{"id":1765,"date":"2008-12-21T23:55:53","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T06:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1765"},"modified":"2008-12-22T09:41:48","modified_gmt":"2008-12-22T16:41:48","slug":"gran-torino-clint-eastwood-2008-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=1765","title":{"rendered":"Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Byron Potau <\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at The Riviera Theatre, Santa Barbara, Ca.<\/p>\n

\"\"If you\u2019re the kind of politically correct, easily offended person who cannot wait to ruin the good times of those who enjoy the kind of off color humor that Clint Eastwood\u2019s latest film, Gran Torino<\/em> <\/a>, is brimming with then please stay away.\u00a0 For the rest of us with a sense of humor and enough sense not to take a racial joke too seriously this film is for us.\u00a0 The racial slurs never stop.\u00a0 It is mean, offensive, and totally hilarious.\u00a0 For many directors this would be their greatest film in many years.\u00a0 For Clint Eastwood it is merely his latest great film.<\/p>\n

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a crusty old man, stubborn in his ways who cannot stand his two sons, their wives, their decoratively pierced daughter, or for that matter, pretty much anyone outside of a few old manly friends.\u00a0 With one of the few people Walt actually likes, his barber, they trade racial barbs as brutally offensive as can be from beginning to end and smile to themselves about it when the other is out of sight.\u00a0 This is how men speak to each other.\u00a0 Walt\u2019s wife dies and he is now on his own in a neighborhood that has been slowly taken over by the Hmong population.\u00a0 Walt\u2019s neighbor, Thao (Bee Vang), is pressured by a Hmong gang into trying to steal Walt\u2019s 1972 Gran Torino.\u00a0 When he fails the gang again tries to pressure Thao into their group, but he wants no part of it.\u00a0 When the struggle spills over into Walt\u2019s lawn he brings out the guns and forces the gang off his property.\u00a0 The neighborhood views Walt as a hero and he makes friends with Thao\u2019s sister, Sue (Ahney Her), who has earned his respect.\u00a0 Thao begins working for Walt to make amends for trying to steal his car and Walt begins teaching the weak Thao how to be a man.<\/p>\n

The first thing I have to say is it is okay to laugh.\u00a0 This movie is funny and it is meant to be funny so lighten up.\u00a0 The second thing I have to say is this movie is not all laughs.\u00a0 Just like Eastwood\u2019s Million Dollar Baby this film takes a sharp turn to tragedy.\u00a0 Eastwood is remarkable as Walt, expressing his rugged toughness like no other, but playing the role for comedy to let us enjoy Walt\u2019s stubborn, racist, tough guy ways without being offended.\u00a0 Nick Schenk\u2019s witty screenplay gives Eastwood one of the best roles of his career, and some of the best dialogue Eastwood has ever spoken.\u00a0 I guess by now we should expect it from Eastwood, but it is still amazing the level of artistry this man has been achieving in his waning years, and the scary and delightful thing is, with two films this year, he shows no sign of slowing down or fading away.\u00a0 Here\u2019s to a long life for Eastwood because we\u2019re the better for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Byron Potau .\u00a0 Viewed at The Riviera Theatre, Santa Barbara, Ca. If you\u2019re the kind of politically correct, easily offended person who cannot wait to ruin the good times of those who enjoy the kind of off color humor that Clint Eastwood\u2019s latest film, Gran Torino , is brimming with then please stay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema-society","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}