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I thought this was a great movie. Clint Eastwood is America. The only thing that could have made it better would be if he killed someone with that M-1 of his. I also enjoyed learning new racial slurs. I just want to see if anyone had a true reason to dislike this movie.

I want to see this movie.  All I can say if I had someone like Clint Eastwood pointing a big gun at me, I would mess myself.  On my must see.

Later,

John

Pretty good.. some of the acting by unknowns wasn't that great and there were a couple dumb, pointless scenes, but at least the message wasn't overly hammered home; and Eastwood, as always, was great.

Yeah, I liked it quite a bit. Not a perfect movie by any means, but the general vibe was awesome. I agree with retrorussel that the supporting cast had a few holes, particularly the priest. That character was an important element of the story and I wasn't thrilled with the performance.

Clint Eastwood's character, however, was very interesting. A dark, brooding, manacing Charlie Bunker in many ways. His character was prejudiced and bigoted as hell, but I always got the feeling that he was, in spite of this, a fairer human being than most, perhaps due in part to such pronounced catharsis. And yes, I too would mess myself if I p**sed him off while he was holding that M-1.

If the priest's performance would have matched the importance of the character, I would have given the film a 9.5/10. As it stands, I would give it a 8.5/10.

Damn straight Eastwood is America. He had to have someone take over after Charles Bronson died and Chuck Norris started doing infomercials.

If anyone didn't like this film, I'd say there would be a lot of Hollywood folk who might have raised a stink away from the limelight. You know how they feel about guns and 2nd Amendment rights and patriotism and all that....

I liked it, and I like VERY few movies that come out these days.   -maybe about one a year if that.

Loved Gran Torino. First time I saw it I watched it again shortly after. At the time I was dating this girl and I was trying to explain to her how guys talk to each other and she thought I was making it up.

The scene where Eastwood takes the kid to speak with the barber and the teamster made my point in flying colors.

One of Clint Eastwood's best films IMO

 

Eastwood is definitely one of the last of a dying breed: He's the gun loving, hard bitten old patriotic S.O.B. that you'd love to spend a day at the gun range with as you nail clay pigeons and 10 ring targets at the indoor pistol range.

Eastwood is definitely not afraid to stir up controversy at his age.

He got Spike Lee all out of joint when he made Flags Of Our Fathers.  Lee said that Eastwood deliberately ignored the role of black Marines in WW2, and Eastood says there were none in direct combat, but in combat support roles on ships and supply lines. 

As history turns out, both were right, but you'd never hear one admit to the other..

Yeah, Eastwood IS America, and I wouldn't want it any other way  :cheers:

Well, I'm not sure of that.
Gran Torino is one of the most anti-violence films I have ever seen.

Its why I liked it so much.   :thumbup:

Look, I've liked one or two Spike Lee films tremendously, but Spike is Spike. Everything is a conspiracy against blacks. Now, if there were any black Marines who were a significant part of the story that Clint wrote out, then Spike would have a point. Otherwise, please shut up and make your own film about black service members in WWII. Wait, he already did. I'm failing to see what the problem is.

By the way, Clint Eastwood took a big gamble on a film (Bird) about a legendary black jazz musician, Charlie Parker, that did not do well at all. as well as adding a black character into a Western (Unforgiven) that was the film's most noble character. Do you really need to apply your "conspiracy against blacks" spotlight on Clint? Seriously.

I heard of "Bird" but haven't seen yet.  And I'm failing to see what the problem is either, in the case of black WW2 servicemen..history proved that Lee and Eastwood were both right, but that's still not good enough for Lee.

Agreed. Lee always makes Blacks the victim. Remember Do The Right Thing?  That whole mess started because there were no pictures of black actors on the wall of the pizza shop owned by Danny Aiello's character. If there was anything more ridiculous to be mad about... :lookingup:

Oh well, just goes to show that there's always someone whose never happy, and they have to make the rest of everyone unhappy with them. 

To be fair, this is not presented as particularly reasonable in the film, and on the whole Danny Aiello comes across as probably the nicest character in the film.  And the trashing of his store is presented as what it is - poorly focused violence at an undeserving target.  I don't think any side comes across particularly well in that film, which was the point. 

But Spike Lee often does seem to miss the forest for the trees.  There's a lot of racial things to be upset about in America, and somehow the stuff he complains about publicly he is either flat out wrong about (Flags of our Fathers) or when he's right is just not the sort of thing to point to first, ya know?  He should pick his battles.  He's like the PETA of black rights activists. 

Gran Torino I found to be an enjoyable film, with a very good lead performance by Eastwood.  Watching some of it again recently, I will say I find the performances by some of the supporting characters fairly weak though - they are amateurs, and it shows sometimes.  But it's still a solid film, and a pretty good swan song for Eastwood's acting career.  8/10 from me.

That was pretty much my point though my semantics were a bit off.

The violence was undeserved and taken out on someone who had nothing to do with it. And yes, the reactions of both sides were meant to be construed as "doing the right thing" when in reality it was 2 wrongs not making a right, but coming off as such as the characters involved felt they were beyond the point of repair, justifying their actions.


Well said. He's the kind of guy that likes to put out fires with gasoline, or give a glass of water to a drowning man, depending on what mood he's in that particular day. He's very unnecessary and intigational in an area that's hot enough w\o adding any numbers.


I too had seen it again a few days ago, and agree with you 100%.   Eastwood played a man whose bitterness and prejudice towards Asians was a mask to hide the hurt inside for his actions in the Korean war. He felt that hating Asians would make it easier for him to erase his guilt, and eventually he realized that he was wrong. 

Watching his relationship with the brother and sister bloom was a very satisfying thing, and watching Eastwood become more human by the day was great too.

And yeah, some of the actors were a bit lackluster, but they get to say they worked with Clint Eastwood, so how cool is that?  :bouncegiggle: