I just got back from a critics' screening of Clint Eastwood's new movie, "Gran Torino," and I'm floored. I loved, loved, loved it. "Dirty Harry" is back. Yes, I know it's not a Dirty Harry movie, but if you liked Eastwood in the days when he played law and order tough guys who got the bad guys--as opposed to the contemporary Eastwood of anti-war and pro-euthanasia movies--you'll love this.
I can't post a review yet until the movie comes out, but I can tell you I plan to give it FOUR REAGANS. It's definitely one of the best movies of the year. I bet it does mega-profits at the box office, as opposed to his recent anti-war bombs. This is the kind of movie Americans wanna see.
If you're counting your pennies, as we all are in these tough times, and can only see one movie over the holidays, this is the one. Well worth the ten bucks. The movie comes out on Christmas Day in limited release and wider release after.
Stay tuned for my review right before Christmas.
At 78, perhaps the only actor in the history of American cinema to convincingly kick the butt of a guy 60 years his junior, the hard-headed, snarly mouthed Clint Eastwood of the 1970s comes growling back to life in "Gran Torino." Centered on a cantankerous curmudgeon who can fairly be described as Archie Bunker fully loaded (with beer and guns), the actor-director's second release of the season is his most stripped-down, unadorned picture in many a year, even as it continues his long preoccupation with race in American society. Highlighted by the star's vastly entertaining performance, this funny, broad but ultimately serious-minded drama about an old-timer driven to put things right in his deteriorating neighborhood looks to be a big audience-pleaser with mainstream viewers of all ages.
In his first screen appearance since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby," Eastwood revives memories of some of his earlier working-class characters; Korean War vet Walt Kowalski suggests a version of what Dirty Harry might have been like at this age, and there are elements as well of the narrow-minded, authority-driven figures in "The Gauntlet" and "Heartbreak Ridge," as well as those films' humble settings and plain aesthetics.
His wife freshly in her grave and his two sons' upscale families uncomfortable around him, Kowalski has impeccably maintained his modest suburban Detroit home while every other house nearby has gone to seed. A lifelong auto worker after his Army stint, Kowalski has seen his contemporaries die off or move on, replaced by immigrants and assorted ethnics he despises. His racist mutterings, which employ every imaginable epithet for Asians, are blunt and nasty, but Eastwood grunts them out in an over-the-top way that provokes laughs, and his targets are no less sparing of him.
Particularly irksome is the family next door. To Kowalski, they are generically Asian, but they are specifically part of the sizable local Hmong population, mountain folk from Laos, Thailand and elsewhere who sided with the U.S. during the Vietnam War and understandably fled when the Yanks pulled out of Southeast Asia. Residing in the rundown house are a granny, a mother and two teenagers, retiring boy Thao (Bee Vang) and more assertive girl Sue (Ahney Her).
Visitors often congregate at the home, and Kowalski imagines them eating dog (he has one) and pursuing other unwholesome activities. But the sole genuinely unsavory element is a bunch of Hmong gangbangers hot to recruit the leader's cousin, Thao. "Get off my lawn," Kowalski menacingly snarls when some commotion spills onto his property in what will no doubt become one of the film's trademark lines, and the cagey coot makes it clear he'll be gunning for the hot-rodding hoodlums if they bother him again.
The pivot in Nick Schenk's lively, neatly balanced screenplay (which was allegedly not written with Eastwood in mind, although it's a mystery who else could have played the lead) has the gangstas forcing Thao to prove himself by stealing Kowalski's cherry 1972 Gran Torino. When the alert old soldier catches him at it, Thao's tradition-minded family insists he work off his shame at the victim's pleasure. Reluctantly at first, Kowalksi has him make repairs around the neighborhood, thereby initiating a quasi-father-son relationship between extremely unlikely prospects.
More melodramatically, Kowalski also becomes a protector of sorts to Sue, whom he rescues from some taunting black street kids in a scene that echoes previous scenes in Eastwood films in which the hero dares badass types to take him on. Beginning to take an interest in his young charges, Kowalski learns from Sue that, among Hmong kids in the U.S., "The girls go to college and the boys go to jail." Once he spends more time with the siblings and sees their desire to raise themselves up, Kowalski admits that, "I have more in common with these gooks than with my own spoiled, rotten family."
Thus is launched a character arc that will strike some as so ambitiously long as to seem far-fetched for such an old, mentally entrenched man. But Eastwood makes it appear plausible -- as if, once Kowalski has seen the light, everything that comes afterward is clear, almost preordained. Religion hovers in the background; a very young priest (Christopher Carley), determined to fulfill the final request of Kowalski's wife to get her husband to confess, keeps getting the door shut in his face, the old man feeling he knows a lot more about life and death than this green seminary product. Climax is heavier and more sobering than expected, but it's quietly foreshadowed by narrative and character elements.
While "Gran Torino" is entirely of a piece with Eastwood's other work, it also stands apart from his artful films of the past six years in its completely straightforward, unstudied style. To be sure, there are themes and understated points of view, most fundamentally about the need to get beyond racial and ethnic prejudice, the changing face of the nation and the future resting in the hands of today's immigrants. In a way that clearly could not have been intended, Eastwood could be said to have inadvertently made the first film of the Obama era.
Eastwood has dealt very intelligently and matter-of-factly with race throughout his career -- in "Bird," "Unforgiven," "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," among others -- and in this respect, the key scene here is one in which Kowalski takes Thao to an Italian barber and, with the intention of making him "man up," teaches him the relevant ethnic insults, which, in his world, everyone should be able to withstand and humorously throw back at the perpetrator. For the two older adults, it's a game -- a rite of passage that incorporates a healthy, if superficially abrasive, acknowledgment of their differences.
Eastwood's initial vocal rasp moderates over time, just as his character softens toward the seeming aliens who surround him. There is probably no leading Hollywood actor with less ham in him than Eastwood -- just compare him to Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino, for starters -- but by his standards, this is a real barn-burner; grumbling under his breath or merely looking askance at the perceived lowlifes that litter his existence, Eastwood clearly relishes this role and conveys his delight to the audience, to great satisfaction all around.
Hmong roles were filled by nonpros and quite adequately so. A bit characterless at first, Vang ultimately comes into his own as a 16-year-old forced into life's crossroads, while Her capably embodies a girl with more spirit than judgment. Carley plays right into his priest's naivete, while John Carroll Lynch has fun as the old-school barber.
Shot over five weeks in Detroit's Highland Park neighborhood, the pic is efficient and modest in all production departments. Editors Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach brought it in crisply at under two hours.
National Board of Review - Best Actor 2008 - Clint Eastwood : Gran Torino :)
http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/
Top Ten Films
(In alphabetical order) BURN AFTER READING, CHANGELING, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, THE DARK KNIGHT, DEFIANCE, FROST/NIXON, GRAN TORINO, MILK, WALL-E, THE WRESTLER
Bottom Line: Clint Eastwood delivers one of his rare comic performances in a film that otherwise doesn't measure up to his recent outstanding works.
So now we know what became of Dirty Harry.
In "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood plays a retired auto worker in Michigan who could literally stand in for his iconic character a quarter of a century later. Crotchety as hell and a gun never far from his side, Harry -- sorry, Walt Kowalski -- lives a sullen, solitary life in a deteriorating blue-collar neighborhood where nonwhite and immigrant faces constantly irritate him. Indeed everything from the rundown funk of the 'hood to his blase grown children and their punk kids irritates him. A scowl chiseled into his gruff, stony face, he spits foul-mouthed commentary and racial epithets from the side of his mouth about everyone he sees.
Eastwood has always had the gift for comedy in his acting repertoire, but he indulges in it only rarely. His fans might embrace this return to comedy, but those expecting something more in the vein of recent Eastwood incarnations as an actor ("Million Dollar Baby") or director ("Changeling," "Letters From Iwo Jima") may be in for a disappointment. So it's up to Warner Bros. marketing to make that distinction prior to release for "Gran Torino" to gain boxoffice traction.
The movie itself, directed by Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk (from a story he wrote with Dave Johannson), is an unstable affair given to overemphasized points and telegraphed punches. It lacks the subtlety of Eastwood's recent efforts, but then again, the film must be seen in the mode of "Dirty Harry reunites with his 'Every Which Way but Loose' orangutan" -- only this time it's an aging dog named Daisy.
Gran Torino is an unpretentious, often very funny humanist drama which is a small jewel in Clint Eastwood's canon of work as a director and a highpoint in his career as an actor. Revolving around a racist curmudgeon with a military past – a cross between Dirty Harry and Archie Bunker – the film is unlikely to reach the box office or critical heights of Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby. But Eastwood's standing as a perennial star, even at 78 years of age, and the publicity surrounding his provocative character Walt Kowalski will guarantee solid box office numbers from adult moviegoers, and a healthy return on investment for Warner Bros and Village Roadshow.
In the awards race, to which he is no stranger, Eastwood is most likely to score recognition in the best actor category. He has never won an acting Oscar and has only two nominations to his credit (for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby), so, regardless of the fact that he gives a magnificent performance here, sentiment alone should drive him into the final five. Eastwood has hinted that this will be his final performance, a fact which may also work in his favour.
The film opens at the funeral of Walt's wife. A Korean War veteran who stands by her coffin grumpily judging his two sons and their families during the service, Kowalski keeps his M1 rifle in the house, is hostile to the local priest (Carley) when he comes to call, and is full of contempt and abuse for the Hmong immigrants who have moved into the neighbourhood.
He has few pleasures in life – gruff banter with the local barber (Lynch), the companionship of his dog Daisy, regular intake of bottled beer, and his Gran Torino car which he keeps in pristine condition in the garage.
Walt's life changes when his neighbour, shy teenager Thao Lor (Vang), is bullied into stealing the Gran Torino by a group of gun-toting Hmong gangbangers. Walt scares him away and the next day pulls his gun on the gang, winning the admiration of all the Hmongs in the neighbourhood. Thao's mother and older sister Sue (Her) insist that Thao confess to Walt that he was the would-be thief and offer to make amends.
Though he wants nothing to do with the Hmongs, Walt likes Sue's spunky personality, and enjoys their tasty food. He puts the boy to work in his house and in the neighbourhood, and the two develop an unlikely rapport. He tries to help Thao develop handyman skills so that he won't follow the seemingly inevitable path into gang warfare. Gradually his understanding of the family next door leads him to unlock his own damaged soul and confront demons from his past.
Eastwood still commands the screen even while he is spitting out racist comments or coughing up blood. He growls, scowls, threatens and pulls a gun whenever he feels like it. But while the trailer might imply that he is returning to a Dirty Harry "Make My Day" persona here, his character ultimately doesn't obliterate the gang with a gun but with a noble act. It's anything but Dirty Harry Redux.
Similarly Walt's abusive language to the Hmongs – which includes just about every racist epithet you can think of – is shocking at first but gradually becomes comic as he himself realises how absurd his prejudices are.
The two young newcomers Bee Vang and Ahney Her give spirited performances as the Lor siblings whose lives are inextricably bound together with loss and violence.
Eastwood is America's great humanist director at present, making eloquent calls for compassion in films like Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima and this year's Changeling, but never at the expense of spinning a good yarn. Gran Torino is a plea for racial tolerance in the US but it is also a compelling story of friendship which lingers in the mind when the extravagances of Benjamin Button and Australia have faded from memory.
As with Eastwood's other recent films, the film is ultimately a tearjerker with a momentously moving finale. As Clint's own gravelly voice starts up over the end credits singing the mournful title song, it's genuinely sad to think we might not see him act again, but somehow fitting that he should bow out with Walt Kowalski.
John Wayne was 62, when he won the Best Actor for “True Grit,” a star vehicle in which he both displayed and poked fun at his own screen image, and Clint Eastwood may be 78, when he finally wins recognition as an actor for his star vehicle, "Gran Torino," in which he more or less does the same thing as the Duke. The two movies, their stars, and their performances share other similarities in common, which I will return to later on.
Marking his first screen role since his 2004 Oscar-winning film "Million Dollar Baby," for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination, “Gran Torino” is a rather simple, old-fashioned, character-driven drama, based on the often-used premise of a fish out of water, or to put it in more sociological terms, culture collision. In this film, the conflicts and contrasts are embodied by two individuals, fifty years apart in age, who belong to entirely different socio-cultural and racial milieus.
As “the fish out of water” Eastwood plays Walt Kowlaski, a rigid, iron-willed Korean War veteran living in a rapidly changing world, who is forced by his immigrant neighbors to confront his own biases, prejudices, and his entire value system and way of life. Despite some elements of violence in the depiction of gang wars and a sad but well-earned denouement, the movie offers a rather pleasant and enjoyable experience, due to Eastwood’s high-caliber if broad acting and also the positive, upbeat message. Reflecting the new demographics of American society in the new millennium, "Gran Torino" is a classic sage applied to new realities, which makes it both timely and timeless.
Lacking the gravity of issues and moral ambiguity that have defined Eastwood’s recent work as a director (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Flags of Our Father,” “Letters from Iwo Jima,” and even “Changeling”), “Gran Torino” contains healthy humor, is much simpler in narrative structure, and much clearer in tone. I will not describe it as a downright crowd-pleaser but as mainstream entertainment, which might broaden its commercial appeal. Eastwood’s two war films and “Changeling” (which is still running) have not been particularly successful at the box-office.
The sound of Eastwood character’s name immediately brings to mind another working- class brute named Kowalski, Stanley, in Elia Kazan’s version of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a movie that could not have been more different from “Gran Torino,” though Walt Kowalski certainly possesses his own set of prejudices and psychological problems, at least when the story begins.
The story begins and ends in church. In the first scene, Kowalski attends the funeral ceremonies for his dead wife, Doris. We quickly learn that his wife's final wish was for him to take confession. But Walt feels that there's nothing for him to confess, plus, there is no one he can trust enough to confess, certainly not the new, young pastor.
In clear and broad narrative brushes, scripter Nick Schenk, working from a story by Dave Johannson and Nick Schenk, reveals crucial personality traits and episodes of Kowalski’s long life. He is an embittered veteran of the Korean War who keeps his M-1 rifle cleaned and ready—just in case. A retired autoworker, he now fills his days with home repair, guzzling beer, taking regular trips to the barber, and spending quality time in his garden with his old and loyal dog, Daisy; occasionally, Kowalski could be heard talking to his dog.
The people who used to be his neighbors have all moved or passed away, and they are now replaced by Hmong immigrants from Southeast Asia. Resentful of virtually everything he witnesses about their way of life, Kowalski has nothing but contempt for them. But Kowalski basically despises everything he sees and everyone he meets. He resents the drooping eaves, overgrown lawns, the foreign faces surrounding and smiling at him. Then, there are the local gangs of Hmong, Latino and African American teenagers who think and behave as if the neighborhood belongs to them.
A widower, Kowalski is also estranged from the callow strangers that his own grown-up children have become. Unlike another famous screen retiree, Jack Nicholson in “About Schmidt,” who embarks on an exciting journey after his wife’s death, Kowalski just seems to be waiting out the rest of his life.
His quiet, rather boring existence is thrown into chaos, when one night someone tries to steal his `72 Gran Torino. Still gleaming as it did the day Walt himself helped roll it off the assembly line decades ago, the car serves as a means of communication—really a physical and social bridge—to his shy teenaged neighbor Thao (Bee Vang). Unbeknownst to him, Thao, a “mamma’s boy,” has been pressured by the Hmong gang-bangers into trying to steal the cherished object as a site of passage into manhood.
Standing, literally and figuratively, in the way of the heist and the gang, makes Kowalski the reluctant hero of the neighborhood, especially to Thao's mother and older sister Sue (Ahney Her), who insist that Thao work for Walt as a way to make amends. Though he initially wants nothing to do with “these people,” Walt eventually gives in and puts the boy to work fixing up the neighborhood.
Main segments of the ensuing saga depict a series of interactions, mostly learning experiences, between Kowalski and Thao, which ultimately lead to one of the unlikeliest friendship seen in American film, one that will forever change both men and their value systems.
Through Thao and his family's unrelenting kindness, Walt comes to understand certain truths about the people next door--and about himself. In due time, he recognizes that these people, mostly provincial refugees from a cruel past, have more in common with him than he has with his own blood family. And it’s through them that Kowalski gains self-awareness in an odyssey that reveals to him parts of his soul that have been walled off since the Korean War.
As noted, Eastwood has not been in front of the camera since 2004’s "Million Dollar Baby." Interestingly, the character of Walt Kowalski was not written with a specific actor in mind, though it’s hard to imagine any other thespian playing the part, which fits Eastwood’s age, specific acting skills, and screen image as a glove. Like the Duke, in True Grit” and other films during the last decade of his career (“The Cowboys”, “The Shootist”), in which he played surrogate fathers or grandfathers set in his own ways but still committed to basic values, who transmitted the torch to the younger generation, Eastwood fulfills a similar narrative function in “Gran Torino,” in which his character is roughly his own biological age.
Though he plays a part that's largely unsympathetic, at least in the beginning chapters, Eastwood goes all out with a set of overt gestures and grimaces that while meant to poke fun at his neighbors essentially poke fun at and even satirize his own screen image and acting style, both largely underestimated by film critics, audiences, and the Oscar voters.
National Board of Review - Best Actor 2008 - Clint Eastwood : Gran Torino :)Wow, that's awesome! O0 Nice to see both of his films honored too.
Nothing would make Clint Eastwood's day more than winning a lead actor Oscar.
At 78, he's been nominated twice ("Unforgiven," "Million Dollar Baby"), earning picture and director honors on both films, and yet he remains unrecognized for the craft that made him a screen legend.
"Gran Torino" could be Eastwood's chance, especially as his onscreen stints become more scarce (of his last half-dozen projects, Eastwood has appeared in only three).
"Each film, I think, 'Well that will be the last. It's about time for me to go to the back of the camera and move along,'" he says. "Then this part came along, and I thought he was a good character for me to be playing."
Eastwood, who carefully oversees the campaigns for his films (both theatrical and Oscar), is keeping the film under wraps until the last possible minute -- a strategy that worked for both "Million Dollar Baby" and "Letters From Iwo Jima." But he does offer a bit of insight into what appealed to him about Walt Kowalski, painting a very different picture from the growling, rifle-packing old codger featured in "Gran Torino's" trailer. ...
Eastwood the director, commendably casting major roles from within the Hmong community, elicits a naturalness from his untutored young stars, though for a while you must take the performances on faith, as Walt learns to take the people. But Eastwood the actor is in total command, daring himself to new depths. You'll see a tough man cry--one of the few flourishings of tears in the Eastwood oeuvre. That unaffected emotion eventually informs the whole movie, making it a wrenching, rewarding experience.
If Gran Torino is his last hurrah as a movie star, that's too bad. But he couldn't find a better one to go out on--not just as a valediction for the crusty character he's played so often and for so long but as a final twisting validation of it. Along with his famous guts, Dirty Harry has a heart.
Is that acting? Sure. He doesn't just behave; he performs, confidently, richly, within the slim range of the Man with No Name, no home and no regrets. How do we know this is acting? Because in person Eastwood is genial, soft-spoken, quick-smiling--the opposite of the movie Clint in temperament and thoughtfulness, his equal only in stature.
I still stand by my earlier commentary on Eastwood's actor prospects, but beyond that, I don't see this film competing.
Back in the early 1990s, Nick Schenk was working the night shift at a factory in Bloomington, Minn., packaging VHS tapes. It seemed like a lousy job at the time, but ultimately it would lead him to the biggest break of his career.
Many of his co-workers were Hmong, an Asian people from the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia and China who began immigrating to the U.S. in the wake of the communist takeover of Laos in 1975. "We had a lot of time to talk," Schenk recalls. "They'd ask us stuff like, 'Why do you guys eat so much?' And we'd ask them things like, 'Why do you have the same first name as last name?' "
Schenk also learned deeper things about the Hmong, such as how they had sided with the U.S. in the Vietnam War, only to wind up in refugee camps, at the mercy of communist forces, when American troops pulled out. And he learned about how they came to the U.S. thinking they'd be seen as heroes, only to find nobody knew they existed. But that was as far as it went. When the job ended, the plight of the Hmong slipped to the back of his mind. ...
"Gran Torino": Warner Bros.; release date Dec. 12
Nick Schenk wrote the script in longhand at Grumpy's Bar in northeast Minneapolis.
Clint Eastwood completed shooting on the film in 33 days, two days under his already-tight schedule.
The film's initial budget was less than $30 million. The expected tax rebate from Michigan will reduce it another $5 million.
The 2000 U.S. Census counted 169,440 persons of full Hmong ancestry living in the U.S. Today, the number is estimated to be between 200,000 and 250,000.
No offense, but the people who've been slamming Gran Torino have their heads up their posterior cavities. Or maybe just broomsticks. They sure don't seem to understand the legend and the mythology of director-star Clint Eastwood, which is what this film is mainly about (apart from the sections having to do with love, caring, guilt, moral growth and father-son relations). But to watch and fail to get this thing is to admit to a failing -- a void -- in your own moviegoing heart. Anyone who mocks this film, I mock them back double.
