Sunday, January 11, 2009

Movie Review: Gran Torino

My wife and I saw the movie Gran Torino last night. Without spoiling the movie, here is what I thought:

Overall
Gran Torino was very well done, and probably the best movie I've seen in a while. Although it may not be Oscar caliber, it does have many good qualities that could make it a contender. I highly recommend seeing it, as long as you are not easily offended.

Clint Eastwood

It is a very powerful movie, and has many underlying meaningful life lessons. Clint Eastwood does a brilliant job playing the main character, who is a vulgar grouchy old man hardened from the Korean War. In his ripe old age of 78, Clint Eastwood looks pretty old, and probably doesn't have many movies left in his acting career. His character in Gran Torino summarizes most of his casting rolls over the years, and would be a perfect final movie to ride off into the sunset. Clint Eastwood could use the success of Gran Torino to retire from acting, and focus full time on directing.

Themes
This movie definitely caters to an older crowd. It depicts a excellent portrait of today's youth and their lack of respect for adults. It also shows traditional morals, and touches on the acceptance of other cultures. The dialogue in the movie is a bit over the top and should be taken with a grain of salt. There is also a slight spiritual angle to the movie with the regular interaction between the main character and his priest. This ads another subtle layer to make the movie that much more in depth.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

NOTE: The film is titled "Gran Torino," not Grand Torino; the very famous actor is Clint Eastwood, not Clint East Wood or Clint East wood; it's "caliber," not calibre"; and, BTW, I am old enough to know that the car is NOT a Ford Gran Torino parked under the carport in the image accompanying this post!

So often good commentary, ideas and suggestions on this blog are lost when the writer doesn't take the time to verify spelling or do a simple spelling/grammar check. Carefully reviewing this post would have helped. I am sure you will agree that being a writer means taking responsibility for the integrity of what is written.

Dan Malone said...

Thank you for pointing out my typos. I am not a car guy myself, and used a search engine to find the image. I hope the the post is now corrected to your satifaction.

Euan Lake said...

Good review Dan.

I didn't quite agree with some parts, due to the simple fact that I found the movie quite slow moving and tedious.

Thats just my opinion though, but I thought you did a good job of reviewing the movie.

Short clear and concise review, good job :)

Euan

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