastwood always seems to find stories that attack you on multiple levels and this film is no exception. Not only does it reflect what has been happening in our inner cities over the past twenty years but it also contrasts that with a character that refuses to change with the times. He is a product of his environment and past and is oblivious to political correctness. He has a typical mid-west attitude that government stops at the property line and you mind your own business regardless of whats going outside your domain. I think this film would be a hard one for anyone from a large east or west coast, metro area to understand but for people in the middle of this country it is a story of our time and of a personality that is fading fast from the landscape.