Set in a lower middle-class Detroit neighborhood, Gran Torino is a plain, straight, unpretentious...okay, a tiny bit hokey-here-and-there racial-relations drama by way of an older conservative sensibility -- Clint's, obviously, but also, it seemed to me, John McCain's. Get off my lawn, etc. McCain needs to see it and review it for the Huffington Post -- seriously. That would be perfect.
It's an old-fashioned film in that the pacing is gradual and methodical in a good 1962 way, but primarily this is a clean, disciplined, older-guy's urban western -- a kind of growly, sardonic, at times lightly comedic racial-relationship drama. But also a sad and fatalistic Shane movie about a morally compromised guy facing down the baddies at the finale. Light and darkish, brusque and kindly, spitting up blood. Old-guy angst, doubt, warmth, uncertainty, fear-of-death, fear-of-life, family-- the whole magillah. What's to dislike?
Popcorn-wise, this is a doddering Dirty Harry vs. evil-ass gangbangers conflict piece, except it takes its time getting to the Big Showdown parts and there aren't that many of them to begin with. Like Shane, GT keeps the guns holstered and makes every shot count.
But the confrontation scenes in this vein are awfully damn satisfying because we're watching the same old Harry, a little weathered but just as fierce as he was nearly 40 years ago, standing up and refusing to take any $#!t from any cheap-ass punks. But at the same time Walt Kowalski -- i.e., Clint's character -- is the kind of guy who's always letting slight little shafts of light in as he deals with and talks to others. The kind of light, I mean, that comes in odd underhanded ways. Blunt honesty, kindliness, vulnerability, consideration, and tender-gruff father-son conversations, etc. Tough sentiment, but not sentimentality.
Either you get and cherish the Clint thing, or you don't get and cherish the Clint thing. There's no third way. Either you understand that he makes films that sound a certain way, share a certain pictorial signature, are cut a certain way and unfold at a certain pace -- the same way Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Bridges of Madison County and all the rest of them played, looked and unfolded -- or you don't understand that.
I understand that. I got it. I admired it. Gran Torino knows itself, is true to itself. And there's nothing the least bit embarassing or short-fally or Razzie about it. Not in the least. David Poland, hang your head.
Under-30s are advised to stay away. Seriously -- you'll just be wasting your time. Especially younger women. But over 35, over 40 and especially over 50 types are welcome. Guys who've been around for the long Clint ride and know what it's always been about I've seen it twice now and GT is about as good as this sort of thing can get. You just have to know what "this sort of thing" really and truly means.
I'll get into it again tomorrow, most likely. The other actors, the jokes, the warmth moments -- there's a lot that's rich and rewarding in this film.
Is Clint's performance likely to draw a Best Actor nomination? Most likely, yeah. Partly a gold-watch thing, partly for the acting itself. The current inside his acting is quite strong, his whole life running through it. It'll feel weird if a nomination doesn't happen -- put it that way.
Clint Eastwood Finds Salvation in Gran Torino
Walt Kowalski growls a lot—a dyspeptic rumble that wells up from deep inside his belly when he catches sight of his midriff-baring teenage granddaughter text-messaging her way through her grandmother's funeral, or when his good-for-nothing son and daughter-in-law suggest that he sell his house in a gang-infested corner of suburban Detroit and move to one of those plasticine retirement homes that look so nice in the brochures.
Like many characters Clint Eastwood has played in his six-decade screen career, Walt Kowalski is a man outside of his own time—a man who senses on some deep, inarticulable level that he has outlived his own usefulness. He's a little bit of "Dirty" Harry Callahan, brandishing his disgust (and his firearm) at the unsightly blemishes of a value-less society; a little bit of Million Dollar Baby's Frankie Dunn, the rundown boxing trainer who's been as much of a disappointment to himself as to his estranged family; and more than a little bit of Unforgiven's Bill Munny, the has-been gunslinger haunted by the sins of his past but unable to refuse one last ride in the saddle. And much like those movies, Gran Torino (which Eastwood directed from a generally superb script by newcomer Nick Schenk) is about what happens when circumstance hurls Walt Kowalski into direct conflict with the present.
Like Unforgiven, Gran Torino begins with the death of the Eastwood character's unseen but implicitly saintly wife, after which Walt only has eyes for two things—his faithful canine companion and the gleaming 1972 Ford Gran Torino that sits in his garage, a reminder of the now-defunct assembly line where he spent most of his adult life. Back then, Walt's neighborhood was an enclave of the blue-collar sons and daughters of European immigrants. Now, those same streets have been taken over by another immigrant population—the Hmong people of China, Thailand, and Laos, who fought on "our" side during the CIA's Vietnam-era shadow wars, even if, to Walt, they're no different from the "jabbering gooks" he fought against in Korea.
As Walt rants about the "zipperheads" dragging down the neighborhood, brushes off the barely postpubescent priest who comes around to give Walt confession, and growls some more, Gran Torino looks to be shaping up as something of a gently un-p.c., geriatric crowd-pleaser of the Space Cowboys variety. And if that's all you want or expect of Gran Torino, then that's exactly what it will be—no matter that Eastwood, for whom moviemaking has long been symbiotic with his love of jazz, merely uses the bass line of a butt-kicking Clint Eastwood action movie to play a series of complex variations on his career-abiding themes.
Mostly, Gran Torino is a two-hander between Walt and the literal boy next door—an introverted, fatherless Hmong teen, Thao (Bee Vang), who caves to pressure from a gangbanger cousin and tries to steal Walt's car in a botched initiation rite. Gradually and grudgingly, Walt takes the boy under his wing and takes it upon himself to "man him up" a bit—but only after Walt first steps across the property line and into the Hmong world. At its most didactic, Gran Torino has Walt stare into a mirror and realize that he has more in common with these "foreigners" than he does with his own flesh and blood, but more often, the movie works by subtle implication. Where Korea was Walt's war, Vietnam was the Hmong's. Both understand that a man who has seen war can never not be that man, and that the kind of absolution Walt Kowalski seeks won't be found in a confessional.
This is hardly the first time Eastwood has played a man with a shadowy past, but rarely have the shadows been so vividly illuminated (no matter the director's trademark preference for chiaroscuro lighting). "We used to stack f@#ks like you five feet high in Korea and use you for sandbags," Walt barks while shoving his old M-1 in the face of one of the gang members who continue to terrorize Thao's family—a moment (one of the finest Eastwood has ever acted) that echoes the image of the Iwo Jima survivor stirred from a nightmare at the start of Flags of Our Fathers. Only, Walt Kowalski is wide awake, and the nightmare is still unfolding.
"The thing that haunts a man most is what he isn't ordered to do," Walt says in Gran Torino's defining scene, and the thing that has long haunted Eastwood is the legacy of American violence and the false heroic myths on which that legacy has been written. For him, romanticized movie violence long ago lost its allure, and at least since Unforgiven, the act of killing another human being has been depicted as one that leaves a permanent scar on men's psyches. In Gran Torino, that strain of investigation reaches its apotheosis in an inversion of Unforgiven's climactic barroom standoff, a scene that brings the curtain down on Eastwood's cycle of urban-crime films as hauntingly as the earlier one did on his Westerns.
I'm not sure if Gran Torino is Eastwood's "best" film, to whatever extent such trivial distinctions matter. Certainly, it's a rougher, less formally elegant one than the masterly Unforgiven and A Perfect World. But especially when viewed in light of this year's earlier Changeling (which, on the surface, looks like the more "important" movie), it seems like one of Eastwood's most personal, right down to his raspy warbling of the self-penned end-credits song. Above all, it feels like a summation of everything he represents as a filmmaker and a movie star, and perhaps also a farewell. "That," future generations of fathers will someday tell their sons, "is what Clint Eastwood was all about."
Clint Makes My Day as Aged Avenging Angel
Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, from a screenplay by Nick Schenk, based on a story by Dave Johannson and Mr. Schenk, caps his career as both a director and an actor with his portrayal of a heroically redeemed bigot of such humanity and luminosity as to exhaust my supply of superlatives. The movie begins with Mr. Eastwood’s gloweringly cantankerous retired Polish-American autoworker, Walt Kowalski, presiding over his beloved wife’s funeral, and visibly disapproving of everyone in attendance both in the church and at the reception afterward in his Detroit domicile. These include his spoiled but moderately successful sons, their wives and children; his parish priest, Father Janovich (Christopher Carley); and all his Hmong neighbors, who he feels have invaded his once solidly Polish-Irish community. In short, Walt, like many retirees, refuses to accept a changing world on any terms but his own jaundiced view of humanity, and his hostility has not escaped the attention of a Hmong matriarch sitting on the porch next door, who asks him ironically why he has not left the neighborhood with all the other “white people.”
But Walt is too stubborn to change his ways or his locale. When his children suggest that he might be happier moving to a retirement community they have chosen for him, he virtually throws them out of the house. However, he soon discovers a new perilous problem in the area, that of emerging ethnically and racially divided disaffected young gang members: Hmong immigrants from Southeast Asia, African-Americans and Latinos. On one occasion, he rescues a cheeky young Hmong girl named Sue Lor (Ahney Her) from a menacing group of African-Americans by flashing a handgun he has kept in his possession since the Korean War—in which he served with distinction, and possesses the medal to prove it.
We learn later that he is still haunted by the memory of a North Korean youth he killed in hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile, the story shifts to a fatherless Hmong youth, Thao Vang Nor (Bee Vang), living next door, who is being intimidated by a Hmong street gang, to which Thao’s cousin belongs, into stealing Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino, which he keeps lovingly polished in his garage as a reminder of happier times in his life. When Walt, gun drawn, surprises Thao in the garage, the boy flees in a panic to his home, where he is dominated by his mother and two sisters.
When the gang members come after him, a fight breaks out and spills over to Walt’s neatly tended lawn. An outraged Walt springs out of his house with an M-1 rifle in shooting position, causing the gang members to flee and thereby lose face.
Suddenly, Walt is hailed as a hero by his Hmong neighbors, who start bringing him food, drink and plants despite his pleas for them to stop. But when Thao’s family sends Thao to Walt’s house to apologize for his attempted theft of Walt’s Gran Torino, and to offer his free services for a few weeks as an act of contrition, Walt begins to look at his neighbors in a new light. He also strikes up a friendly relationship with Thao’s older sister, Sue.
As for Thao, he begins regarding Walt as the father he never had, and the two become friends. Nonetheless, the Hmong gang members resume their raids and other depredations with explosive firepower of their own. The stage is set for Walt’s climactic confrontation with this new enemy in his life. In the process, Walt has been transformed into an elderly avenging angel with love in his heart for people of a different color, religion and ethnicity.
Mr. Eastwood worked closely with his writers, Mr. Schenk and Mr. Johannson, who were just starting out in the industry, but also with longtime collaborators like cinematographer Tom Stern; production designer James J. Murakami; editors Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach; costume designer Deborah Hopper; and above all casting director Ellen Chenoweth and her associates, Geoffrey Miclat and Amelia Rasche, who had to scour the country for the film’s nonprofessional Hmong performers. The results of all these collaborations add up to a genuinely pioneering production very much worth seeing for the emotional thunderbolt that it is.
Gran Torino takes its title from a 1972 Ford beaut parked in a driveway — a fetish object and memento mori in this curious, striking drama directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. He plays Walt Kowalski, a widowed, retired autoworker alienated from his grown sons and just about everybody else. Walt spends most of his time growling, tinkering, mowing his postage-stamp lawn, and raging against a world that's changed and won't change back no matter how hard he glares. Change has certainly come to his run-down Detroit neighborhood: Hmong immigrants with strange, foreign ways have moved in. Next door, there's a fatherless, multigenerational family that includes a quick-witted daughter (Ahney Her) and an uneasy younger teenage son (Bee Vang) who struggles to steer clear of the local Hmong gangbangers pressuring him to join them.
Walt thinks people stink. He's obnoxiously rude to a baby-faced Catholic priest (Christopher Carley, with the puss of a young Spencer Tracy) who, fulfilling the dying request of Walt's late wife, urges the SOB to go to confession. And the character regularly lets loose with such a vile spew of racist epithets that it's clear Eastwood is looking to inflame the PC ears of a contemporary audience.
Then, when someone attempts to steal Walt's prized car, the coiled Korean War vet reaches for his weapon. (A different Eastwood in a different movie might have rasped ''Do you feel lucky?'') But in the aftermath of his rage — as if breaking and entering were the only way to open the old man's emotional door — this twisted, post-9/11 version of Dirty Harry warily develops a relationship with the strangers next door. The connection leads to — well, to a shocking spiritual salvation, in fact. And to gang warfare. And to a movie at once understated and radical, deceptively unremarkable in presentation and ballsy in its earnestness. Don't let the star's overly familiar squint fool you: This is subtle, perceptive stuff.
Eastwood has devoted his recent work to refracting the image of American men in decline. His movies, pared and sinewy in both production and performance style (with the exception of the 2008 showpiece Changeling), meditate on compromises and losses, and even (most memorably in Million Dollar Baby) on serious questions of religious faith. Gran Torino, though, grafts those signature late-career preoccupations onto a story that's got the energy of a gangly youth, right down to the naturalistic performances by the mostly nonprofessional Hmong cast. The inquisitive script is by newcomer Nick Schenk, from a story by Schenk and fellow first-timer Dave Johannson — two talents lucky to dodge the indie virus that would surely have hit them had they aimed their script toward Sundance cred, tidy and full of lessons. Hey, punks: Do ya think many Sundance smoothies would dare set Dirty Harry among the Hmong? Well, do ya? A–Quote
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20245342,00.html
Jamie Cullum didn't hesitate to compose music for Clint Eastwood's next film - because the Hollywood legend phoned him up to ask the favor personally.
The jazz star was left stunned after receiving a phone call from acclaimed director Eastwood, who asked him to write the main score for forthcoming film Gran Torino.
And Cullum insists he didn't think have to think twice about taking on the project.
He says, "Getting a call from Clint Eastwood is possibly the coolest thing in the world." 8)
NEW YORK – As one of Hollywood's most honored figures, Clint Eastwood can be selective about his on-screen company — and for "Gran Torino," he didn't choose a group of people making their film debut. He chose a group of people making their acting debut.
Eastwood went with a group unknown, untrained actors for his latest film (with a screenplay by first-time scriptwriter Nick Schenk).
The Oscar and Golden Globe winner also stars as Walt Kowalski, a bigoted retiree who has trouble accepting his changing Detroit neighborhood, but is forced to reassess his prejudices when he becomes a hero by defending the family next door from a Hmong gang.
Like his character Walt, Eastwood says he, too, is ever-changing and learning.
"The real lesson that you learn is that it is amazing that you still can learn," the 78-year-old actor explains. "Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it."
Eastwood spoke with The Associated Press about "Gran Torino," Angelina Jolie, the election and his recent war of words with Spike Lee.
___
AP: The principal actors in "Gran Torino" were first-time actors. Did you feel you were taking a risk casting them?
Eastwood: Yes, I was taking a chance. I felt that was the only way to do it. There certainly weren't many Hmong actors. There was only one that I know of. It is very obscure for us. We don't know a lot about that group of people and that is what made it interesting for us.
AP: Is "Gran Torino" your last acting film?
Eastwood: I don't know. I never think of retirement really. The only reason I ever thought about retiring from the front part of the camera as opposed to the back is sometimes you think, "How many roles are there for someone my age?" I enjoy working. ... I keep working because I learn something new all the time.
AP: Have you ever felt pressure to have plastic surgery?
Eastwood: I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me. The horse is out of the barn. We don't need to worry about that (plastic surgery). ... In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don't try to play younger than I really am.
AP: You've seen firsthand the paparazzi that surrounds Angelina Jolie. If you were coming up in this time, would you have gone into acting?
Eastwood: I suppose. I like doing the process. Of course when you get to the franticness that she (Angelina) is at, at this present time, it is out there. It wasn't that way when I got in. ... It has always been a little different for guys than it is for girls. Girls get in the glamour aspect of it. They get more attention. Sometimes people get attention who haven't even done anything.
AP: Did you feel that Spike Lee's criticism for not having any African-Americans in "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" was to gain attention for his own World War II movie?
Eastwood: Probably. I like him. I don't know him well. He did that a little bit when "Bird" came out. He said, "Why is this white guy making this picture about Bird (Charlie Parker)?" The answer to that was because I was the only one who wanted to make it. Later he told me, "I didn't mean to say anything about that because I like your work."
AP: So, were you surprised when he criticized you again?
Eastwood: I just kind of thought, "What the hell?" Go ahead and promote your film and good luck with it, but don't try to make a racial thing out of it. ... Yes, there are stories of black military in Iwo Jima, but this was a story about the guys who raised the flag and they happened to be white.
AP: You supported John McCain. Were you disappointed when he lost?
Eastwood: I met him years ago when he first came back from Vietnam. This was back when (Ronald) Reagan was the governor of California and he had a big function for all of the prisoners of war who were released. I thought he was a terrific guy, a real American hero. I didn't dislike the other man either. As far as who was going to be the best person still remains to be seen. You hope whoever it is that they are going to be great. (Barack) Obama is my president now and I am going to be wishing him the very best because it is what is best for all of us.
The screen legend - who plays a racist war veteran in new movie Gran Torino - said he isn't afraid of being controversial.
Speaking at the Hollywood premiere of the drama thriller, which he also directed, Clint said: "I enjoy being politically incorrect because I think political correctness is boring.
"You talk to people who are walking around on egg shells all the time and it is kind of boring."
The 78-year-old laughed when a reporter told him his younger co-stars had admitted being intimidated by him. "Good, I hope they say that!" he joked, but added: "No, it is probably because they're 16 and 17."
The actor didn't confirm whether Gran Torino would be his last on-screen role, saying only: "I don't know, maybe. Could be."
Clint also revealed he'll be sat in front of a cinema screen like many of us over Christmas. "I'm looking forward to seeing all of them," said the star. "Unfortunately when you're working a lot you don't see many movies so I've seen very few, but I intend to see a lot this holiday because I'm not working for a while."
Clint was last to arrive at the screening. Sniffling because of the chilly weather in LA, he asked his wife: "Have you got a Kleenex?"
He then joked with a photographer who'd offered him something to wipe his nose on, laughing: "A bar napkin, where have you been?"
Gran Torino opens in the UK in February
Clint Eastwood has hinted that his role as bigoted Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski — a gun-toting widower living in Detroit near the struggling Ford auto plant and even nearer to the Asian immigrants crowding him out of his run-down, racially mixed hood — may be his last role as an actor. Eastwood, 78, has two Oscars for directing Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, and two nominations for starring in them. But an Oscar for acting? Not yet. Get busy, Academy.
I don't think Eastwood will ever turn down a juicy role. But Gran Torino, named after the 1972 car that Walt garages and polishes like a symbol of his idealized past, is a humdinger of a valedictory. Directed by Eastwood from a script by newcomer Nick Schenk, Gran Torino is Eastwood's hell-raising salute to every hardass he's ever played. Cranky Walt often communicates in a growl that sounds like a demon in need of an exorcist (wait till you hear Eastwood rasp a few bars of the film's memorable title song). Walt squints at the Hmong family next door, especially Thao (Bee Vang), a teen with a rustler's eye on the Torino. Thao's smart-mouth sister, Sue (the wonderful Ahney Her), can defrost Walt with a beer and food that isn't his usual beef jerky, but only Walt's dog, Daisy, dares to get too close. Cocking his rifle when gangbangers intrude on his territory, Walt snarls, "Get. Off. My. Lawn." Terrific stuff. And it gets better when Walt confronts some hoods playing grabass with Sue: "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while that you shouldn't have messed with? That's me."
And that "me" isn't just Walt. It's the Man With No Name taking aim in those spaghetti Westerns. It's Dirty Harry Callahan asking, "Do you feel lucky, punk?" It's William Munny, from Unforgiven, digging deep to note, "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have." It's even Frankie Dunn, the fight manager from Million Dollar Baby, who knows "tough ain't enough."
Tough has never been enough for Eastwood. It's a credit to the film's twist ending that Walt exorcises his demons without easy violence or bogus redemption. A lifetime in movies runs through this prime vintage Eastwood performance. You can't take your eyes off him. The no-frills, no-bull Gran Torino made my day.
good stuff
He doesn't want people mistaking Gran Torino for a car movie. "No, it isn't," he says. "At the end, it's just a symbol."
Eastwood has a passion for cars, though he jokes he's no Jay Leno: "Jay has a huge collection. I'm not that much of a collector, but I have a couple of old cars.
"I still have that old Lincoln convertible limousine we used in Honkytonk Man," he says.
In the 1982 film, Eastwood co-starred with his son Kyle Eastwood, who was then about 14. Eastwood played an ailing country musician in the Great Depression, headed to the Grand Ole Opry and in need of the young boy to drive him.
