I finally took the time to watch Clint Eastwood’s new movie “Gran Torino” this week. Many people feel this movie was snubbed by the Oscar Committee, I will tell you why that is not the case. Most people forget part of the qualifications to receive an Oscar nod is to have a strong cast, this movie lacked that.
Here is the trailer for the movie.
Movie summary from IMDB-
Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can’t get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao’s family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.
Now that you have the basic story line, here is the review.
The majority of the dialogue in this film is taken from the list of the most offensive racial slurs you can pull up on the internet. Walt calls everyone he comes into contact with offensive and stereo typical names. The script also calls for 90% of the minorities to commit some sort of heinous crime. The only true positive character that does not fall into the race category of Caucasian is the character of Sue Lor (played by the new comer Ahney Her ). Coincidentally, Ahney was also the strongest supporting character in the movie.
Walt’s neighborhood deteriorated over the years and is now inhabited by lower class white people and gang bangers from all different minority groups. Walt freely insults them to their face (even called a group of black guys “spooks”, but since they could not take rejection from a girl and proceeded to shove her around it makes it alright).
The actor that played the character of Thao (another new comer Bee Vang) was a likable character, but was poorly portrayed. The priest, Father Janovich (played by Christopher Carley) was a character that attempted to show compassion to Walt by trying to make him face his demons from the war. Sadly, his attempts were poorly acted and I felt like I was watching scenes in an acting class while watching him on screen.
All in all this movie just threw in a bunch of shocking images, racial slurs, and angry moments to get our attention. Once they had it they did not have the tools to grip our heart strings. This movie attempted to show us that what comes out of a person’s mouth is not as important as their actions, sadly most of us know that simply is not true. Walt’s fatherly actions are lost in all of the chaos in this movie.
In the end you walk away thinking “Walt was a nice guy that you just could not bring out in public” and “his wife’s death was the best thing that could have happened to him”.
If you can stomach 90 minutes of stereo types and racial slurs, I recommend this movie simply to put your mind at ease over the Oscar “snub”.
I have been a few places, seen a lot of things. I have had my hands in many fields. I may have answers for you if you have questions...even if you don't.
great review…
Thank you!
i really liked the movie, specially when the kid grew up and started helping clint (by force). He sure can be a model to follow for all the teenagers
the movie itself was good if you can stomach the language. It goes to
show how important a strong male figure is in the life of a child (or
young adult)
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Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.
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