Gran Torino (2008)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, Thao Lor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino.
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38 films that influenced Gran Torino
What critics say influenced Gran Torino
Eastwood’s portrayal of Walt echoes a career capper of his predecessor John Wayne, but rather than the self-parodying True Grit it’s the similarly mournful The Shootist (directed by Clint mentor Don Siegel).
This has always been true of Eastwood, just as it was with John Wayne (who nevertheless won the Best Actor Oscar for "True Grit").
Eastwood’s portrayal of Walt echoes a career capper of his predecessor John Wayne, but rather than the self-parodying True Grit it’s the similarly mournful The Shootist (directed by Clint mentor Don Siegel).
It�s utter sap on that level, but Eastwood plays Walt with a farewell-tour gratitude, like John Wayne in The Shootist.
He deserves a "True Grit" or something on the order of "The Shootist."
You'd have to go back to Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse toon, Brave Little Tailor (1938), in which Mickey subdues a fearsome giant, to find a pluckier, more likable little guy.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we nominate Walter Matthau or Jack Lemmon for Grumpy Old Men? Biased critics may look at Clint's work in Gran Torino and want to see something edgy, but it's really just a caricature of things that he has done before and done better.
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In employing a non-linear structure - the action oscillates between the battlefield and the soldiers' trials and tribulations back home - screenwriters William Broyles Jr and Paul Haggis have infused the proceedings with a thoroughly uneven vibe that ultimately prevents the film from stepping out of the shadows of thematically-similar forebearers such as Patton and Saving Private Ryan.
Not since Warren Beatty’s bold, but failed 1998 political satire Bulworth has an American film legend played such an anti-PC character.
What at first glance looked like "Clint does Death Wish" is actually a warmer, more captivating story of an old man begrudgingly realising his need for redemption.
Even more remarkable, I read recently that "Gran Torino" is the highest-grossing film Eastwood has ever made, remarkable when you consider he's done things like "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "Unforgiven," "Mystic River," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Million Dollar Baby," and "The Changeling" to name but a few in addition to the "Dirty Harry" series.
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Or at least leading to a final solution not just feverishly telegraphed, but ultimately insulting in the kind of Nancy Grace-ish �we care when a pretty young white girl is kidnapped� kinda way that somehow upstages Kevin Costner�s final shot in The Postman with the most callously self-indulgent tribute shot that a director could give to himself as the star of his own misguided project.
The Universal release, directed by Sam Fell (Flushed Away) and Robert Stevenhagen (animator on The Road to El Dorado) from a screenplay by writer Gary Ross (Pleasantville) adapted from the children's novel by Kate DiCamillo, certainly bears a superficial resemblance to Ratatouille, but it's a better film in several ways.