Kyle, 40, and a jazz guitarist, often co-writes music for his father's films. In Gran Torino, his father sings part of the title theme, co-written and performed by British singer/songwriter Jamie Cullum.
Sentimentality plays into another of Eastwood's prized cars. "I have a '32 Ford Roadster that I always wanted when I was a kid and never could afford."
He values another quality, too: uniqueness. "I've got a Morris Mini Countryman. That's kind of an interesting little car. It came from England and has all the Mini Cooper S racing gear but in a mini station wagon.
"It's a cool car, because there aren't many like it."
The actor didn't confirm whether Gran Torino would be his last on-screen role, saying only: "I don't know, maybe. Could be."
Clint also revealed he'll be sat in front of a cinema screen like many of us over Christmas. "I'm looking forward to seeing all of them," said the star. "Unfortunately when you're working a lot you don't see many movies so I've seen very few, but I intend to see a lot this holiday because I'm not working for a while."
Clint was last to arrive at the screening. Sniffling because of the chilly weather in LA, he asked his wife: "Have you got a Kleenex?"
He then joked with a photographer who'd offered him something to wipe his nose on, laughing: "A bar napkin, where have you been?"
Gran Torino opens in the UK in February.
At this point in his career, when Clint Eastwood stars in and directs a film, all bets are off. Things that would be old-school and sentimental in other hands morph into something different when he is involved. If Tina Turner's motto is that she doesn't do anything nice and easy, Eastwood's would be that the ordinary is just not his style.
Which brings us to "Gran Torino," Eastwood's second directing project this fall, his first work as an actor since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby" and a film that would be less interesting if he were not involved.
Working from a script by first-time screenwriter Nick Schenk, Eastwood has, with his impeccable directing style and acting presence, turned "Gran Torino" into another in his ongoing series of films that ponder violence, its place and its cost. It combines sentiment and shootouts, the serious and the studio, in a way that has become distinctly Eastwood's own.
It is also a film that is impossible to imagine without the actor in the title role. The notion of a 78-year-old action hero may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Eastwood brings it off, even if his toughness is as much verbal as physical. Even at 78, Eastwood can make "Get off my lawn" sound as menacing as "Make my day," and when he says "I blow a hole in your face and sleep like a baby," he sounds as if he means it.
Mr. Eastwood has already won the best actor prize for “Gran Torino” from the National Board of Review, and the Oscar talk — he has never won as an actor — is running high. He claims not to care deeply about awards. When asked whom he makes films for, Mr. Eastwood said, “You’re looking at him.” Calculated or not — those films do have a habit of showing up (sometimes unexpectedly) in prime Oscar campaigning season — that stance seems to charm the voters some 300 miles to the south in Los Angeles, who have rewarded his movies richly in the past 15 years, including two best-picture awards. Mr. Eastwood has become the George Washington of the awards season: if called, he will serve. But he doesn’t seem to believe in term limits.
“Gran Torino” is the 29th full-length movie Mr. Eastwood has directed — more than Scorsese, more even than Spielberg — so perhaps it’s an accident of memory that his name first conjures up the impression of the squinty guy on a horse. Starting in the mid-1980s he began to change some minds by pushing the boundaries of his cowboys-and-cops image with films like “Honkytonk Man” and “Tightrope,” but he said about his reputation, “If that’s how people want to pigeonhole me, that’s fine.”
If anything, his directing pace has picked up in the past five years.
To Mr. Eastwood being able to play 78 is just one of the benefits of a long career. “It’s ridiculous when you won’t play your own age,” he said. “You know when you’re young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have gray in their hair and they’re trying to be old men and they have no idea what that’s like? It’s just that stupid the other way around.”
The other benefit is that, even after a great career in the movies, you can fashion another. “After ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ I walk down the street and everybody would whistle out” — here he sang the movie’s famous theme. “Then it became ‘Do I feel lucky?’ and ‘Make my day.’ But it’s progressed along. Whether it’s taken this turn on purpose, I can’t say.”
Walt Kowalski has a catchphrase too in “Gran Torino.” “This is what I do,” he tells the Hmong teenager before the film’s final act. “I finish things.” So does Mr. Eastwood, just not in the way anybody would have expected.
And he may not be done. There were reports — again on the Internet — that this would be his last role, a rumor he helped fuel but now says is not necessarily true.
“Somebody asked what I’d do next, and I said I didn’t know how many roles there are for 78-year-old guys,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with coming in to play the butler. But unless there’s a hurdle to get over, I’d rather just stay behind the camera.”
Hope for a Racist, and Maybe a Country
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: December 12, 2008
Twice in the last decade, just as the holiday movie season has begun to sag under the weight of its own bloat, full of noise and nonsense signifying nothing, Clint Eastwood has slipped another film into theaters and shown everyone how it’s done. This year’s model is “Gran Torino,” a sleek, muscle car of a movie Made in the U.S.A., in that industrial graveyard called Detroit. I’m not sure how he does it, but I don’t want him to stop. Not because every film is great — though, damn, many are — but because even the misfires show an urgent engagement with the tougher, messier, bigger questions of American life.
Few Americans make movies about this country anymore, other than Mr. Eastwood, a man whose vitality as an artist shows no signs of waning, even in a nominally modest effort like “Gran Torino.” Part of this may be generational: Mr. Eastwood started as an actor in the old studio system, back when the major movie companies were still in the business of American life rather than just international properties. Hollywood made movies for export then, of course, but part of what it exported was an idea of America as a democratic ideal, an idea of greatness which, however blinkered and false and occasionally freighted with pessimism, was persuasive simply because Gene Kelly and John Wayne were persuasive.
While it’s easy to understand why the last eight years (or the last 50) have made it difficult to sell that idea to the world or even the country, it’s dispiriting that so many movies are disconnected from everyday experience, from economic worries to race. Pauline Kael used to beat up on Stanley Kramer, the director of earnest middlebrow entertainments like “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” but at least these movies had a connection to real life or an idea about it. Ms. Kael also famously branded Don Siegel’s “Dirty Harry” as “deeply immoral,” even fascistic, but the film became a classic because of its ambiguous engagement with American violence and masculinity. Mr. Eastwood and a .44 Magnum did their bit too.
Dirty Harry is back, in a way, in “Gran Torino,” not as a character but as a ghostly presence. He hovers in the film, in its themes and high-caliber imagery, and of course most obviously in Mr. Eastwood’s face. It is a monumental face now, so puckered and pleated that it no longer looks merely weathered, as it has for decades, but seems closer to petrified wood. Words like flinty and steely come to mind, adjectives that Mr. Eastwood, in his performance as Walt Kowalski, expressively embodies with his usual lack of fuss and a number of growls. A former auto worker at Ford, Walt has just put his longtime wife in the ground when the story opens. From his scowl, it looks as if he would like to join her.
Instead he sits on his front porch chugging can after can of cheap beer in the company of his yellow Labrador, Daisy, watching the world at a safe distance with a squint and a stream of bitter commentary. Kept at bay, the remaining members of his family — including two sons with big houses, big cars, big waistlines — have no choice but to let him stew alone. Yet the rest of the world refuses to leave Walt be, despite his best efforts and grimace. The world first creeps into his peripheral vision, where a family of Hmong immigrants live in the rundown house next door; and then, through a series of unfortunate events, some artful and others creaking with scripted contrivance, it stages a life-altering home invasion.
Written by a newcomer, Nick Schenk, the story eases into gear with an act of desperation.Under violent threat from some Hmong gangbangers, the next-door neighbor’s teenage son, Thao (Bee Vang), tries and fails to steal Walt’s cherry 1972 Gran Torino, and in the bargain nearly loses his life to its angry, armed owner. Thao’s family, led by his mouthy, friendly sister, Sue (a very good Ahney Her), forces the teenager to do penance by working for Walt, an arrangement that pleases neither the man nor the boy. No one seems a more unlikely (or reluctant) father surrogate than Walt, a foulmouthed bigot with an unprintable epithet for every imaginable racial and ethnic group. Growling — often literally, “Grr, grr” — he resists the family’s overtures like a man under siege, walled in by years of suspicion, prejudice and habit.
Walt assumes his protector role gradually, a transformation that at first plays in an often broadly comic key. Mr. Eastwood’s loose, at times very funny performance in the early part of the film is one of its great pleasures. While some of this enjoyment can be likened to spending time with an old friend, Mr. Eastwood is also an adept director of his own performances and, perhaps more important, a canny manipulator of his own iconographic presence. He knows that when we’re looking at him, we’re also seeing Dirty Harry and the Man With No Name and all his other outlaws and avenging angels who have roamed across the screen for the last half-century. All these are embedded in his every furrow and gesture.
These spectral figures, totems of masculinity and mementos from a heroic cinematic age, are what make this unassuming film — small in scale if not in the scope of its ideas — more than just a vendetta flick or an entertainment about a crazy coot and the exotic strangers next door. As the story unfolds and the gangbangers return and Walt reaches for his gun, the film moves from comedy into drama and then tragedy and then into something completely unexpected. We’ve seen this western before, though not quite. Because this isn’t John Wayne near the end of the 20th century, but Clint Eastwood at the start of the still-new 21st, remaking the image of the hero for one more and perhaps final time, one generation of Americans making way for the next.
That probably sounds heavier than I mean, but “Gran Torino” doesn’t go down lightly. Despite all the jokes — the scenes of Walt lighting up at female flattery and scrambling for Hmong delicacies — the film has the feel of a requiem. Melancholy is etched in every long shot of Detroit’s decimated, emptied streets and in the faces of those who remain to still walk in them. Made in the 1960s and ’70s, the Gran Torino was never a great symbol of American automotive might, which makes Walt’s love for the car more poignant. It was made by an industry that now barely makes cars, in a city that hardly works, in a country that too often has felt recently as if it can’t do anything right anymore except, every so often, make a movie like this one.
Clint Eastwood is an American icon, having been a major movie star since the sixties. His films have made millions and millions of dollars for his company and the studios that have produced them. As a director, he surprised us, first with the quirky Breezy , starring William Holden in 1973, and through the years with epic and meaningful dramas.
But as an actor he was not distinguished. His fame and fortune rested on magnificent good looks and a no-nonsense personality that rode him through the westerns and Dirty Harry movies. Other than his tall stature and a handsome face, his rather monotonous and spiritless speaking style didn't lend much and thus limited his range, save for a few poignant moments in films like Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, where the force of the movies, which won him Oscars for directing and producing, landed him two acting nominations.
However, in Gran Torino, which I saw at the Directors Guild theatre last night, it all came together and he was gifted with a role that fit perfectly with his persona. Because of it, and perhaps in spite of his limitations, what emerged was a lovely portrayal -- not always easy to watch -- of a man faced with a transition that comes just in time at the tail end of his life.
It's a simple story, which Eastwood produced and directed as well, about a curmudgeonly old man, who has just lost his wife. He doesn't get along with his kids and grandchildren and seems to have a humorless and insensitive attitude towards life.
Added to that, he is enormously prejudiced. A bigot that would make Archie Bunker appear almost liberal. His Michigan neighborhood has been overrun with Southeast Asians, mostly Hmong from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and to say he is not welcoming would be an understatement.
He has neither empathy or interest in them and resents their intrusion into his way of life. He doesn't hesitate to pepper his initially brief and hostile conversations with them calling them every known racial epithet under the sun.
A momentary action changes this when a gang harasses the family next door and they intrude upon his modest lawn. He comes forth with an old army issued rifle he has kept since the Korean war, more intent on getting everyone off his property than aiding his beleaguered neighbors.
However, they and everyone in the vicinity treat him like a hero, bringing him food and flowers, the latter of which he immediately tosses into the trash. Without giving up any of the plot further, he is forced into a relationship with Thao, the studious teenage boy next door, who is being pressured to join an Asian gang, played in a wonderful tormented fashion by Bee Vang, and also unexpectedly forges a bond with the boy's sister, Sue, imbued with terrific spirit by Ahney Her.
Eastwood's voice is not suddenly full of fire. It is equipped with an old man's crackle and doesn't often shift no matter the emotion of the moment. But in this story by Dave Johansson and Nick Schenk and with the spare and pointed dialogue in Nick Schenk's screenplay, and with those ever haunting eyes that always made you believe Eastwood would kill you as Dirty Harry, it all comes together and works.
Perhaps only for this film in this wonderful manner, but no matter because it's a superb achievement.
There are wonderful actors who never become stars and a few who did like Laurence Olivier, Dustin Hoffman and the younger generation's Leonardo DiCaprio. And there are stars like Eastwood, who like John Wayne, managed to wow audiences via the sheer scope of their personality.
John Wayne found True Grit towards the end of his career and now Clint Eastwood has done the same with an unforgettable performance in Gran Torino, a film that is so simple in its telling that it almost slips by how powerful it really is.
Quickly shot over the past summer, "Gran Torino" is so loose-limbed it could easily be mistaken for a newcomer's Sundance Film Festival entry rather than the year's second release (after the big-budget "Changeling") from a 78-year-old icon who's been directing movies since 1971.
I mean that as the very highest compliment. Eastwood obviously put a lot of effort into working as a director with the Hmong, none of whom are professional actors.
It pays off with a very funny and touching movie that delivers its message of tolerance with a most agreeable light hand.
The blunt truth about Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" is that it shouldn't work: The script is often heavy-handed, the supporting performances tend toward the awkward, and the direction falls well short of Eastwood's subtler work.
But in front of the camera, the 78-year-old actor still appears able to demolish anyone who messes with him, which is why this showcase works as well as it does. His performance is the movie's centerpiece, and as you might expect, it's just tough enough to hold everything together.
Clint Eastwood does an excellent job portraying Walt, truly embodying the character. The last time Eastwood took the screen was in 2004 with Million Dollar Baby, and the film received an Oscar for Best Picture.
Walt resembles Eastwood somewhat as they both were Korean War veterans. Many cast members are given breakout roles or first-time roles in this film. The majority of the actors and actresses who play Hmong characters are Hmong themselves. Bee Vang, who plays Thao, is a 17-year-old Hmong newcomer from Minneapolis, where the film was originally scripted to be filmed.
When most filmmakers would be retired and out playing golf, Eastwood is starring in, directing, and even composing music for films. In Gran Torino, he shows the movie-watching world that he’s still king of the mountain. Come February, Gran Torino will definitely walk away with an Oscar.
Rating: 5 / 5
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.–It's not that Clint Eastwood has an insatiable desire to work. It's just that he can't resist a good script, and they seem to be landing in his lap more frequently than ever nowadays, keeping him on film sets and away from the golf course.
At an age when most filmmakers have long retired, the 78-year-old actor-director completed two movies this year – he directed both and also stars in one – and he is currently developing another while at the same time embarking on a gruelling round of promotional interviews.
"This has just been an unusual year," he said. "In fact, the last five years have been kind of unusual, as it seemed like as fast as I would get one movie finished, another would just pop up. When I did Mystic River I thought, `Well, this is fine. I'm not going to act anymore. I'm going to retire from that.' Then suddenly Million Dollar Baby came along and I liked the story and there was a part in it for me. And that's kind of what happened this year."
"I miss the era I grew up in when adults went to movies and you had different subject matters and every movie didn't have to be a sequel or a remake," he said. "Now people in Hollywood see a movie is doing good business so they make four more like it. It seems to me to be counterproductive."
As long as good scripts keep coming his way, he has no intention of retiring, although he may have had his last acting role.
"I'm still working at this stage of my life because I learn something every day, and as long as I do that I'll be happy," he said. "I keep saying I'm not going to act anymore and there aren't that many great roles for a 78-year-old now, but if a good role comes along, then it's never say never.
"But if not, and I'm never photographed in front of a camera again, it won't break my heart. I'm happy behind the camera."
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Embellishing his trademark Dirty Harry snarl with exasperated grunts and growls, a fusillade of racial epithets, and discharges of contemptuous expectoration, Clint Eastwood redefines what it means to be a grumpy old man. It’s hard to imagine a more disaffected, ornery coot than Walt Kowalski, the equivocal hero of Gran Torino. Yet Eastwood’s latest film, a morality play preaching the need for tolerance in changing times, isn’t nearly as superannuated as its protagonist would suggest. A Marine veteran, retired auto worker and unapologetic bigot, Walt is a veritable year-in-review, his hoary appearance and attitudes hiding a good heart and brave soul, qualities we’d like to imagine Americans embody. Gran Torino can resemble a civic lesson, but the film is consistently entertaining and, in these anxious times, reinforces the mantra of hope.
The film proceeds from set-piece to set-piece: Kowalski rescues Thao’s sister, Sue (Ahney Her), from punks on the corner, only to have her teach him a thing or two about Asian history (Walt fought in the Korean War); he takes Thao to the local barbershop to initiate him into the bond of bonhomie (How to Swear Like a Man 101); he rudely dismisses the young priest (Christopher Carley) determined to save his soul until he decides that, like the atheist in the foxhole, it’s best to be on God’s good side when the bullets fly. As this suggests, Walt as father figure systematically morphs into Walt as Christ figure, one of the ways Gran Torino overreaches, but Eastwood has the singular ability to turn bombast into poignancy. The proof of this assertion is underscored (to pun) by the movie’s theme song (written by Clint, his son Kyle and Michael Stevens), croaked out by Eastwood himself as the credits roll…Folks, it ain’t over until the phat man sings.
'Gran Torino' Is Perfect Vehicle for Eastwood
Bigot's role makes his day; Streep, Hoffman and script turn 'Doubt' into sure thing
By JOE MORGENSTERN
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No one makes movies like "Gran Torino" any more, and more's the pity. This one, with Clint Eastwood as director and star, is concerned with honor and atonement, with rough justice and the family of man. It raises irascibility to the level of folk art, takes unapologetic time-outs for unfashionable moral debates, revives acting conventions that haven't been in fashion for half a century and keeps you watching every frame as Mr. Eastwood snarls, glowers, mutters, growls and grins his way through the performance of a lifetime.
He plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet, and newly a widower, whose pride and joy is the immaculate 1972 Ford Gran Torino fastback that sits in his garage. Detroit's suddenly acute problems add a layer of poignancy to a film that's already elegiac. During the industry's heyday Walt worked on Ford's assembly line, where he installed the steering column in his own car. Now he's retired and embittered, a hard-shell crustacean perched on his front porch watching foreigners he deplores as they invade the old neighborhood.
Deplores is putting it genteelly. Mr. Eastwood and his writer, Nick Schenk, give Walt all of Archie Bunker's bile, though little of Archie's sly wit, at least for a while. No need to reproduce the radioactive epithets; suffice it to say Walt never lacks for political incorrectness. While the very sight of a Hmong refugee family next door produces pit-bull rumblings in his throat, another target of his ire is Christopher Carley's parish priest, Father Janovich, who wants to get him into the confessional booth. "I confess," Walt tells the baby-faced cleric, "that I have no desire to confess to a boy that's just out of the seminary."
If Walt were only a refurbished version of the lightning rod that electrified "All In the Family" audiences decades ago, "Gran Torino" might be an awkward curiosity and little more. But the filmmaker cares, as he did in "Letters From Iwo Jima," about racial and ethnic reconciliation, and the education of Walt Kowalski begins when a young man from the Hmong family next door tries to steal his precious car. Soon he's involved with the family to an extent he never imagined, let alone wanted, and "Gran Torino" becomes a vehicle for another kind of reconciliation -- Clint Eastwood's coming to terms with the vigilante tactics of Dirty Harry.
His new movie isn't an apologia for all that, but it's a meditation, as affecting as it is entertaining, on the limits of violence and the power of unchained empathy. It seems to be exactly the movie he wanted to make at this point in his long career, even though some of the performances, by inexperienced or nonprofessional actors, are less than successful. "Gran Torino" is defiantly old-fashioned, and occasionally, albeit endearingly, self-indulgent. Most of all it's heartfelt, and for me the feeling was mutual.
In “Gran Torino,” Clint Eastwood appears (symbolically) as the last white man in America, guarding what might be called the last American car—an Army-green 1972 Ford Gran Torino, lovingly preserved in a garage in run-down Highland Park, just outside Detroit. The movie, directed by Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk, is set in the present, when a Korean War hero and longtime Ford automotive worker, Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), now a retired father of two grown sons, his wife recently dead, finds himself living next door to Hmong immigrants, whom he towers over and bullies. The Hmong are the hill people of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam who fought on the American side in Vietnam; some of them immigrated to the United States, and they work hard, but Walt calls them “gooks” and “slopes” and other bitterly pronounced tags from the rich American vocabulary of abuse. When young Thao (Bee Vang), from next door, tries to steal the sacred Gran Torino, Walt becomes enmeshed with the boy’s family, first as antagonist and then, gradually, as fierce protector—so fierce that he gets caught up in the neighborhood gang wars, with their escalating back-and-forth of beatings, rapes, and shoot-outs.
