Clint Eastwood, how I admire thee. He has been the driving force behind some of my favorite movies, i.e. Unforgiven, Mystic River. Yet, I have never liked him as an actor. He has never grabbed me and become a role. He is just himself playing whoever. I felt the same way during Gran Torino, however I still appreciated the movie.
He plays an old racist man who hates everyone including his own family (bastards bought a foreign car). He befriends a young Hmong boy and they begin to bond. I'm sure you can see where the movie goes from this point. It is rather predictable, but I still enjoyed it and took away a few things from it.
1.) Eastwood is an awesome director. His direction seems to be flawless regardless of the scope. The scale of Gran Torino was very small and he made it seem huge and intimate at the same time. He also gets credit for making Detroit actually look beautiful at times.
2.) The racism was a little hypocritical at times. Maybe I am naive, but I thought it was over the top. No one uses a racial slur in nearly every sentence they speak. I also thought the lack of the n-bomb was rather hypocritical. It is an awful, dreadful, and despicable word. But in a movie about racism it was never uttered by the racist person. I don't find this logical or realistic. None of the slurs in this movie should ever be uttered, but I found this omission very odd.
3.) The last thought I have is that people do not owe you anything when it comes to material goods. Just because someone in your family passes on or good friends die doesn't mean you are entitled to their stuff. Value the relationship and that is the only gift you will ever need or want from that person
All in all, a good movie by a great director. I am planning on seeing some other Oscar contending movies in the next few weeks. I will have reviews or thoughts later on.
Overall
8 out of 10
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