Recommended Film:
"Gran Torino"
"Gran Torino"
Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a newly widowed retired auto worker in a bad and getting worse Detroit neighborhood. You could call him Archie Bunker, but Archie was never this mean! Mr. Bunker never fired any on-screen shots from his rifle! Walt is bigoted and very stuck in his ways---plus he can't get the nightmares from the Korean War out of his head. The war goes on each day.
Lots of racial slurs are tossed out...and in a PC World, it's a little shocking and troubling. The filmgoers didn't know whether to laugh or cringe---so sometimes they did both.
In many ways, this could be Clint's "goodbye". He has spoken a great deal about retiring lately, and at 78, who could blame him? Walt and Clint (at least somewhat) represent the end of a era---one where the "greatest generation" are seeing their America fade away into a much more diverse nation. A nation with new troubles. Sooner or later, Walt learns and becomes a better person for it. It's not an incredible transformation, but even rarer---one you can believe in.
Clint is magnificent performance and the ending is just perfect.
I think the "words" may have scared away the Academy, but this is one of the year's best films and well worth seeing. Clint has made some his very best films in the past few years: "Million Dollar Baby", "Flags For Our Fathers", "Letters From Iwo Jima" and now "Gran Torino". If he's "going out", what a farewell!!
Lots of racial slurs are tossed out...and in a PC World, it's a little shocking and troubling. The filmgoers didn't know whether to laugh or cringe---so sometimes they did both.
In many ways, this could be Clint's "goodbye". He has spoken a great deal about retiring lately, and at 78, who could blame him? Walt and Clint (at least somewhat) represent the end of a era---one where the "greatest generation" are seeing their America fade away into a much more diverse nation. A nation with new troubles. Sooner or later, Walt learns and becomes a better person for it. It's not an incredible transformation, but even rarer---one you can believe in.
Clint is magnificent performance and the ending is just perfect.
I think the "words" may have scared away the Academy, but this is one of the year's best films and well worth seeing. Clint has made some his very best films in the past few years: "Million Dollar Baby", "Flags For Our Fathers", "Letters From Iwo Jima" and now "Gran Torino". If he's "going out", what a farewell!!