Walt is meant to be the kind of fearless American whose strength is inseparable from his blighted vision of the world. He is obsessed with turf, with right and wrong narrowly defined, with male codes, male lingo. The movie was not written for Eastwood, but it still seems to be all about him—his past characters, his myth, his old role as a dispenser of raw justice. Growling and muttering, Eastwood appears to be offering a satirical critique: this hoarse-voiced, glaring, absurdly nasty old man is what Dirty Harry might have become. The movie, which Eastwood directed with his usual vigor, has plenty of violent scenes, but it’s mostly a rueful comedy of enlightenment: by degrees, Walt comes to admire his neighbors; he realizes that he has more in common with their quiet self-discipline than with the hollow consumerism of his sons and their grasping kids. Walt’s final acts in the neighborhood struggles come as a shock, but, in retrospect, they make perfect sense as Eastwood’s personal renunciation of vengeance and also as a kind of down payment on an altered American future.
Dirty Harry has nothing on Eastwood's latest character. Sun Media catches up with the legendary tough guy
By LIZ BRAUN -- Sun Media
Clint Eastwood
What does an icon do for an encore?
If you're Clint Eastwood, you just keep working. And attract Oscar talk with your newest movie. That's what's happening with Eastwood's Gran Torino, which opens in theatres on Friday.
If you think the actor has played tough guys before, wait until you meet Walt Kowalski.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Eastwood has said that he learns something new with every movie he makes, and Gran Torino was no exception. His character lives in a Detroit neighbourhood where there are a lot of Asian immigrants, mostly Hmong, and Eastwood says he learned a lot about that culture.
"But you also learn something about yourself, too," he said. "With every picture, you think, 'I wonder if I can pull this off?' but then you go ahead and dive into the pool. I always wonder if I'm the right guy to be doing this.
"I've played similar characters before," said Eastwood, mentioning Sargeant Highway, his tough vet character in Heartbreak Ridge, and Frankie Dunn from Million Dollar Baby. "But I've never played anyone quite like Walt."
As for Walt's bad habits, "I never did smoke much, except in films, but I did like to drink a few beers, so drinking those Pabsts on the front porch was no strain for me."
Eastwood laughs out loud. He laughs again at the Internet posting that describes him as a vegan.
"You find all kinds of things written about you that you don't have the foggiest notion where they came from. I'm not a vegetarian. I love sushi and stuff like that. I do have to watch my fat intake, because I'm 78 years old."
Eastwood operates professionally in exactly the way you'd imagine -- with a sort of zero B.S. level. Gran Torino was filmed quickly and in a no-frills fashion, adding to the mystique of Eastwood's work ethic. Talking about movies past and present, Eastwood said of films now, "They're sort of the modern-day written word, in that people can revisit the work many, many years from now."
Eastwood said he is interested in the fact that some actors just get bigger with time, mentioning such stars of his youth as Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr or Bette Davis. "Maybe it's because somewhere along the line they jumped into a classic movie, like a Casablanca," he said.
"It's the same with music. When you look at some of the singers today, you think, 'Ah, it really was great back then.'" An accomplished jazz pianist himself, he laughs again.
"I was listening to some current pop singers the other day, and I thought, 'I was so lucky that I got to grow up listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and Sinatra and Nat King Cole. And they were all musicians and they all sang every night, even the lesser musicians, so they were always on top of their game. You didn't have to put them together in the studio with splicing tape. It was a wonderful time, and people had their favourite musicians. Now it's all light shows."
Laughing again, he added, "I don't want to sound like Walt Kowalski."
For the past 15 years or so, Eastwood has composed music for almost all his pictures. He directed Bird, a biopic of Charlie Parker in 1988, and produced Straight, No Chaser, a documentary about Thelonious Monk the next year. Eastwood is about to work on a documentary about Tony Bennett and, according to Vanity Fair, another about Dave Brubeck
MANDELA MOVIE
On the non-music front, Eastwood said he will make a movie about Nelson Mandela: "Not a whole biopic, just covering the time when he got out of prison." Morgan Freeman will star.
With all that on his plate, does he listen to all the talk about Oscars? Eastwood has, after all, 10 Academy Award nominations plus that honorary Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in film producing.
"I think it's nice," he said, "but you kind of have to take it all in stride. An awful lot of good movies have not won any awards, and plenty of bad ones have won awards, so you have to keep that in mind.
"I'm not making a lot of CGI movies, or remakes or sequels. It's always nice to know that somebody else is interested in (storytelling and original characters) besides me."
A bright red carpet and flood lights grabbed the attention of passersby at Birmingham's Forté restaurant on Tuesday night.
Inside, cast and crew of the film "Gran Torino" mingled during a party prior to the screening of the Clint Eastwood film at the Uptown Birmingham 8.
Eastwood, 78, directs and stars in the movie that was filmed in and around Detroit this summer. The Oscar-winning star portrays a cantankerous Korean War veteran, named Walt Kowalski, who decides to make a change in his neighborhood after his prized car, a 1972 Gran Torino, is stolen.
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While Eastwood didn't attend the pre-party, his name was on the lips of those who worked with the legendary actor.
Conor Callaghan, 12, plays one of Eastwood's three grandsons in the movie. The Rochester Hills resident, dressed in a suit and tie, sat with his mom amid the party chatter. He said he was a big fan of Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" films but, according to Conor, Eastwood is in no way likethe famous iconic character.
"We had lunch and talked about the day on the set," Conor said.
Conor's mom, Maureen Callaghan, was on the set with her son. She said Eastwood was down to earth and put everyone at ease.
"In one scene at a mansion, he came in and started singing a little song about how he was the guy that got things done," she said. "The experience was like a dream. It was a one in a lifetime opportunity."
Austin Douglas-Smith, who also plays one of the grandsons, said Eastwood has a soft side.
"When I asked him if I could get him a gift," said Austin, 9, "he (Eastwood) said 'You don't have to get me a gift; just having you on the set is a gift.
Carlos Guadarrama, who plays the leader of a Latino gang in the movie, said he was hand-picked by Eastwood out of 100 other actors from Los Angeles and New York.
"I am a big fan," said the 25-year-old Guadarrama. The Southwest Detroit resident is also a rapper known as Sol, whose next album will feature cameos by Detroit rappers Obie Trice and Trick Trick.
"Out of all the people I have worked with in the industry," Guadarrama said, "he (Eastwood) is the nicest, most down-to-earth guy I have known."
Anthony Wensonchief, operating officer of the Michigan Film Office, said films like "Gran Torino" have been a shot in the arm for a somber local economy. He said 25 films have been made in the state over the last nine months, generating $100 million in revenue for the state.
Wenson said producers and directors have marveled at the various locations and the dedicated work ethic of the people of the state. "Jobs are being created," he said. "The film industry is like the New Deal for the state."
"Gran Torino" will hit movie screens on Dec. 25 in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles. It will open nationwide on Jan. 9.
I would like to grow up to be like Clint Eastwood. Eastwood the director, Eastwood the actor, Eastwood the invincible, Eastwood the old man. What other figure in the history of the cinema has been an actor for 53 years, a director for 37, won two Oscars for direction, two more for best picture, plus the Thalberg Award, and at 78 can direct himself in his own film and look meaner than hell? None, that's how many.
"Gran Torino" stars Eastwood as an American icon once again -- this time as a cantankerous, racist, beer-chugging retired Detroit autoworker who keeps his shotgun ready to lock and load. Dirty Harry on a pension, we're thinking, until we realize that only the autoworker retired; Dirty Harry is still on the job. Eastwood plays the character as a man bursting with energy, most of which he uses to hold himself in. Each word, each scowl, seems to have broken loose from a deep place.
Walt Kowalski calls the Asian family next door "gooks" and "chinks" and so many other names he must have made it a study. How does he think this sounds? When he gets to know Thao, the teenage Hmong who lives next door, he takes him down to his barber for a lesson in how Americans talk. He and the barber call each other a Polack and a dago and so on, and Thao is supposed to get the spirit. I found this scene far from realistic and wondered what Walt was trying to teach Thao. Then it occurred to me Walt didn't know it wasn't realistic.
Walt is not so much a racist as a security guard, protecting his own security. He sits on his porch defending the theory that your right to walk through this world ends when your toe touches his lawn. Walt's wife has just died (I would have loved to meet her,) and his sons have learned once again that the old bastard wants them to stay the hell out of his business. In his eyes, they're overweight meddlers working at meaningless jobs, and his granddaughter is a self-centered greed machine.
Walt sits on his porch all day long, when he's not doing house repairs or working on his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a car he helped assemble on the Ford assembly line. He sees a lot. He sees a carload of Hmong gangstas trying to enlist the quiet, studious Thao into their thuggery. When they threaten Thao to make him try to steal the Gran Torino, Walt catches him red-handed and would just as soon shoot him as not. Then Thao's sister Sue (Ahney Her, likable and sensible) comes over to apologize for her family and offer Thao's services for odd jobs, Walt accepts only reluctantly. When Sue is threatened by some black bullies, Walt's eyes narrow and he growls and gets involved because it is his nature.
What with one thing and another, his life becomes strangely linked with these people, although Sue has to explain that the Hmong are mountain people from Vietnam who were U.S. allies and found it advisable to leave their homeland. When she drags him over to join a family gathering, Walt casually calls them all "gooks" and Sue a "dragon lady," they seem like awfully good sports about it, although a lot of them may not speak English. Walt seems unaware that his role is to embrace their common humanity, although he likes it when they stuff him with great-tasting Hmong food and flatter him.
Among actors of Eastwood's generation, James Garner might have been able to play this role, but my guess is, he'd be too nice in it. Eastwood doesn't play nice. Walt makes no apologies for who he is, and that's why, when he begins to decide he likes his neighbors better than his own family, it means something. "Gran Torino" isn't a liberal parable. It's more like, out of the frying pan and into the melting pot. Along the way, he fends off the sincere but very young parish priest (a persuasive Christopher Carley), who is only carrying out the deathbed wishes of the late Mrs. Kowalski. Walt is a nominal Catholic. Hardly even nominal.
"Gran Torino" is about two things, I believe. It's about the belated flowering of a man's better nature. And it's about Americans of different races growing more open to one another in the new century. This doesn't involve some kind of grand transformation. It involves starting to see the "gooks" next door as people you love. And it helps if you live in the kind of neighborhood where they are next door.
If the climax seems too generic and pre-programmed, with too much happening fairly quickly, I like that better than if it just dribbled off into sweetness. So would Walt.
“You’ve made the first movie of the Obama generation!” exclaimed an audience member, as he rushed up to Clint Eastwood after a recent screening of Gran Torino. “Well,” the 78-year-old actor-director replied, without missing a beat, “I was actually born under Hoover.” It was an ironic juxtaposition, given that Eastwood’s Torino character, widowed Korean War vet and former Detroit autoworker Walt Kowalski, has earned comparisons to TV’s Archie Bunker, for both his politically incorrect racial epithets and his general hostility toward a modern world that seems to have left him — and his old-fashioned American values — out in the cold. “We could use a man like Herbert Hoover again,” Bunker sings at the start of each All in the Family episode. But it’s change, not nostalgia, that sets the tone in Gran Torino, as the belligerent Walt ventures first across the property line and then deeper into the lives of the Hmong immigrant family living next door
The movie, Eastwood tells me the day after the Torino screening, appealed to his own personal philosophy of “never stop learning. If you never stop learning, then you never stop growing as a person, you never stop taking in new information and changing. People ask me, ‘Have you changed?’ And I say, ‘I hope so,’ because over 10, 20, 30, 40 years, you’re supposed to change all the time. You’re supposed to expand.”
One of Gran Torino’s most memorable sequences involves Kowalski giving advice on “how to be a man” to a shy, gang-victimized Hmong teenager (newcomer Bee Vang). It’s fitting, because in the 40 years since he first donned The Man With No Name’s desert poncho, Eastwood has defined a kind of squint-eyed, low-voiced, impermeable macho cool for several generations of moviegoers — and, even in today’s fickle youth culture, can still be found gracing the cover of men’s lifestyle magazines like Esquire. It’s a status that Eastwood, like Gran Torino itself, both embraces and gently mocks, fully aware of the anachronism of being a “man’s man” in our supposedly gender-neutral society.
“The idea that men and women are the same is crazy, because they’re not,” Eastwood says with a chuckle. “They’re equal under the eyes of the law and they’re equal in a lot of ways — in fact, women are superior in a lot of ways and men are superior in other ways. So the more we recognize that, the more we can use those superior aspects of the gender. But being a guy now is a strange thing, especially a Caucasian male. Who’s the biggest @#!hole? It’s the white guys. You can attack them without hurting anybody’s feelings, because they’re the buffoons of society at the present time. But I always figure: what the hell, they can take it.”
And true to form, Eastwood, who has four Oscars under his belt and is now well past the age at which almost any major star or director has still been actively working, isn’t going anywhere just yet. In the spring, he begins production in South Africa on The Human Factor, a sports drama set during the first year of Nelson Mandela’s presidency, starring his old friend Morgan Freeman as the celebrated leader.
“He’s just won the presidency when it starts, and it’s about how he unites the country,” Eastwood says. “The country is going every which way at that time. All these different groups are at each other’s throats. And he takes this really bad white rugby team and takes an interest in them. The blacks can’t figure it out: What is he doing with these guys? But then he talks them into winning the World Cup, and they win it. It’s sort of a fairy-tale story, but it’s one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction kind of things. And it shows how brilliant he was, in a way. He knew that if he could make this happen, blacks and whites would come together in genuine enthusiasm.”
Which sounds like the second movie of the Obama generation.
“I go for the sideline effects of it all rather than, ‘OK, here we are in the factory that’s shutting down,’” Eastwood explains. “The obvious stories, the Norma Rae kind of stories, those are hurdles, but they’re kind of right out there in front. It’s the hurdles that are inside that you have to deal with to make characters interesting, I think.”
The late-career soaring success of Clint Eastwood as both director and actor stands in contrast to the mixed fortunes (or misfortunes) of another star, Marlon Brando. It appears that the tortoise has prevailed over the hare, as Brando’s early brilliance and promise gave way to numerous professional disasters — with the glorious exception of “The Godfather.” Mr. Eastwood, working steadily, morphed from spaghetti westerns and “Dirty Harry” into a motion picture legend.
The only question is: Does Mr. Eastwood recognize the contrast? Is that why his hero in “Gran Torino” is named Walt Kowalski, perhaps a reminder of and successor to Brando’s protagonist in “Streetcar Named Desire,” Stanley Kowalski?
Isidore Silver
New York
While I can appreciate Clint Eastwood’s talent as a filmmaker, I’ve never been a big fan of his films. I enjoy the Dirty Harry series and dig his westerns, but his recent directorial efforts, such as Flags of Our Fathers, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, never did anything for me. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed his latest, Gran Torino, and can safely say, thanks to a great script and an entertaining performance from Eastwood – it’s one of the best films of 2008. ...
Overall, Gran Torino proves Eastwood still has what it takes in front of the camera as well as behind it. It isn’t playing everywhere right now, but once it expands - I highly recommend you check it out.
Much of the hype surrounding the new film "Gran Torino" has focused on director and actor Clint Eastwood -- and whether he'll win an Oscar for what is rumored to be his last acting role.
But many Minnesotans are eager to see the movie for another reason: It's the first mainstream film to prominently feature Hmong-Americans.
St. Paul, Minn. — It didn't take much to excite Tou Ger Xiong when he learned about the making of "Gran Torino."
"I think we heard two words, 'Clint Eastwood' and 'a Hmong movie,'" Xiong said. "I was like, 'What? Clint Eastwood and a Hmong movie?' So you know, that's cool. Because you know Clint Eastwood isn't going to be low-budget, right?"
Xiong, of Woodbury, is a well-known Hmong storyteller and performance artist in the Twin Cities. ...
I've just walked out of what's undoubtedly one of the most enriching films of the year... and shock horror, it don't star Will Smith! (More on his latest later)
When it was initially announced, there was an inexplicable pall of concealment when it came to the plot for Clint Eastwood's new film - so much so that everyone just assumed it must be the long-awaited final installment in the legendary actor's ‘'Dirty Harry'' series.
And though that didn't turn out to be exactly true it ain't exactly that far from the mark. ...
Eastwood recently talked on the phone with The Miami Herald about Gran Torino, his return to acting and his thoughts about the possibility of finally winning a Best Actor Oscar.
Q:The character of Walt Kowalski is in a way a summation of many of the iconic characters you've played in the past -- men with violent pasts at odds with the world around them. What was your reaction when you first read the script?
A: I liked the whole message of it, the whole idea that you're never too old to learn tolerance and take an interest in other people. I've met a lot of people like Walt in my life, older people who were set in their ways and didn't want to be a part of anything or anyone new. At the same time, that's an obvious message, so you have to bring it in from a really far distance and make it dramatic. Otherwise it's just a guy who goes ``Oh, they're just people, too.''
Q:The filmmaking in Gran Torino has the feel and rhythm of Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. It looks from the outside fairly effortless. Has telling stories of this kind of small scale become second-nature to you over the years?
A: If it looks easy, that's good. Whether it's easy or not, I don't know. I think it's easier for me now than it was years ago because I'm just enjoying myself now, telling the stories I want to tell with no regard for anything else. The one thing about getting to the age of 78 is you figure, ''Well, you know, people can get mad at you, but what can they do to you?'' [laughs] All they can do is call you an old guy and obsolete. That's no big deal.
I'm at a time in my career when I can tell a lot of stories like Letters from Iwo Jima and Changeling and things they wouldn't expect [me] to do. Younger directors have to worry about a good Friday night opening and having a strong opening weekend. But I don't have to worry about that. Naturally, I'd like the film to open well and for people to see it. But it's not the main consideration.
Q: You're somewhat of an anomaly among Hollywood filmmakers in that you've continued to direct -- and receive great recognition for it -- way beyond your supposed prime.
A: That's true. People being put out to pasture has happened a lot in the past. Billy Wilder stopped directing in his 60s. Here's a guy who had done some wonderful films and lived well into his 90s. What the hell did he waste all those years for? I knew Frank Capra pretty well socially: I always liked him a lot. He was a lucid guy as an older man. He made some wonderful films, and I always wondered why it couldn't just go on. But once he did Pocketful of Miracles, and that didn't do very well, he just backed off. You can't be discouraged if one thing doesn't work.
Q:You've won Oscars for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, but you've never won one for acting. If Gran Torino really is your swan song as an actor, then this is your last shot at a Best Actor prize. Is that something that's important to you?
A: I suppose I wouldn't mind. [laughs] I've gotten a few for directing and producing. But I suppose most would love to have one in their first profession, which for me is acting. But you don't really think about that. It's hard to say. Naturally, you don't want to be disingenuous and say, ''Who gives a crap?'' But just the fact that someone is saying we appreciated that, and that's fine. Yeah, that's OK. I don't put people down for that. Then again, an awful lot of bad films have won Oscars. . . . It's just a matter of what captures people's imaginations at the time and who campaigns the best. And having just watched a two-year presidential campaign, the idea of launching another campaign myself is a bit much.
Clint Eastwood spent two months last summer working in the Highland Park home of Dana and Jeffrey O'Farrell.
But guess what? They never met the guy.
As Gran Torino opens, Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (played by Clint Eastwood) has just buried his wife -- and with her, his remaining interest in the world around him.
An unapologetically racist, judgmental and foul-tempered misanthrope, the only thing Walt cares about is the cherry 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in his garage, a car he helped assemble decades ago as an autoworker for Ford Motor Co. You can imagine his reaction, then, when he catches Tao (Bee Vang), the teenage son of the Hmong family that has moved in next door, trying to steal it as part of a gang initiation ritual. ...
Eastwood recently talked on the phone with The Miami Herald about Gran Torino, his return to acting and his thoughts about the possibility of finally winning a Best Actor Oscar. ...
Back in the early 1980s I wrote a book called The Films of Clint Eastwood. I remember my editor being astounded at its success. He said to me, "But you treated him like he was some kind of world-class filmmaker". I'd like to find that editor today and take him to a screening of Gran Torino to see his response. I'm not one for saying "I told you so" but in this case, it would be merited.- Lee Pfeiffer
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in the drama “Gran Torino,” marking his first film
role since his Oscar®-winning film “Million Dollar Baby.” Eastwood portrays Walt
Kowalski, an iron-willed and inflexible Korean War veteran living in a changing world,
who is forced by his immigrant neighbors to confront his own long-held prejudices.
Retired auto worker Walt Kowalski fills his days with home repair, beer and
monthly trips to the barber. Though his late wife’s final wish was for him to take
confession, for Walt—an embittered veteran of the Korean War who keeps his M-1 rifle
cleaned and ready—there’s nothing to confess. And no one he trusts enough to confess
to other than his dog, Daisy. ...
Eastwood's "Gran Torino" is one of year's best
Give this movie a test drive. In my opinion, it’s the best of the lot so far this year, despite what my collegues in the DFW film Critics Association said.
