An American classic
“Gran Torino” is a great American film. Clint Eastwood, 78, is taking the opposite route of such luminaries as Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. Their best work is seemingly behind them; Eastwood, meanwhile, continues to make compelling, relevant flicks — both as a director and actor. He’s rarely been better.
“Gran Torino” is effortlessly authentic, and that’s due in large part to Eastwood’s presence in front of and behind the camera. There’s a knowledge of character and place that’s missing in most Hollywood product. Eastwood pays attention, and he cares. That shouldn’t stand out as much as it does.
NY Times critic Manohla Dargis summed it up well in her glowing review:
Despite all the jokes — the scenes of Walt lighting up at female flattery and scrambling for Hmong delicacies — the film has the feel of a requiem. Melancholy is etched in every long shot of Detroit’s decimated, emptied streets and in the faces of those who remain to still walk in them. Made in the 1960s and ’70s, the Gran Torino was never a great symbol of American automotive might, which makes Walt’s love for the car more poignant. It was made by an industry that now barely makes cars, in a city that hardly works, in a country that too often has felt recently as if it can’t do anything right anymore except, every so often, make a movie like this one.
Couldn’t agree more. This was a truly forgettable year for American movies. Eastwood constructs a simple, solid narrative and makes it appear effortless. Not a perfect movie, but a nice antidote to the garbage filling most multiplexes. Also see ‘The Wrestler’ for another naturalistic, effecting story…no CGI in sight.
Clint Eastwood did a great job of using his outward crankiness to come across as mean as well as somehow heroic this newest film of his