The movie is a typical Clint Eastwood tough guy movie. It’s sort of like Dirty Harry on a pension — with his same attitude and tough guy demeanor and prejudices. ...
The title of "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood's second movie this year (after October's "Changeling"), refers to a pristine '72 Ford that his character, Walt Kowalski, keeps polished in his garage. It symbolizes for him all America once was and has now lost. ...
In the context of Clint Eastwood's career as a star, an actor, and a filmmaker, "Gran Torino" is an endlessly fascinating movie. If only it were a good one.
Eastwood, of course, has long since reached the point where he can do as he damn well pleases, and one of the things that has pleased him in recent years is to drop a movie at the very end of the Oscar season and thoroughly reshuffle the field. "Million Dollar Baby" was one such movie; this awkwardly conflicted drama about inner-city racism, struggle, and redemption is not. Still, if you want to see Dirty Harry collide with Eastwood's idea of the real world, "Gran Torino" is something to see. ...
Your reaction may depend upon how much affection you bring to this film, for Eastwood the ornery, intelligent movie icon, and for Eastwood the questing filmmaker. Some people have come out of early screenings intensely moved, others shaking their heads. The man has made the movie he wanted to, so the only question remaining is whether you feel lucky. Well? Do you, punk?
Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com. For more on movies, go to www.boston.com/movienation.
Gran Torino: A
“Gran Torino,” Clint Eastwood’s second 2008 release, is a knockout punch delivered by the best old brawler in the business. I think Clint just KO-ed himself an acting Oscar.
If beef jerky could walk, talk, spew epithets and beat up gangbangers, it would be Walt Kowalski, the Korean War vet and retired Detroit assembly-line worker Eastwood plays. ...
In a sense, all the vigilante cops, mythic gunslingers and grizzled pugilists Eastwood has played - and all that Eastwood represents to audiences around the world - have been a prelude to this rancorous, old American misanthrope.
Like Wallace Beery, John Wayne, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Eastwood understands that screen acting is a relationship the audience and actor take together. “Gran Torino” is just the latest milestone. Take the ride.
Rated R. At AMC Loews Boston Common and suburban theaters.
(“Gran Torino” contains violence and profanity.)
- jverniere@bostonherald.com
At this point in his career, when Clint Eastwood stars in and directs a film, all bets are off. Things that would be old-school and sentimental in other hands morph into something different when he is involved. If Tina Turner's motto is that she doesn't do anything nice and easy, Eastwood's would be that the ordinary is just not his style.
Which brings us to "Gran Torino," Eastwood's second directing project this fall, his first work as an actor since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby" and a film that would be less interesting if he were not involved. ...
This role may sound like standard Archie Bunker, but it is hard to resist when Eastwood, an actor with presence to burn and who snarls dialogue like a cornered wolf, takes it on. Perhaps the best thing about Shenk's script is that it enticed Eastwood to end his self-imposed acting hiatus and bring his one-of-a-kind aura back to the screen. ...
Classically against his will, Kowalski is drawn into the life of the neighborhood, specifically the plight of Thao (Bee Vang), the fatherless teenage boy next door who is being pressured to join a local Hmong gang and foolishly attempts to steal Kowalski's prize Ford Gran Torino. Kowalski also likes the sassiness of Thao's slightly older sister Sue, played by Ahney Her, an actress who like the rest of the neighbors is a member of the Hmong community.
As this closeness grows, "Gran Torino" will start to feel familiar and create concern that this is all there is to the film. It is familiar, but only up to a point. Suddenly, that point is past, and much more serious questions come up, questions of responsibility, of vengeance, of the efficacy of blood for blood.
These questions seem to take Kowalski by surprise. It's almost as if Eastwood all at once finds himself in a different movie than either he, or us, really expected. But if the past few years have proved anything, it's that anywhere Eastwood is, movie audiences are wise to follow.
Clint Eastwood stars in and directs this amazing film. Fresh and original, hilarious and heart-rending, this film will seize a hold of your heart and not let go. And if you enjoy snappy dialog, consider "Gran Torino" this year's "Juno."
Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a veteran of the Korean War who has not adjusted to the changing times. He's a racist, sour bigot, whom his own family avoids. His recently departed wife's wish was for Kowalski to confess to their priest, something Kowalski is loath to do, considering the priest's young age.
How can he confess to someone who knows less about life than he does? ...
Eastwood gives a remarkable performance. It's nearly over the top, at times, but it works. The rest of the cast gives powerful performances. As with so many great films, one of the stars of this film is the script itself.
One of the fascinating parts of the film is the introduction to the Hmong culture. First-time writer Nick Schenk penned the script based on a story he and Dave Johannson conceived. Schenk drew upon his Hmong co-workers as he worked at a factory in Minnesota for inspiration.
And although the part of Kowalski seems tailor-made for Eastwood, Schenk did not write the script with Eastwood in mind. Perhaps because of that, this film just might bring Eastwood his first Academy Award as an actor.
Don't let this one get away. Give "Gran Torino" a chance to steal its way into your heart.
Lisa Pease is a historian and a movie buff.
A Scrooge for the 21st century has arrived just in time for Christmas, and wouldn't you know he's come back in the form of Dirty Harry? As the spitting, swearing, hate-spewing lead character of "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood delivers a lacerating and hilarious valedictory of a career as America's most lovable vigilante. Here, he makes the ugly American a thing of almost primitive beauty, as an antihero worthy of Dickens.
And anyone familiar with Eastwood's movies, especially weepers like "Million Dollar Baby," will not be surprised at the tear-jerking streak that runs through "Gran Torino" like a broken yellow line. In this case, another "Camille"-like subplot ends not sentimentally as much as sacramentally, with a character splayed out in a symbolic crucifixion that, staged by any other filmmaker, would invite eye-rolling derision.
But "Gran Torino" isn't the work of just any filmmaker. It's a Clint Eastwood production, and as such it overcomes its only-in-the-movies conventions to exude its own undeniable, and uniquely potent, brand of authenticity. There's a gentle, elegiac grandeur to "Gran Torino," even at its most self-conscious and highly pitched, that befits Eastwood's transcendent place in American culture. Indeed, probably only someone of his symbolic vengeful power could deliver such a welcome seasonal message of tough, twisted redemption. So, Merry Christmas -- and Clint bless us, every one.
Ultimately, "Gran Torino" is not recommended for its moralizing or its scenery, but for Eastwood's compelling performance. He has hinted that Walt might be his last movie role. But that, like the push for a late-December release, just might be a ploy to court Oscar voters, who have awarded Eastwood two best director awards (for "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby"), but never singled out one of his performances.
Clint Eastwood shows no sign of slowing down. The legendary Hollywood filmmaker both directs and stars in his latest movie, "Gran Torino," about a retired auto worker who's none too happy about the changing demographic of his Detroit neighborhood. We spoke to Eastwood recently about moviemaking, his impressive work ethic, and the future. ...
Q. Many were also acting for the first time, right? Was that difficult? Eli Wallach, who worked with you on "Mystic River," told me that you just told him to come to Boston for the day and then you started shooting. Is that really the way you work?
A. (Laughs) It depends on the situation. First-time actors are a little different than Eli Wallach, who's the consummate old pro. I knew I could bring Eli in, talk to him about old times, and then try him out. With these kids, we'd talk about the sequence and a few things and then, sometimes, we'd roll the camera when they didn't know it. They thought we were rehearsing. You don't always use the material, but you hate to leave a good take on the floor.
A. Did you have a translator on the set?
A. Yes. The kids could translate for the older people, but we had a lot of people on the set. It was kind of the same way with "Letters From Iwo Jima." ...
Movie fans have their very own Scrooge this Christmas, and wouldn't you know it's Dirty Harry?
In "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood delivers a breathtaking performance in a by turns appalling and hilarious role that recalls great ghosts of Eastwood vigilante thrillers past. Playing Korean War vet Walt Kowalski, Eastwood spits, swears and seethes as a man who watches the world change from the front stoop of his Detroit house. Surrounded by Hmong immigrants he persists in calling "slants," "slopes" and "gooks," at least Walt is an equal-opportunity bomb-thrower. He has an epithet for everyone, even growling and glaring at his grandchildren. (He does love his dog, and the restored 1972 Gran Torino in his driveway.)
In his very first movie writing project, Crookston native Dave Johannson can find his name just below Clint Eastwood’s on the publicity posters for “Gran Torino,” the Hollywood icon’s latest movie.
That’s because Johannson, who works in sales for Centerpoint Energy, a Minneapolis utility company, shares story credit for “Gran Torino” with screenwriter Nick Schenk.
Clint Eastwood proves that he is at the top of his game with his latest effort, Gran Torino. Revolving around the story of Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a retired Ford employee and decorated Korean War vet, the movie explores themes of loss, coming to terms, friendship, and ultimately, sacrifice and redemption.
Much has been said about Gran Torino being Eastwood’s last acting role. Having watched the film, I wish it isn’t. At 78, he anchors the film with his larger than life presence, displaying blatant machismo, shades of classic humor, and quiet sensitivity, in a role that demands Academy Award recognition. He plays it as he sees it, both as actor and director; you will not find over-the-top, method acting here. Essentially, it is Eastwood playing Eastwood directed by Eastwood, and, all things considered, it is probably one the finest acting jobs he has done thus far. Compared to today’s fast-paced, effects-ridden contemporary films, this movie comes out of nowhere to remind of you of life’s basic mores and values by none other than the anti-hero himself. It is also difficult to find a role befitting a man of his age and stature, so much can be said about Eastwood's nose for the good story by Schenk.
Words like “masterpiece” or phrases like “tour de force” seem clichéd and misleading, so it is hard to summon up a definitive word to describe the themes and feelings that Gran Torino evokes, but there is a piece of dialogue in the movie that mentions the word “bittersweet.” It goes something like this: “It’s bitter because of the pain, but sweet because you’re at peace.” Rest in peace, Clint. But only for a while, because knowing the way you work, you won’t stop.
CARMEL, Calif. -- Being introduced to Clint Eastwood is something like seeing a California redwood for the first time. The difference is that this redwood, even at the age of 78, reaches out to shake your hand with a firmness that still intimidates no matter how much time you spent preparing your grip (for the record: three days).
He arrived for the interview at the Mission Ranch restaurant here as if he owned the place, and it didn't make any difference that, in this case, he does. He had his first legal drink in the bar while he was stationed at the nearby Army base in the late 1940s. In 1986 he bought the property and rebuilt it to his taste, with a piano bar, heart-stopping views of the ocean spray on Point Lobos and plenty of meat on the menu. Despite what you might have read on Wikipedia, Eastwood is not a vegan, and he looked slightly aghast when told exactly what a vegan is. "I never look at the Internet for just that reason," he said. ...
Walt Kowalski has a catchphrase, too, in "Gran Torino." "This is what I do," he tells the Hmong teen before the film's final act. "I finish things." So does Eastwood, just not in the way anybody would have expected.
And he may not be done. There were reports that this would be his last role, a rumor he helped fuel but now says is not necessarily true.
"Somebody asked what I'd do next, and I said I didn't know how many roles there are for 78-year-old guys," he said. "There's nothing wrong with coming in to play the butler. But unless there's a hurdle to get over, I'd rather just stay behind the camera."
Maybe, what is it?" he asks, before making a reference to a line from director John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
But for more than 50 years, he's appeared on the screen and behind the camera. His film credits include "Dirty Harry," "Every Which Way But Loose" and the three "Man With No Name" Westerns. He owns four Oscars -- two for direction of "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby" and best picture wins for those two films -- and he's been nominated for six others.
CNN: You've got "Changeling," and then you've got "Gran Torino." Both of them are getting a lot of buzz. What's your reaction to the fact that you'll probably be getting a lot of [award] nominations?
Eastwood: Oh, I don't know about that. I don't think about that. I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that's always nice. And if they don't like them, then too bad.
It's just you -- you just make this picture. Actually, I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself. Or it's a story I might want to follow. I never think too much about anybody seeing it. And then when you're done with it, you go, "Oh my God. Now we got to see if anybody wants to see this thing."
So we're at that period right now, at least on "Gran Torino."
The “flowering of one’s better nature,” as Roger Ebert has phrased the phenomenon in describing a new film from Clint Eastwood, figures fairly widely in the stanbard crop of holiday-season movies. The general-release Eastwood picture, Gran Torino, might seem the antithesis of festive feel-good filmgoing, but it also is one of the more uplifting jobs on view just now — a caustic polemic with political correctness that also states a persuasive case for common decency against the formidable odds of reciprocal bigotries. ...
More efficiently provocative is Eastwood’s Gran Torino, which contrasts Eastwood’s lean and energetic screen presence against the backdrop of a middle-class Detroit neighborhood gone to rot as a consequence of encroaching poverty and youth-gang activity. As retired autoworker Walt Kowalski, Eastwood seems the embodiment of bigotry until it becomes plain that he is an equal-opportunity race-baiter, longing for frank openness in place of walking-on-eggshells political correctness.
A vain heroic streak of vigilantism asserts itself any time Kowalski senses a trespass — he is as ready to protect his own property from interlopers as he is to defend a new-neighbor Asian girl (Ahney Her, in a fine no-nonsense performance) against a bunch of gutter-punk hoodlums.
Longtime admirers of Eastwood will be delighted to see a glimmer of Dirty Harry in Walt Kowalski — but Eastwood has a great deal more on his mind than nostalgic self-parody. Gran Torino is a polemic, indeed, on several fronts, calling out the myth of race, the myth of “growing old gracefully,” and raising issues of health and self-preservation and questioned faith to an extent sufficient to fuel many hours of after-show discussion and argument.
The wrap-up of Gran Torino plays out a bit too neatly for the character’s greater good, but the film is about so much more than a pat resolution that the finale scarcely matters. Thin-skinned adherents of political correctness are best advised to take a Pasadena on this one, but those of open minds and questing intelligence will find Gran Torino a challenging pleasure. ...
Clint Eastwood doesn't know if he's a legend.
"Maybe, what is it?" he asks, before making a reference to a line from director John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
But for more than 50 years, he's appeared on the screen and behind the camera. His film credits include "Dirty Harry," "Every Which Way But Loose" and the three "Man With No Name" Westerns. He owns four Oscars -- two for direction of "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby" and best picture wins for those two films -- and he's been nominated for six others.
His most recent contribution to the film world is "Gran Torino." In the film, which Eastwood also directed, he stars as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who is forced by immigrant neighbors to challenge his prejudices.
Kowalski is a recognizable type, the gruff, sometimes bigoted old man who may be hiding more heart than he lets on. Even though he's not too caring at the start, "he ends up expressing love to a family he's never known before," Eastwood said.
CNN talked with Eastwood, 78, about the movie, his future as an actor and what he expects in terms of awards. The following is an edited version of that interview: ...
When does Clint Eastwood sleep?
At an age when most filmmakers and actors begin to slow down -- or retire -- the 78-year-old Eastwood is in the midst of a period of incredibly sustained high-level work.
You would have to look to the world of letters and novelist Philip Roth (the 75-year-old writer has produced six acclaimed novels since 2000) to find a suitable comparison for what Eastwood has been up to over the past few years.
Since 2003, the actor-director has given us "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Changeling."
Now, less than four months after the gripping and tough-minded "Changeling" opened, Eastwood is back with "Gran Torino," which he directed and stars in.
Eastwood seems to be racing with the clock to use his peerless position of respect and power to make as many movies as he can while he is still capable of taking on the back-breaking responsibilities faced by any director who helms a major Hollywood studio release. ...
2. Gran Torino: Leave it to the 78-year-old Clint Eastwood to come up with the year’s most au courant American film. Because Gran Torino doesn’t wear its sentiments — or its themes — on its sleeve, it has been misunderstood (and dismissed) by some as a comic spin on Eastwood’s patented Dirty Harry franchise. But in Eastwood’s typically subtle, stealthy way, the film has more to say about the things that really matter in this country — race, economic disenfranchisement, the fog of war — than any other movie in recent memory.
... Four years ago Warner Brothers unveiled “Million Dollar Baby,” which eventually won the best picture Oscar along with a directing award for Clint Eastwood, in an excruciatingly slow release that began with eight theaters in mid-December and did not reach most of the country until six weeks later.
The studio this year has dribbled out Mr. Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” — starting with just six theaters on Dec. 12, and fewer than a hundred by Christmas — even while widespread publicity has piqued the curiosity of an audience that will be largely unable to see the film until it moves to still more theaters on Jan. 9.
“You should see my e-mails,” Dan Fellman, Warner’s theatrical distribution president, said recently of the inevitable response by would-be viewers, many of whom find it hard to accept that New Yorkers and Angelenos should spend weeks with a big-star movie before it gets to their hometown malls. ...
He growls and scowls for the duration of the two-hour movie, and his is a polarizing, openly bigoted, racist, crusty character with, as it turns out, a heart not so far underneath.
If you walk into "Gran Torino" knowing that -- or better yet, embracing it -- you might really feel drawn to the movie, as we did, and Clint Eastwood's compelling performance in it.
Does that mean the iconic Eastwood deserves an Oscar nomination for his work here? Never mind that he's said, not so definitively, that this could be his last acting gig.
The question has kept critics and bloggers busy lately, with folks like the Village Voice's Michael Musto, Variety's Anne Thompson, InContention's Kris Tapley and a few others saying that not only will Eastwood be nominated but he'll win. ...
“Sometimes when I see a great movie or a great play I think, Being human means you’re really alone,” Hoffman told me on another cold winter night. We had just seen “Gran Torino,” the new Clint Eastwood film in which he directs himself. Eastwood plays a racist, cantankerous curmudgeon named Walt Kowalski who befriends the Hmong boy who lives next door. Kowalski is a symbol of a dying America — blue collar, militaristic, practical, afraid, proud. There’s a stylistic link between “Doubt” and “Gran Torino” — both films are rich in character and take place in a time of change. “Doubt” is set in 1964, before the upheaval of the late ’60s, and there is only one black student at the parish school in the Bronx. Similarly, “Gran Torino” depicts the last breaths of a certain kind of man: Kowalski is a former autoworker who lives his life according to strict beliefs and rules. Both films begin and end in the Catholic Church; both suggest an uncertain future. “And they are both filled with regret,” Hoffman said. We were having some pasta at an Italian restaurant near the movie theater where we had seen “Gran Torino.” “So many things I’m interested in come down to the subject of regret,” he continued as he ate his spaghetti. “That’s Capote alone on the plane at the end of ‘Capote,’ the priest and the nun in “Doubt” who make judgments they may wish they hadn’t and Clint Eastwood tonight. I try to live my life in such a way that I don’t have profound regrets. That’s probably why I work so much. I don’t want to feel I missed something important.”
Hoffman fell silent. “Gran Torino” is emotional, and he was clearly affected by the film. “I still get wide-eyed,” he said. “It’s true that I’ve made a lot of movies, and I know there’s a microphone over there and a camera back there, but when you see something great, you lose all that. I’m sitting forward, and I’m being moved, and I have no idea how he did it. I don’t know Clint Eastwood, but what’s amazing is that you have the sense that he’s doing exactly what he wants to be doing. He’s so committed. In this film, he keeps the action going, and the people don’t ever behave against their true nature. That’s what I look for in my work: when a writer can deftly describe the human experience in a way that you didn’t think could even be put into words. That doesn’t happen often, but it gives me something to play inside. Too much of the time our culture fears subtlety. They really want to make sure you get it. And when subtlety is lost, I get upset.”
January 3, 2009
BY MARK SHANAHAN
Clint Eastwood shows no sign of slowing down. The legendary Hollywood filmmaker directs and stars in his latest, "Gran Torino," about a retired auto worker who's none too happy about the changing face of his Detroit neighborhood. We spoke to Eastwood recently about moviemaking, his work ethic and the future.
Q. At 78, you seem to be working harder than ever. You've made two movies this year, "Changeling" and "Gran Torino."
A. Well, it just seems like when the stories are there, you ought to go ahead and tell them.
Q. "Gran Torino" is by first-time screenwriter Nick Schenk. What appealed to you about the script?
A. Everybody has someone or knows somebody who has someone like this in their family. You know, someone who's out of sync with the current generation, someone who comes from the generation before all the PC stuff that we have now. All of this guy's friends have died off, and he looks around and, all of a sudden, these Asian people have moved into the neighborhood. I like the story because you see that this character, Walt, is never too old to learn -- to learn anything, much less about tolerance.
Q. You talk about all the PC stuff, and then what Walt learns is tolerance. That's kind of PC, isn't it?
A. Sure. And that's not a bad thing. But he has to be a person of a certain generation to have somewhere to go, somewhere to grow. He looks in the mirror at one point and says, "I have more in common with these people than I do with my own spoiled, rotten family." He's surprised to feel this way.
Q. Many in the cast were acting for the first time. Was that difficult? Eli Wallach, who worked with you on "Mystic River," said you just told him to come to Boston for the day, and then you started shooting. Is that really the way you work?
A. It depends on the situation. First-time actors are different than Eli Wallach, who's the consummate old pro. With these kids, we'd talk about the sequence and a few things and sometimes we'd roll film when they didn't know it. They thought we were rehearsing. You don't always use the material, but you hate to leave a good take on the floor.
Q. In "Gran Torino," you seem to take a dim view of religion, at least based on the character of the priest, or the "padre," as Walt calls him dismissively. Are you religious?
A. No, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I had no organized religion growing up. My family moved all the time. I must have gone to five or six denominations of churches over the years. ... But I must say, I was never into any of that 'God will strike you dead' stuff. I liked religion when it wasn't being threatening.
Q. This movie marks the return of the tough guy for you. Your character has a line: "Ever noticed how you come across someone you shouldn't have [expletive] with?"
A. I know those guys. I was in the military. It's not a generation that rolled over easy. Now we're afraid to say anything about anything.
Q. You distinguished yourself as an actor ages ago, but over the years, you've become better known as a director. Do you have a preference?
A. You know, in Europe, I used to be considered a director who sometimes acted, and in the U.S., I was an actor who sometimes directed. I've been doing more directing lately, and I enjoy it. If I could do only one, I'd direct. Acting is about the character, and if I find something interesting, I'll do it.
Q. You're certainly working at a frantic pace.
A. It's the material. It just happened that way. In the old days, everybody did that. John Ford and Howard Hawks and all those guys made a lot of movies.
Q. Is there something that you're still looking to do?
A. If there wasn't, I guess I'd hang it up. I'm doing a story in March about Nelson Mandela.
Q. So directing gigs mostly?
A. Yes, directing gigs. There aren't going to be a lot of acting gigs. They don't write a lot of great scripts for 78-year-olds.
What is your top choice to see in January?
21.8% Gran Torino
12.2% No interest in January's releases.
11.9% Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
10.0% Bride Wars
9.3% Defiance
9.2% My Bloody Valentine 3-D
5.6% Inkheart
4.6% Paul Blart: MallCop
4.0% The Unborn
3.9% Taken
3.3% Other
1.9% Notorious
1.1% Hotel for Dogs
0.6% The Uninvited
0.4% New in Town
0.1% Not Easily Broken
1,225 users polled.
When will you see 'Gran Torino?'
30.6% On DVD
20.8% Never
20.6% Sometime in Theaters
20.4% Opening Weekend (wide on Jan. 9)
7.6% On TV
461 users polled.
:) " Eastwood proves you're never too old to learn "
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/1359890,CST-FTR-clint03.article
Boston Globe Interview Link (http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/12/26/the_tough_guy_in_the_directors_chair/?page=1)
Q&A
The tough guy in the director's chair
By Mark Shanahan
Globe Staff / December 26, 2008
Well, it just seems like when the stories are there, you ought to go ahead and tell them.
Q. You distinguished yourself as an actor a long time ago, but over the past decade, you've become known more as a director. Do you have a preference?
A. You know, in Europe, I used to be considered a director who sometimes acted, and in the US, I was an actor who sometimes directed. I've been doing more directing lately, and I enjoy it. If I could do only one, I'd direct. Acting is about the character, and if I find something interesting, I'll do it. But if it's monotonous or the character doesn't change at all, I wouldn't be interested.
Clint Eastwood has his pick of A-list screenwriters, so it was a surreal moment when Nick Schenk -- a former Minneapolis Teamster -- heard that Eastwood would direct and star in his drama "Gran Torino." The script had humble roots in Schenk's friendships with old soldiers he met while clerking at the St. Anthony Village Liquor Warehouse (http://www.stanthonyvillagewineandspirits.com/) and with his Hmong co-workers on the night shift at a Bloomington factory that packaged videotapes.
Hollywood's call came in February, and Schenk met Eastwood in April and flew to the set in Detroit in July as filming began. The movie opens Friday in the Twin Cities amid considerable Oscar buzz. It still seems like a dream, Schenk said in an interview.
"Warner Bros. sent over a poster that Clint Eastwood signed. It's hanging on my wall. You look at that and think, 'Wow, that's really something.'"
Schenk's script, centering on Walt Kowalski, a racist Korean War vet, and his Asian neighbors, won the National Board of Review's award for best original screenplay, just as Diablo Cody's "Juno" did a year ago. "The importance didn't dawn on me until people started sending bottles of Dom Perignon and 16-year-old Scotch," said Schenk, who favors Summit Pale Ale. "I couldn't be more pleased, but I don't watch the Golden Globes. I'd rather be in an ice-fishing house."
The movie's original setting was Minneapolis, but shifted to Detroit when Michigan offered Warner Bros. a 42 percent production rebate. "Gran Torino" retains some Minnesota flavor, however.
Several Twin Cities actors play significant roles. The pivotal part of Thao, a Hmong teenager whom Walt protects from predatory gangs, went to Bee Vang, a 17-year-old junior at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in Plymouth with no stage experience. When Bee won the part at a May casting call at a Hmong community center in St. Paul, his family and friends were incredulous.
"I told them I was cast for this role and they said, 'Until I see you in the trailer, I'm not going to believe it.' Now everybody's like, 'Remember the little people.' My friends all call me a prima donna like I'm a big shot or something, which I'm not."
'Too stupid to quit'
While it sounds like a Cinderella story, Schenk's good fortune at age 43 isn't beginner's luck, but the culmination of years of ups and downs. His beginner's-luck episode was his first feature film script, a 1994 comedy about slackers running a day-care center. Disney bought the script and put it on the fast track. But when the studio's head of production left a few months later, the project "died that same day," Schenk said. "And nothing happened for years and years and years."
For the next decade-plus, he never stopped writing. "I was just too stupid to quit. I remember watching that first one go and thinking, this is easy, and spending all the money just like a drunken sailor. I bought all my redneck fishing buddies sushi. And at the end of the year, it was gone."
Schenk had plenty of practice living broke. He attended high school in Columbia Heights, "where you get a hard hat and a lunchbox instead of a diploma when you graduate." He enrolled at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and graduated with a degree in fine art, "which is useless. I think I painted a fence since I got out of school. I did a pretty good job because I didn't get much paint on the grass."
Odd jobs paid the bills. "In Minnesota you could live on 16 grand a year" with housemates, he recalled. "We lived like children for years and years and years."
He roomed with comedian Rich Kronfeld, collaborating on "guerrilla-style cable access" shows and the syndicated TV sports spoof "Let's Bowl." His first agent "thought I was an actor because we all were appearing in these things, because we couldn't afford performers."
Schenk spent years commuting between Los Angeles and Minnesota. "I just wrote things that amused me. I ended up having no agent and no manager, but I kept writing.
"I was told not to write 'Gran Torino.' It's not commercial, it's too racist, it's about an old guy. Someone said the lead character would be great in a nursing home comedy. It was unsellable, it was uncastable. By that point I'd had so many near-misses that I didn't listen anymore because what's the difference?"
In 2005, he was living on a friend's couch, working construction jobs, driving a fruit truck, and on the outs with Hollywood. "It was crazy," he said. "I was paying dues to the Teamsters and I was in the Screen Writers Guild at the same time. I'd get a few small jobs in L.A., then come back to Minnesota and put the tool belt on.
"Loading trucks every day, your back was tired but your mind was fresh. And I had met all these old vets at the liquor store. They came in every day for a pint of their 'medicine,' with stories they couldn't tell their wives and children. I was the outlet. So I'd just roll into Grumpy's [Bar, a northeast Minneapolis dive], where my friend was the bartender, and write the stuff longhand on a pad of paper.
One joke in "Gran Torino" came straight from the bartender's mouth, Schenk said. It begins, "A black guy, a Mexican and a Jew walk into a bar...." The punch line is unprintable. So much for "Minnesota Nice."
Schenk spent a year polishing the script with his longtime friend Dave Johannson of Shoreview, a furnace salesman for CenterPoint Energy who shares a story credit on the film.
"We'd act out the parts," Johannson recalled. "We're not brilliant performers so it wasn't the most compelling entertainment, but Nick is very funny and fun to be around. We'd read the part where Walt is on his porch holding his M-1 rifle and telling his neighbors, 'Get off my lawn!' We probably shouldn't have, but we just found that incredibly funny."
"Everybody knows a guy like Walt," Schenk said. "It's the perfect time for a story like this because everything's changing. These old guys and this mind-set's going away. Walt's problem is not that he's an unrepentant racist; it's that his soul's hurting and he's got to heal that before he meets his maker."
Bragging rights for his parents
"Gran Torino" feels tailor-made for Eastwood. Walt is an aging tough guy who loves his guns, growls toss-off wisecracks and owns the same classic '72 coupe as Dirty Harry. That was all sheer coincidence, Schenk said. "I'm not a car guy. I just wanted one that sounded like a movie title. It could have been 'Gremlin.'"
The screenplay bounced among 70-something actors, including the late Paul Newman and Gene Hackman. Anthony Hopkins passed (to Schenk's relief; that would have been epic miscasting). Eastwood snapped it up, hustled it into production and shot it verbatim.
"When Clint got on board, it was great bragging rights for my parents," Schenk said. "They could finally see the end point of all this work. He's one of their peers. It's not like I'm trying to explain who Jake Gyllenhaal is or something like that," said Schenk, who now lives in Los Angeles.
Relocating the film to Detroit was not a seamless transition, he said.
"There's a scene in [the original script] where the son calls up Walt and says, 'You know that guy at the plant who's got the Vikings season tickets?' That doesn't translate to the Lions. They don't sell out."
Another Hmong actor in the film, Ahney Her, a native of Lansing, Mich., who plays Thao's bossy older sister, noted that Detroit, with 8,000 to 10,000 Hmong residents, has a "pretty big population, but nowhere near the Twin Cities'." She knows that firsthand. An avid soccer fan, she travels every July 4 to the national Hmong soccer tournament in St. Paul. She hopes to return this summer because she and Bee are "like family now."
Johannson, who accompanied Schenk to the premiere on the Warner Bros. lot, glows at the memory of the celebratory mood when the lights came up. "You show the movie and there's kind of a cocktail social afterward. I think we were the last two guys to leave because we were having so much fun. [Schenk] made a joke about it that we were the Minnesota guys, standing around draining the keg and getting thrown out of there."
Schenk, who regularly visits Minnesota, likes Midwestern flavor in his movies. His next script, already in preproduction, is a romantic comedy about a Type A New Yorker who flees to an icebound North Woods cabin when her life implodes. And he's currently working on a story set in North Dakota.
"That one will be all meat raffles, beer and snowplows," he promises.
Colin Covert • 612-673-7186
What does an icon do for an encore?
If you’re Clint Eastwood, you just keep working. And attract Oscar talk with your newest movie.
That’s what’s happening with Eastwood’s Gran Torino , which opens in theatres on Friday. ...
Eastwood, 78, inhabits this role in a way that has betting people putting their money down on him finally winning an Oscar for acting. (The four Oscars Eastwood already has, for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, are for directing and best picture.) ...
Eastwood has said that he learns something new with every movie he makes, and Gran Torino was no exception. His character lives in a Detroit neighbourhood where there are a lot of Asian immigrants, mostly Hmong, and Eastwood says he learned a lot about that culture.
“But you also learn something about yourself, too,” he said. “With every picture, you think, ‘I wonder if I can pull this off?’ but then you go ahead and dive into the pool. I always wonder if I’m the right guy to be doing this.
“I’ve played similar characters before,” said Eastwood, mentioning Sergeant Thomas Highway, his tough vet character in Heartbreak Ridge, and Frankie Dunn from Million Dollar Baby. “But I’ve never played anyone quite like Walt.”
As for Walt’s bad habits, “I never did smoke much, except in films, but I did like to drink a few beers, so drinking those Pabsts on the front porch was no strain for me.”
Eastwood laughs out loud. He laughs again at the Internet posting that describes him as a vegan.
“You find all kinds of things written about you that you don’t have the foggiest notion where they came from. I’m not a vegetarian. I love sushi and stuff like that. I do have to watch my fat intake, because I’m 78 years old.” ...
In the afternoons, there's a hush and warm amber glow in Clint Eastwood's office, which, unlike other bungalows at the Warner Bros. studio lot, has a rustic feel and furniture that manages to be just as practical as it is stylish. All of that suits the 78-year-old Hollywood icon who started off his career as John Wayne but seems to be finishing it as John Ford.
The newest addition to the office décor is a grim poster for "Gran Torino," Eastwood's 66th feature as an actor and his 29th as a director; in the black-and-white photo, the movie star's face is clenched up in his famous scowl, a weapon that's been brought to bear on cinema street punks and sidewinders for decades.
Eastwood will be the first to say that, for "Gran Torino," there's a bit of false advertising at work in that theatrical scowl and its message to longtime fans who might think the new movie is about "Dirty Harry" Callahan working a grand theft auto case. ...
This year's lead actor and supporting actor categories offer no end of irony.
Although certifiable leading men like Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Leonardo DiCaprio in "Revolutionary Road," Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino" and especially Sean Penn in "Milk" (by far the year's most lauded performance) are in the hunt, many of the other prime top-tier contenders likely to hear their names called when Oscar nominations are revealed on Jan. 22 are veteran actors who have spent most of their film careers (lately at least) racking up supporting roles. ...
Of course, these three will still have to contend with another vet who has always been the star of his films, two-time acting Oscar nominee and four-time winner (for directing and producing "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby") Eastwood, who at 78 is hinting that "Gran Torino" will be his final role.
"Clint is in a class by himself and we've watched him play this persona for 45 years and he's wonderful in the film," says critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who also deeply admires Rourke, Langella and Jenkins. ...
Chiming in quickly here to refine my earlier query about Clint Eastwood (not least because of the e-mails I've been getting from readers with vigilante justice in their eyes): When I asked whether anyone else found him overrated, I was referring to Eastwood the director, not Eastwood the actor. To carp about the latter would be like objecting to the cracks in the Liberty Bell. Stephanie's right: He owns every crease in that monument of a face, and his great strength as a performer, especially as he ages, has been to understand and inhabit that monumentality with an ironic intelligence that, in this year's Gran Torino.
Comes close … until Eastwood the director comes galumphing in with what I think even a lot of his fans agreed was a mawkishly heroic ending, which (I can state without spoiling either movie) shares a weird messianic logic with the finale of the award-winningly lousy Seven Pounds. The Manichaean split between Eastwood's bad guys (that slavering child-murderer in The Changeling, warbling "Silent Night" under his execution hood) and his good guys/gals (Angelina Jolie, bruised and trembling in the snake-pit psycho ward) is just too stark for me to take seriously the moral plight of either. Isn't the righteous masochism of Gran Torino (or The Changeling or Million Dollar Baby) just an inversion of the righteous sadism of the Dirty Harry movies?
Carry on,
Dana
Gran Torino, with Clint Eastwood at the helm (following up his very good Changeling), is a sloppy movie with Eastwood depicting a grousing, racist ass searching for some kind of redemption. The film feels like a rush job, and it probably was. ...
The man is 78, and his arms are muscular and strong. If he had to, he looks as if he could easily lift a small Volkswagen. They speak volumes, those arms, of the determination of the man to whom they belong.
Ordinarily, after watching an Eastwood movie, we would be talking about his many talents as a filmmaker. But the only thing that impresses about "Gran Torino" are his guns.
Coming from the man who most recently made the fascinating "Changeling" and the absolutely masterful "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Gran Torino" is a huge step backward. It's simplistic, obvious and clichéd. And even the acting is not up to par. ...
Considering that Clint Eastwood's most iconic roles have been serious ones, it's easy to forget that he can be funny -- that he possesses terrific timing with his sly sense of humor.
He grumbles and growls his way through his most entertaining performance in years in Gran Torino as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran and lifelong auto worker who's disgusted with the changes in his blue-collar, suburban Detroit neighborhood. ...
The racist, homophobic ''Dirty Harry'' Callahan has retired in Detroit. Sgt. Highway of Heartbreak Ridge might not wear his stripes, but he still keeps his rifle loaded. And William Munny, the haunted, aged gunfighter of Unforgiven, has one last shot at redemption.
It took Clint Eastwood's entire career to build Walt Kowalski, the tough and bitter old bigot the actor plays in Gran Torino.
It's a film about race and tolerance and a culture clash that, if Walt is lucky, will end in a draw. That's the best the embattled old white retired auto worker can hope for in an America that's a lot more multicultural than it used to be. ...
It could just as well be Arizona. Or anywhere else in our country that has struggled to come to terms with newcomers.
We recognize the dynamics. The retiree hunkering down as the makeup of the neighborhood changes. The communication barriers. The frustration. The anger.
The misunderstandings, the movie reminds us, work both ways. ...
Clint drives it home: edgy Eastwood groans, growls in compelling 'Gran Torino'
by Clint O'Connor/Plain Dealer Film Critic Wednesday January 07, 2009, 3:07 PM
"Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!" has never carried quite the resounding curmudgeon-next-door rancor as it does spewing forth from the locked-and-loaded lips of Clint Eastwood. This is one scary old dude you do not want to live near.
In the neighborhood-racist movie "Gran Torino," Eastwood, as angry white guy Walt Kowalski, boots unsavory types from his lawn at gunpoint while uttering a shortened version of that classic scold. Actually, he doesn't "say" much in this film. He grunts, he groans, he grimaces. Mostly he growls.
This is Eastwood 4.0, an elder Dirty Harry blended with the score-to-settle gunslinger from "Unforgiven," teetering just this side of caricature. ...
Clint Eastwood is not a great actor. Twenty years ago, that wouldn’t have been a particularly daring critical statement; the odd outlier like Tightrope notwithstanding, he was known primarily as a guy who could squint one-dimensionally while firing a gun, or squint one-dimensionally while being punched by an orangutan.
But at some point during his cinematic dotage, we all started cutting Eastwood way too much slack. We confused the absence of out-and-out thespianic suckitude in great movies like In the Line of Fire, Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby for real acting chops. And now, as Eastwood delivers his self-professed farewell performance in Gran Torino, people are lining up to hand him gold statuettes—this despite the fact this may be one of the worst performances ever by a guy who’s turned in a lot of fairly lame ones. ...
Ouch, that last one's kinda rough. I wonder if the people who dismiss Eastwood's acting have actually watched all of his movies, and really paid attention through them all. Obviously tastes differ, but I've always thought he was a good actor because he knows how to use his eyes to convey emotion.
This may turn into a love letter to Clint Eastwood, for which I apologize in advance. The guy is the personification of, "I'm not getting older, I'm getting better." At 78, he's still doing some of his best work, directing Changeling and Gran Torino back to back, starring in Gran Torino, composing the score for Changeling, and writing a song for Gran Torino, which he sings in a voice that rivals Pierce Brosnan's. (Thankfully, Jamie Cullum takes over after a verse or two.)
Most directors half Eastwood's age would be proud to have either of those films to their credit, but both by one man in one season is just amazing. ...
Directing himself and his mostly nonprofessional co-stars couldn't have been a walk in the park for Eastwood, but he makes it look that way. Come to think of it, if you're walking in the park after dark you might want him along for protection. There's still a lot of Dirty Harry in him.
Gran Torino makes a good case for buying American, at least when it comes to movies.
Clint Eastwood returns to acting — perhaps for the final time? — and to the directing chair for "Gran Torino," his second major film of the year following October's "Changeling." ...
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It's not a completely open road to box office glory, but Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" holds the pole position this weekend as the urban drama expands nationally after four rounds in limited release.
With some $10 million already in the tank, the film could pump another $20 million into its total this session and top the domestic box office in the process.
The gradual rollout is in keeping with distributor Warner Bros.' established pattern in catering to the older moviegoers who tend to support Eastwood's films. But in relative terms, the "Torino" expansion has even easier on the gas pedal than some of the filmmaker's previous releases. For instance, Warners broadened 2003's "Mystic River" wide after a single session in limited release, and Universal was similarly quick to expand "Changeling" last year.
"Clint and I spent a lot of time talking about 'Gran Torino,' (and) we thought this was a film that was going to be well-received not only critically but through word-of-mouth," Warners distribution president Dan Fellman said. "We thought the best plan in a crowded marketplace during the holiday was to let it go out more quietly and then build into a wide release."
The strategy seems to be working: "Torino" has grossed more than any previous film released in fewer than 100 theaters. Also notably, audiences have grown younger during the four-week span that the film has toured the marketplace.
"The best advice for this and other similar films is not to get caught speeding," Fellman said. ...
Why do some directors keep hiring the same editor film after film? It's all about chemistry -- and being on the same esthetic wavelength.
This season's awards-worthy entries include the pictures of two veteran helmers who have worked with the same cutters during the latter parts of their careers.
Joel Cox, who cut Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" and "Gran Torino," has edited most of the director's films since 1977's "The Gauntlet." Alisa Lepselter, editor of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," has edited every Woody Allen picture since "Sweet and Lowdown" in 1999. ...
After decades of collaboration, Cox and Eastwood have also reached an easy working rapport. "There was a bit of turmoil at the beginning ... and he watched me like a hawk," Cox recalls. "(But over time) our relationship came together because he saw in me things I could do that others hadn't done. He said, 'I don't know what your plans are, but I would like to have you on all of my films.' I said, 'Well, I'm here.' "
Yet there are still unexpected moments. "By now I pretty much know where he's going with it, but he still surprises me," Cox says. "He once told me, 'Don't second-guess (anything). I don't do that as a director. I want to see what your first instincts are ... because I trust what you are doing.'"
Coincidentally, Cox and Lepselter both faced similar linguistic issues on their latest films. Some of the dialogue in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is in Spanish, and "I was skeptical about the language at first," says Lepselter. "Neither Woody nor I speak Spanish, so I thought at first it would be difficult, but it turned out to be not a problem."
"'Gran Torino' has Hmong people in it speaking their language," Cox says. "It's amazing to edit a film and not understand one word they're saying. Clint said, 'When you listen to them, you get the rhythm of it.' We got the rhythm."
Ouch, that last one's kinda rough. I wonder if the people who dismiss Eastwood's acting have actually watched all of his movies, and really paid attention through them all.
Clint Eastwood, 'Gran Torino' are stuck in neutral
Film may be a star vehicle, but the actor-director doesn't deliver
By Michael Sragow
January 9, 2009
Does self-love mean never having to say you're sorry?
Clint Eastwood directed and plays the lead role in Gran Torino, and it's come out as a mash note to the star who, like him or not (and I sometimes do), transformed himself from a TV hunk to the most durable big-screen hard guy of our time. It's engineered, coarsely but shrewdly, to exploit his gnarly side while enabling him to try a little tenderness.
It's a star turn of a particularly obvious kind. (No wonder it's been talked about for Oscars.) Eastwood played an aging man of action more cleverly in In the Line of Fire and more humorously in Space Cowboys. But he's never done it with more crowd-pleasing shticks and turnarounds than he does in Gran Torino. To express toughness, he twists his mouth and pulls it down on one side, or growls with a crackle, like Satan crossbred with a bear. But when he settles in for a good session of porch-sitting, with his faithful dog, Daisy, a cooler full of beer at his feet and his emerald '72 Gran Torino staring back at him from his driveway, he looks almost as mellow as he did in the quieter moments of Bronco Billy.
For those who've been yearning to see Dirty Harry clean his hands, or have been waiting for another big action hero to play Messiah ever since Paul Newman stretched his arms out crucifix-style in Cool Hand Luke, this movie delivers the second- and third-hand goods.
Gran Torino is far, far from Eastwood's best. But he gets to leave his die-hard fans clapping and crying. For the rest of us, it's so thoroughly mediocre it operates like a potent soporific
To judge by the release pattern and some of the more reverent reviews, you would think the 78-year-old director's second movie of the season (after "Changeling") was another prestige picture with Oscar firmly in its sights, along the lines of "Million Dollar Baby" or "Letters from Iwo Jima."
Nominations may be forthcoming, or they may not (we'll find out January 22), but trust me, "Gran Torino" is not that kind of animal. It's a crude but pungent stab at popular filmmaking, blue-collar and bare-knuckle.
Which is not to say it's disappointing. On the contrary, it's an entertaining star vehicle that does its job well. ...
Schenk's screenplay isn't subtle, and some of the young cast struggle to camouflage its crudeness, but Eastwood revels in the pragmatic design and roughneck humor of the piece. Walt may be a dinosaur, but he carries a big footprint. In a similar way, "Gran Torino" is no classic, but at least it's a star vehicle worthy of a true legend.
Plot: Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) just lost his wife, and now the Korean war veteran is knee-deep in “old curmudgeon” mode. He helps out his Hmong neighbors and becomes a sort-of father figure as they try to escape the violence of a local gang.
Who’s It For? Eastwood fans will flock and bow down to this performance. And by the crowd’s reaction to this film, I am guessing most people will think it’s a comedy. Eastwood really plays up his persona to please fans here.
OVERALL
If you take Eastwood out of this film it’s some of the worst acting I have seen all year. But that’s the thing: you can’t remove Walt’s Eastwood from this movie, not for a second. He taps into the racist, stereotypes we all (hopefully) hate our grandparents/parents/society for holding on to. And he absolutely nails it. Now “Get off my lawn!” can be the geriatric version of “Make my day!” ...
The story of an out-of-touch war veteran and his Hmong teen-age neighbors has generated plenty of Oscar buzz. It has also marked a breakthrough for screenwriter and Twin Cities native Nick Schenk.
Schenk won a best original screenplay award from the National Board of Review, the same honor bestowed last year on former Minnesotan Diablo Cody for the film "Juno." ...
Broadcast Dates
Morning Edition, 01/09/2009, 6:25 a.m.
If prejudice is fear of what you don't understand, then what should we make of Clint Eastwood's character in "Gran Torino?"
He's obviously prejudiced - every other word is a racial epithet - but he's also fearless. And he doesn't really discriminate; he hates everyone. He scowls and growls through gritted teeth at the grown sons from whom he is estranged and at the disrespectful grandchildren who couldn't care less about him, about whom the feeling is mutual. ...
Eastwood's recent films have been a pleasure and a surprise, but "Gran Torino" in particular exudes a sense of renewal and promise. Despite the character's xenophobic rantings, the film is not a lamentation for an America that once was but a celebration of America as it is today, by a vital and fearless filmmaker reflecting on his life and ours with style and grace.
E-mail: ddudek@journalsentinel.com
After decades in Hollywood it doesn't take much to convince a movie goer to see the latest Clint Eastwood film.
Wameng Moua has always been a fan of dirty Harry but now, on the eve of what may be Eastwood's final acting film, Moua is proud of the Hollywood legend.
"To see it in the movies, it's brought a lot of excitement to the Hmong community," Moua said.
The it is the presence of Hmong actors in the new film "Gran Torino." ...
"It is really refreshing for young people to see someone of their community on the big screen."
We haven't often seen the words "Hmong" and "Hollywood" in the same sentence -- until this week.
"Gran Torino," which opens today in the Twin Cities, is the first major-studio film to feature several prominent roles for Hmong actors, including some with Twin Cities ties. With heavyweight Clint Eastwood as both director and star, the film is sure to draw national attention to an ethnic group well-known in Minnesota, but not all parts of the country. ...
At an advance screening of the film Tuesday night, Dyane Hang Garvey of St. Paul got more excited than most people in the audience. As a technical adviser on the film, she spent two weeks on the set to ensure cultural realism in everything from food presentation to subtitle translation. This was the first time she had seen the final product. Her first impression? ...
When St. Paul filmmaker Bryan Vue first heard about the movie more than a year ago, "I thought it was a joke," he said. "I had to actually call the casting company in New York before I believed it was real."
We all need Dirty Harry. Even Clint Eastwood needs him — with his you-feel-lucky-punks and that all-perceiving squint of moral discernment. Clint-as-Harry isn’t a man’s man; he’s a man’s man’s man, a paragon of taciturn machismo that other paragons look to in times of crisis. When you need some dude to come along and wreak justice upon the scum of the Earth, he’s pretty much your guy.
So I understand, really I do, why Eastwood the director dusted off Dirty Harry and hired Eastwood the actor to play him in Gran Torino. He isn’t called Dirty Harry in the movie — he’s an old fart named Walt — but there’s no mistaking the rasp in his voice or the uncompromising crankiness of his Weltanschauung. If you wondered whatever became of Inspector Callahan after The Dead Pool, well, look at him now: a widowed Polish-American Korean War vet stubbornly hanging onto his house, his ethnic hatreds and his 1972 Ford Gran Torino in a tough part of Detroit. ...
Eastwood does a better job directing the largely non-professional Hmong cast than he does directing himself. He just keeps doing his Dirty Harry glare, whipping out guns real and imaginary. But it’s hard not to see him as Mr. Wilson — Dennis the Menace’s crotchety neighbor. Skinnier, hairier, no mustache. All the same, a startling resemblance.
amy.biancolli@chron.com
Just before I saw Gran Torino, I told a friend, “Time for me to go watch Clint Eastwood growl at people.”
I was being silly at the time, but after I saw the movie, I realized that what I said had a ring of truth to it. More than any film he’s made since Unforgiven, Gran Torino tries to turn Eastwood’s take-no-guff persona on its head - and for the most part, it works.
When I first saw the trailer for the film, I didn’t know what to make of it. The movie looked like a weird Afterschool Special starring an Archie Bunker type who actually kicks people to the curb. The combination seemed jarring and it looked like a step backward for our best actor turned director.
As usual, though, Eastwood knew exactly what he was doing when he chose to star in and direct the film. He knows that people enjoy watching him give people their comeuppance - and in Gran Torino, he spins it a little differently than he has in the past, not only by having his character wear racism on his sleeve - but by having someone call him on it. ...
Gran Torino shouldn’t be mistaken for one of Eastwood’s great movies, but as a tale of redemption, it’s much more affecting than, say Seven Pounds. By the time the credits rolled, Walt’s heart had softened - and so had mine.
GRADE: B+
There's great pleasure in watching Clint Eastwood snarl, swear and, of course, squint his way through the first two-thirds of "Gran Torino." Accessing decades of tough-guy poses in our collective cinematic memories, the 78-year-old actor is a scream as cranky, tightly wound racist Walt Kowalski.
We meet him growling his way through his wife's funeral, and, at the reception afterward, we realize that his loss is no excuse. The man's always been a grumpy bastard, and the poor woman who lived with him for so many years no doubt earned her last reward. ...
In "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood collects and distills everything we know he is capable of doing on screen -- some of which we might wish he hadn't done, but most of which we love. Even if we might be a little ashamed to admit it.
Certain scenes in Gran Torino, the latest film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, echo his Dirty Harry movies and classic westerns. But Walt Kowalski is no mythic avenger on a horse or system-bucking cop. He’s an angry old man. ...
Eastwood, the actor, overdoes the angry old man bit. Eastwood, the director, again shows what a great storyteller he is. So even if the human and moving Gran Torino ends up getting a borderline art house-cinema release, it’s another grand film from an American master.
Old actors never die. They prefer to let their really old film characters die for them.
Movie history is filled with the swan songs of late-life stars, running the geriatric gamut from poignant to pathetic, iconic to ironic. They often come in duets -- Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "On Golden Pond" comes to mind, or Kate and Spencer Tracy in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
Sometimes you get a trio, as in "The Whales of August," somewhat overloaded with Bette Davis, Lillian Gish and Ann Sothern. For the male animal, such tours de force frequently consist of grumpy old men in comic pairs (Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau) or a grizzled, cantankerous curmudgeon, playing out his last lonely chess match with the Reaper.
They don't get grumpier or more grizzled than 78-year-old Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino." He plays aging Korean War vet Walt Kowalski, a not-so-distant cousin of Stanley -- and not so gracefully aging. He is a bigot in general but particularly abusive and hateful toward his Asian neighbors -- until they get in trouble with a noxious gang. That requires him to shift into AARP vigilante mode and gradually reveal his heart of grumpy gold. ...
His crews call him "Zen Daddy" on the set. As director and actor alike, he seems to be aware of his own limitations and to be beloved, no matter what he does, short of a Pee-wee Herman impersonation. "Mystic River" (2003) brought acting Oscars to Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. "Million Dollar Baby" did the same for Hilary Swank. "Gran Torino" might do the same for Eastwood this year.
Will it be the old cowboy's final acting role? Don't bet on it. He has already had almost as many valedictory performances as Judy Garland. And he's got longevity in the genes. His mother, Ruth, just passed away two years ago at the age of 97. In a recent interview with Gail Sheehy, Eastwood recalled one of his last exchanges with Mom:
"I said, 'C'mon, Ruth, we're going to make 100!' But she said, 'No, I've been here long enough.' ... When the time comes that you don't enjoy it, that's a good time to give it up."
Judging by "Gran Torino," he's still very much enjoying it.
(Barry Paris can be reached at parispg48(at)aol.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Clint Eastwood must've snapped while he was putting the finishing touches on "Changeling."
I guess after all those months of shooting Angelina Jolie crying over her lips and wailing about getting her son back, the ornery ol' cuss in Eastwood must've come bursting out of him. "No more of this Lifetime movie-of-the-week stuff," the ornery ol' cuss told Eastwood (I'm assuming). "Let's make a movie for tough SOBs like us, like we used to!"
And thus, "Gran Torino" was born.
Man, what I can say about this film? It's certainly not like his recent work not in the slightest. It's a melange (yes, I said melange!) of politically incorrect dialogue, laughably stereotypical characters, amateur-dramatic performances and all-around old-man bitterness. It's wrong in every sense of the word. And yet, that's what makes this mess so appealing and even, a little bit brilliant. ...
Even though Eastwood's name has been associated with award-winning excellence in recent years, "Torino" probably won't be held in the same regard. And I'm beginning to think that was the movie's and Eastwood's intention all along. In an infernal season of self-important prestige flicks vying for major-award attention, "Torino," much like its protagonist, couldn't care less. A foul, tacky, tongue-in-cheek vigilante flick for "Matlock" viewers, "Gran Torino" couldn't have come at a better time.
craig.lindsey@newsobserver.com, (919) 829-4760 or http://blogs.newsobserver.com/unclecrizzle
... "Gran Torino," from Warner Bros., is expected to beat out the more commercial "Bride Wars," which Fox opens in 3,226 theaters. The female-skewing comedy, starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson, should turn in a strong performance as it walks down the aisle. ...
Since 1990, Clint Eastwood has starred in 10 films, directing most of them as well as several other films. It’s interesting to note that he’s still going strong at 78. What’s even more interesting is that the last two decades includes some of the finest work of his career. People who once dismissed him as primarily an action star in crime movies and westerns — including this reviewer — have discovered a confident actor and director contemplating the perspective that comes with age.
“Gran Torino” represents Eastwood’s second 2008 film (after “Changeling”) but his first screen appearance since 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby.” Although it has its share of violent action, this is essentially a character study of an old man drinking away his remaining years who finds there’s still work left to do. ...
If the film has a drawback, it is that Eastwood inexplicably chose to sing the title song over the closing credits, an ode to the car Walt lovingly built and maintained. Given his body of work, it’s an indulgence most viewers will be willing to grant him.
Box Office Mojo link (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=grantorino.htm)
Domestic Total as of Jan. 11, 2009: $40,065,000 (Estimate)
- Fri Jan 9 - $9,650,000 (Estimate)
- Sat Jan 10 - $12,150,000 (Estimate)
- Sun Jan 11 - $7,225,000 (Estimate)
TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 14 Gran Torino WB $29,025,000 +888.4% 2,808 +2,724 $10,337 $40,065,000 $33 5
2 N Bride Wars Fox $21,500,000 - 3,226 - $6,665 $21,500,000 $30 1
3 N The Unborn (2009) Uni. $21,095,000 - 2,357 - $8,950 $21,095,000 - 1
4 1 Marley and Me Fox $11,350,000 -53.2% 3,478 -27 $3,263 $123,710,000 - 3
5 3 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Par. $9,450,000 -49.4% 2,947 -41 $3,207 $94,330,000 $150 3
Wouldn't you just love to see Clint Eastwood, daintily lifting up his cup of tea to his lips with his pink crooked just as slightly as his Dirty Harry sneer?
The director attended the British Academy of Film and Television Arts pre-awards tea party for the nominees, many of whom will be attending tonight's Golden Globes.
Eastwood, who has award nominations for his film Changeling is riding high on the number one box office spot when his latest film Gran Torino was widely released. Dude should be feeling lucky right about now.
TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week # 1 14 Gran Torino WB 29025000 8.884 2808 2724 10337 40065000 33 5 2 N Bride Wars Fox 21500000 - 3226 - 6665 21500000 30 1 3 N The Unborn (2009) Uni. 21095000 - 2357 - 8950 21095000 - 1 4 1 Marley and Me Fox 11350000 -0.532 3478 -27 3263 123710000 - 3 5 3 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Par. 9450000 -0.494 2947 -41 3207 94330000 150 3
This should be a bit easier to read.
January 9–11, 2009 Weekend Studio Estimates link (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2009&wknd=02&p=.htm)
I'm not sure if this is the right place to report it, but I saw an ad for The Late Show that said Eastwood is slated to be on the show sometime this week. I haven't checked the specific night yet, but will do so soon unless someone else checks and posts it first.
Upcoming Guests
Monday, January 12
Talk and performance with John Corbett
Tuesday, January 13
Actress Kristin Scott Thomas
Actress Tracie Thoms from CBS' "Cold Case"
The Submarines
Wednesday,January 14
Filmmaker John Waters
News Anchor Norah O'Donnell
Thursday, January 15
Actress Wanda Sykes from CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine"
Music by Glasvegas
Friday, January 16
Actor Dev Patel
Wednesday, January 14
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
Randy Rogers Band (CD, "Randy Rogers Band")
Brandon Gray Reports:
'Gran Torino' Muscles In:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2535&p=l.htm
Holdovers Crumble Under 'Gran Torino:'
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2536&p=l.htm
Playing on approximately 3,200 screens at 2,808 theaters, Gran Torino scored the highest-grossing nationwide launch of Eastwood's career as an actor or director, shooting past his previous high, Space Cowboys at $18.1 million. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, the action drama's start slots in second behind Every Which Way But Loose, which is also Eastwood's most attended movie overall, and was around ten percent bigger than In the Line of Fire and Unforgiven. Aside from a few hiccups, Eastwood has been among the few consistently bankable actors over the years, and the marketing for Gran Torino cashed in on his tough guy persona, recalling Dirty Harry with its vigilante storyline. It was the type of picture audiences wanted to see Eastwood in after years of waiting.
Gran Torino's success was portended by its stellar performance in limited release. It was the standout over the past four weeks, earning $11 million with escalating per theater averages and significantly out-pacing Eastwood's last acting vehicle, Million Dollar Baby, which also had a December platform release back in 2004. Distributor Warner Bros. had a hit targeting older audiences on this weekend last year when The Bucket List played to the strengths of its stars (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman). With $40.1 million grossed since its Dec. 12 opening, Gran Torino has already topped Eastwood's last three directorial efforts: Changeling, Letters to Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers.
Dan, that's the LATE late show.
AKA seems to have it right ... from the link he posted above:
Compiled by Steven McElroy
Published: January 11, 2009
One day before Oscar nomination ballots are due, Clint Eastwood strode to the top of the weekend box office with “Gran Torino,” which earned $29 million for Warner Brothers in its fifth week in theaters. The weekend haul represents the biggest opening of Mr. Eastwood’s career. The film, directed by and starring Mr. Eastwood, above, as a curmudgeonly retired auto worker living in a decaying Detroit suburb, spent its first four weeks playing in fewer than 100 theaters but expanded to more than 2,800 locations this weekend. The film has made $40.1 million overall, according to figures released by Media by Numbers. “Bride Wars” (Fox), the comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson, came in second, earning $21.5 million in its first week of release. The No. 3 movie was also a debut: “The Unborn,” the thriller from Rogue Pictures and Universal, which earned $21.1 million. Last week’s box office winner, the Jennifer Aniston-Owen Wilson comedy “Marley & Me” (Fox), fell to fourth place with a weekend take of $11.4 million, for a total of $123.7 million in three weeks.
I'm on the Box Office Mojo e-mail list, and the following just dropped into my inbox:
From the first of those links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205489/releaseinfo
February 20 according to imdb.com
Marketing consultant Terry Press had her 9-year-old son Ethan in the car when she heard the news that Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" had made $29 million to win this past weekend's box-office derby, easily outdistancing movies like "Bride Wars" and "The Unborn" that are populated with actors less than half Clint's age. When Press got off the phone, Ethan, apparently having seen a host of "Torino" TV spots, did his best Eastwood impression, barking, "Get off my lawn!" In Hollywood, whether you're 9 or 89, everybody is a Clint Eastwood fan. It's pretty clear that when it comes to living legends, there's Clint and there's everybody else. ...
Actors love to go to acting classes. You only wish Clint would offer a class for today's movie stars in career management. Perhaps because he's old and wise, perhaps because he's one of the last actors to start his career as a studio contract player, Eastwood is one of the rare movie stars who knows what people want to see him do and what they don't. Press, who worked with Eastwood on several films in recent years, says "Gran Torino" offers a double lesson, not just about the perils of ageism but the benefits of actors knowing their strengths.
"Clint learns from his mistakes," she says. "After 'Paint Your Wagon,' you didn't see him do any more musicals. If you think about it, his character in 'Gran Torino' has a lot in common with his character in 'Million Dollar Baby.' He's a gruff, unreachable guy who resists getting involved--he just wants to be left alone. But then he meets someone who touches him, who gets under his skin and he's willing to re-engage in the world. And you get involved with the story because his character demands respect."
Why has "Gran Torino" struck a chord with audiences right now? Keep reading: ...
"What people love about the character Clint plays is that he's a guy who says 'Go [screw] yourself' to all these nasty little thugs in the film," says Press. "I think the fact that he demands respect really resonates with moviegoers today. People are tired of living in such a disrespectful culture, a culture that has such a lack of manners and boundaries. Clint's character upholds tradition. ...
I think what Eastwood saw in "Gran Torino" was a story that had the compelling moral force of his favorite old westerns. (You could argue that his "homestead" in "Gran Torino" feels as if it's on the edge of the frontier, the frontier in "Gran Torino's" run-down Detroit simply being a more urban version of the Old West.) Once again, Eastwood gets to play the part of a man following his own moral code, much as he and his heroes have in westerns of earlier eras. The great Western heroes, from the John Wayne of "The Searchers" to the Jimmy Stewart of "Bend of the River" to the Eastwood of "The Outlaw Josey Wales," were the kind of intense, revenge-filled zealots who would've never made it past the studio development softening process, which would've filed away all their rough, often unlikable edges. But, like the curmudgeonly old cuss Eastwood plays in "Gran Torino," they were real American men, full of as much anger and resentment as stoicism and steadfast sacrifice. They were reluctant heroes who, by willing to risk their lives for a greater good, found redemption. It's a quality you don't find in many movies today, but it's all there for the taking in "Gran Torino."
On Saturday, at the Midway Mall Cinema 9 in Alexandria, it was the first time Jimmy Chan can remember an R-rated movie being sold out – during the afternoon matinee.
Because the particular movie was in theater number five – a smaller theater – Chan, the theater’s manager, decided to move it to the number nine theater for the evening shows.
And boy, was he glad he did.
If he hadn’t, he would have had to tell a very important movie-goer he couldn’t attend because there were no more seats left.
Typically, this isn’t a big deal.
But when the movie is Gran Torino and the movie-goer is Dave Johannson, it’s a big deal.
Johannson happens to be one of the screenwriters of the box office hit starring Clint Eastwood. ...
Quick: Who's the only actor big enough to make Quigley Publishing Co.'s survey of top 10 box-office draws in four different decades (topping that list at least once in three of those decades)?
The answer, of course, is Sergio Leone's Man With No Name (although he goes by the alias Dirty Harry). ...
Expect this movie to have legs in the weeks and months to come. "It's a very simple movie, and it's also very, very poignant, and it's very entertaining," says Mr. Mason.
In other words, it's vintage Eastwood -- and as theater owners have known for decades, vintage Eastwood means beaucoup box office.
Dirty Harry’s back! Well, sort of. Think of it as “old” Dirty Harry, and you’ve almost got the premise of Clint Eastwood’s latest film.
This is Eastwood’s second movie within the space of a year’s time, which should be enough to make most Hollywood types blush in guilt for their laziness, as well they should.
Eastwood is known for his conservative filmmaking style, in which he shows these young Hollywood whipper-snappers how it’s done by trouncing them at their own game, often shooting pages of dialogue in a day and still getting everyone off the set at a reasonable time.
Meanwhile, Stanley Kubrick spent years perfecting what turned out to be a glorified “Red Shoes Diaries” episode, “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Eastwood shows what you’d think Hollywood would have learned how to do by now: Make a top-notch movie with big-name stars and a decent budget and bring it in on time and under budget in as effortless a manner as imaginable.
There’s a reason Hollywood respects him as much as it does, and why actors drop everything to work with him, including their inflated paychecks. The guy commands respect because he’s earned it. ...
Eastwood grows, but without losing the grit we love him for, even as his character offends. The end result may not reinvent the wheel, but it gets the job done.
Email: kscopefeatures@yahoo.com
Clint Eastwood is mostly known these days for his work behind the camera. Before “Gran Torino” hit theaters on Friday, he hadn’t been seen on screen since 2004, in a supporting role in “Million Dollar Baby,” and he hadn’t claimed a starring role since 2002’s “Blood Work.”
And you can’t blame him. The man is 78, after all, and still working harder than most people in Hollywood do in their 20s. We all understand why we don’t see that old Eastwood swagger as much anymore, and we’re grateful to have his brilliant directing to make up for it, but there’s still just a little part of the moviegoer in me that always wants more of the Eastwood that was; the Eastwood of “Unforgiven” and “In the Line of Fire.”
I think ol’ Clint knows we want that, and I think he might just miss a little bit himself, because with “Gran Torino,” he found a way to get it back. ...
As the film ends, we hear a raspy voice, Eastwood’s own, singing a soft ballad, and it all becomes clear. This is a film about a man near his end, made by a man near his end. Eastwood, meditating on his own mortality, finds beauty in the harshest of places, crafting a film that functions like a classic car – sleek, simple, and beautiful.
Matt’s Call: We didn’t have to wait long for the first must-see flick of 2009. Don’t miss it. It might be the last chance we get to see the dark side of a legend.
On the Letterman website, it says he's going to be on Wednesday. http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/show_info/pants/Just a reminder that Eastwood is on The Late Show tonight. O0
Heard it advertised on the radio for the first time today.
Didn't hear the "Get off my Lawn" line, but they did play the "What's it like to kill a man?" "You don't want to know."
Letterman: And you have, what is it, seven children?
Eastwood: At least.
6.2% Gran Torino
1,363 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)
14.1% Gran Torino
1,377 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)
20.7% Gran Torino
1,349 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)
29.6% On DVD
23.2% Sometime in Theaters
21.8% Opening Weekend (wide on Jan. 9)
19.3% Never
6.1% On TV
1,334 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)
22.1% Gran Torino
1,875 users polled. (This poll is now closed.)
At the start of Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood stands in a church and quietly observes the people shuffling in and filling up the pews. He is Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski, and his wife has died. An older gentleman approaches him and gives his regards to the deceased, “She was a real peach.” Walt thanks him for coming. Just before the service is about to commence, Walt’s grandchildren arrive at their seats. Walt snarls at the sight of his grossly inappropriately dressed teenage granddaughter, who can’t find it within herself to cover her midsection even at her grandmother’s funeral. Walt’s sons sit near the back of the church with their wives and talk about their father, who is now alone. We learn a little bit about Walt in this snippet, and that’s the only reason it’s in the film. The two express concern over Walt getting into trouble in his neighborhood, now that he has no one to look after him. They don’t seem the least bit concerned about their own children’s immature behavior a few rows in front of them. ...
I had a blast watching Eastwood taking names just like in the old days. This really is one of his best performances. It is intense and emotional and, at other times, funny. It is a layered performance that reveals not only the experiences of a character, but also the experience of its veteran actor. Eastwood has directed a flawed film, but he’s flawless in it.
These days, the box office belongs to Clint Eastwood and “Gran Torino,” and last night’s National Board of Review Awards gala in New York turned out to be another lovefest for the laconic director and his acting chops in the film.
The Baguette asked Mr. Eastwood on the red carpet if the acting accolades for “Gran Torino” inspired him to go looking for his next acting gig? “Well it’s where I started, so it’s kind of fun,” Mr. Eastwood said. “But I’m gonna do a picture on Nelson Mandela. That’s my next project but I’m directing. I’m not playing Nelson. I can only stretch casting so far.” ...
With all the Clint Eastwood red carpet hysteria, Alan Horn, the Warner Brothers studio chief, nearly slipped through unnoticed. But the Baguette managed to get in a question about whether he was trying to talk Mr. Eastwood into acting in another movie for Warner Brothers. “Clint does what Clint wants to do, but I’m just delighted he’s come back both as director and actor and the audience’s response to this has got to be encouraging.”
Clint Eastwood drives home another winner in "Gran Torino," a surprisingly affective character study that puts a fresh twist on an old-school morality tale. It’s heavy-handed and flawed, for sure, but undeniably engaging.
I have to admit not expecting much from this Eastwood production, his second in just more than two months, hot on the heels of the lukewarm "Changeling." The previews for this movie are just awful, implying a dark drama with violence and revenge as the major themes. Thankfully, the opposite is true. ...
"Gran Torino" is manipulative, exploitative and funny as hell in all the right places. The crowd cheered at the end of my screening, and as a longtime fan of Eastwood, I joined right in.
Just a reminder that Eastwood is on The Late Show tonight. O0
For those who missed it: Part One (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubOdE3lTnVk) and Part Two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBmB32cfD4w)
Some members of the Fresno and Visalia community are watching the number one movie in America especially close after learning two of the actors have valley connections.
In the movie 'Gran Torino' Brooke Chia Tao plays the mother of Tao and Sue, a Hmong family living next door to a crusty war veteran played by Clint Eastwood. ...
Brooke says she's now focusing on her acting, getting new head shots and looking for a Hollywood agent to represent her.
Vang, 17, grew up watching Eastwood in westerns and as Dirty Harry. Now he's part of last weekend's box office winner, "Gran Torino," which pulled in $29 million and gave Eastwood the best movie opening of his career.
"I thought this was life-changing," Vang recalls about learning he had been cast as Thao, the Hmong neighbor boy who leads Eastwood's crusty, bigoted, retired Ford worker, Walt Kowalski, on a journey of redemption in "Gran Torino."
Vang's parents were born in Laos, then moved to Thailand before emigrating to the U.S. around 1987. He was born in Fresno, Calif., and moved with his family (he has four brothers and a sister) to Minneapolis about two or three years later. He had never acted before but says he decided "on a lark" to audition for "Gran Torino." ...
Vang, a high school junior who takes all his classes at the University of Minnesota (http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-minnesota-OREDU0000046.topic), is looking at studying premed but said his experience on "Gran Torino" has him thinking about acting and films. And he says he's proud to represent his heritage.
"It's not just me, but all the Hmong people were part of this. We're all quite happy and proud to be part of this."
Gran Torino is far from a perfect film, but it is a perfect Clint Eastwood vehicle.
I mean, a grizzled, squinting, half liquored-up suburban Dirty Harry, scrambling off the porch and waving his gun at a bunch of hooligans who dare threaten his peaceful retirement? Why, “Get off my lawn!” could well replace “Go ahead punk, make my day!” as the actor’s new catchphrase.
Hand this script to anyone else and it’s a kind-hearted and profound but clearly pre-programmed ball of sentimentality and clichés. But in Clint’s rugged grip? Perfection. ...
Smart, funny and incredibly thought provoking, Gran Torino is a beauty. Is the climax a little generic? Perhaps if someone else gave it a shot, but not the manner in which our boy attacks it. It’s a perfect ending for this tale – and, if the rumours are true, a one-of-a-kind career. Just perfect.
The new year gives film fans an opportunity to reflect on the year just past, and it is a sad fact we have lost a number of Old Hollywood’s last genuine movie stars. Paul Newman is gone, and so is Charlton Heston; even good old Roy Scheider is no more. However, these losses make us appreciate those who remain all the more.
After a career spanning more than 50 years, Clint Eastwood endures, the very definition of Hollywood charisma and star power. In other words, he is a living legend, but a legend who continues to make engaging and challenging films instead of recycling the same old thing every year. Eastwood’s latest project, Gran Torino, is a case in point: On the verge of 80,
Eastwood could play some generic grandpa, or simply rest on his hard-earned laurels. Instead, he directs himself in an urban drama that requires him to play one of the least appealing protagonists in contemporary cinema. ...
Gran Torino is a delightful piece of work, with Eastwood turning in an Oscar-caliber performance as the grumpiest of old men. Indeed, the phrase “Walt Kowalski” should probably enter the English language as a new term for “old coot.” Eastwood’s Walt is so casually racist he makes Archie Bunker look politically correct, but Eastwood also makes us believe there is a heart somewhere beneath Walt’s crusty hide. Moreover, viewers cannot come away from the film without images of legendary Eastwood characterizations like The Man with No Name and Dirty Harry coming to mind; it is as if all the tough but heroic roles Eastwood has played over the years have been distilled into one indomitable figure, a symbol of another age that’s still relevant in the 21st century.
Gran Torino is not perfect; Walt’s rants are so over-the-top that they sometimes border on self-parody, and college kids will soon be playing a new drinking game (every time Eastwood grunts in anger, everybody does a shot). Yet no other film in recent memory does such an outstanding job of portraying the conflict between young and old America. In that context, Gran Torino promises to be as much a classic as the car that gives the film its name.
Clint Eastwood is 78. Think about that as you consider what the man has done of late. Since 2004, Eastwood has helmed "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Changeling" and of course, "Gran Torino." When he gets bored he also stars himself. Oh, and pre-production has begun already on "The Human Factor," a movie about Nelson Mandela that will star Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon under Eastwood's direction.
Seventy-eight years old. The man is pretty much the exact opposite of an ego-boost.
His current work, "Gran Torino," expanded into wide release last weekend and promptly took over the top spot at the box office.
Kicking butt at the box office, however, is not the only way "Torino" is remarkable. ...
Eastwood, at 78, is somehow still getting better at what he does. Walt is unquestionably tough, and yet alarmingly brittle. Eastwood is able to portray his racism in the most charming way possible before making Walt's movie-long transition believable. "Gran Torino" makes you, like Walt, genuinely care about its story and the characters in it.
Like I said, remarkable.
For those who missed it: Part One (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubOdE3lTnVk) and Part Two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBmB32cfD4w):) Thanks, Doug ! That's great ! O0
ACT 3:
CLINT EASTWOOD
Clint enters in casual wear, kept warm with a long leather jacket. Dave asks, "Would you like to check your coat?"
Dave has a long list of Clint Eastwood's films and asks about some of his earlier ones.
The first: 1955 -- "Revenge of the Creature" -- perhaps you never heard of it.
We see a scene from another 1955 film, "Tarantula". Clint plays a squadron leader responsible for killing the giant Tarantula. I'm unfamiliar with the film, but I bet the tarantula gained its humongous size due to a nuclear mishap.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) -- Dave says this film may have revitalized the western, and asks about director Sergio Leone.
Clint was once asked to be in a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He met with Mr. Hitchcock and the experience was rather odd. Clint entered the room and Hitch never moved, not a muscle. Clint took a seat and only Hitchcock's eyes moved.
Unforgiven (1992) -- Dave has seen the film two or three times and calls it a nice entertaining, well-told novel, perfectly written. Clint Eastwood won the Academy Award for "Unforgiven" for Outstanding Director and Best Film and was nominated for a Best Actor Award. Checking up on "Unforgiven" I see it will air on the Hallmark channel on January 24th and 25th, though it would probably be better to just rent it . . . . . again.
Clint's new film, Gran Torino has received rave reviews and Dave wonders if he has a love of cars. Clint says he doesn't really but has always admired the Gran Torino. He wonders why Detroit doesn't make a hybrid Gran Torino. Detroit needs to make a sexy hybrid.
A sexy hybrid? I think we have them here downtown in the Village.
Clint was once the mayor of Carmel, California. How did that come about? He says he and some friends became unhappy with the current administration of Carmel and they decided to run for every seat available. It was then suggested that Clint should run for mayor and break the town wide open. He held the office of mayor for two years and did not run for re-election. His job was done.
Gran Torino -- in theaters now. We watched a clip. Wow, just from the clip alone, I'm going. Clint plays an old curmudgeon who is cynical and sick with the world, finding fault in everything . . . . . that's for me!
ACT 5:
Announce: "Tomorrow on the Late Show, Dave is joined by Kyra Sedgwick, and Gwen Ifill. Remember, for good television hygiene, the FCC recommends washing your television regularly. We'll be right back."
ACT 6:
It's time once again for "Alan Kalter's Celebrity Interview."
We cut to an angry Alan who is staring at Dave.
ALAN: "Shouldn't there be a parental warning for tonight's show?"
DAVE: "Excuse me?"
ALAN: "A parental warning? Do you think we'll need one?"
DAVE: "I'm sorry, Alan. I don't understand."
ALAN: "Well, I just figured it may be necessary since America just watched you screw me like a one-eyed whore."
DAVE: "Alan, I don't know what you're talking about."
ALAN: (mocking) "I don't know what you're talking about, Alan. Oh, bite my junk, suck-rod! You knew I spent weeks trying to books this week's guest for ‘Alan Kalter's Celebrity Interview.' Here, let me introduce him. The legendary Clint Eastwood."
The camera widens to reveal Clint Eastwood sitting beside Alan.
ALAN: "By the way, Dave, looking forward to seeing you in the gossip pages."
DAVE: "Alan, why would I be in the gossip pages?"
ALAN: "Well, I imagine they'll assume you're dating Clint's ass, seeing as how you've been kissing it for the past twenty minutes. (mocking) ‘Oh, Clint, you should win an Oscar for ‘Gran Torino.' ‘Ohh, Clint, will you hold me?' Hey, if I want to see Clint talking to a monkey, I'll rent ‘Every Which Way But Loose.'"
DAVE: "Alan, that's not exactly what happened."
ALAN: "That's exactly what happened! You got a pencil?"
DAVE: "Yeah, right here."
ALAN: "Then mark this down, ‘sdd'hole. You snake my ‘djoy' again, so help me I'll rip off your shriveled nuts and staple ‘em to your wrinkled ‘givl'ing forehead! And you . . . . . (to Clint Eastwood) . . . . next time, take me dancing before you screw me or so help me, I'll go Bronco Billy all over your ass!"
An angry Alan exits.
Clint Eastwood is left to sit there wondering what had just happened.
An embarrassed Dave throws to commercial. Apologies to Mr. Eastwood
For those who missed it: Part One (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubOdE3lTnVk) and Part Two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBmB32cfD4w)
:( http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/show_info/pants/
I could not watch the video................... >:( >:(
IT IS testament to Clint Eastwood's energy, combined with a mind that operates likes the proverbial steel trap, that he still talks about hurdles.
Not that he's physically leaping them these days.
At 78, bad cop Dirty Harry has given way to rambunctious retiree Walt Kowalski.
But Eastwood's aim as an actor, director and sometime composer, musician and singer is as true as ever, more than half a century after he started in showbusiness.
"You always look for a character that can go somewhere, start one place and go another," he says in his typically understated way, in a voice that now is almost a whisper.
While some younger directors and stars put years between projects, Hollywood's most famous senior citizen has two movies about to be released in Australia.
Gran Torino - he is the director, the star and composed the Golden Globe-nominated song with son Kyle, Michael Stevens and Jamie Cullum - has him playing the Korean War veteran and retired Detroit production line worker Kowalski, perhaps the man Dirty Harry Callahan might have become long after being pensioned off from the police force. ...
The fact-based Changeling has Eastwood directing Angelina Jolie in her Golden Globe-nominated role as Christine Collins, whose son is kidnapped in 1920s-era Los Angeles. ...
In both cases, it was simply Eastwood's eye for a good story that drew him in.
"I was intrigued by the Gran Torino script (from a first-time screenwriter, Nick Schenk) because it was not only about the Hmong culture, which was new to me, but it is also a kind of statement that you're never too old to learn tolerance and learn a lot of things," he says.
"Of course Walt Kowalski is a man who's out of his time and he has trouble adjusting, but that makes hurdles to go over and they make the character fun to play.
"And I think seeking justice and getting justice is always a very satisfying thing in a storytelling sense, and the actual injustice of this true incident in Changeling is much more accentuated than a lot of fictional stories I've read.
"For a woman in the 1920s to be put in the position she was in, where the police force just sort of ran roughshod right over her, is a statement about the general position women were in at the time.
"Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and it was with this one."
In keeping with his no-frills approach to telling stories on film, Eastwood says he directs "by feel", even when he is the star. It is 38 years since he first directed himself - in the thriller Play Misty For Me - and he allows he is not as tense now.
"But as far as evaluating what I'm doing in so far as the script is concerned, when it feels right then it is right for me," he says.
"You know when you're on key and you know when you're hitting a clanker."
The process of filmmaking has changed enormously, of course, and as he approaches his 80th year Eastwood has been studying digital technology.
"I always figured that some day it would take over from film, much as it has in (stills) cameras," he says.
"Every film I do, we kind of test the latest cameras that are out but I've never found one yet that has got quite the same feeling of film that I'm used to."
In Gran Torino Eastwood worked with mainly an unknown cast of non-professional actors, including Bee Vang and Ahney Her, both born in the US to Hmong parents.
"They were very nice kids and they were really earnest," he says.
"It's interesting with the young people of the Hmong culture that, although they were born here, they all know the language of their parents and grandparents and they have a great respect for adults."
Changeling could not have been more of a contrast, with the Academy Award-winning Jolie bringing with her the attention of the world's paparazzi.
"Angelina is a terrific talent and really a very fine actress, but she's been on the cover of so many magazines in recent years that sometimes people tend to overlook that," Eastwood says.
Gran Torino opens on Thursday. The Changeling opens on February 5.
I missed the Alan Kalter celebrity interview. :'(
But I did read it above, and that is rather strange. ;D
The process of filmmaking has changed enormously, of course, and as he approaches his 80th year Eastwood has been studying digital technology.
"I always figured that some day it would take over from film, much as it has in (stills) cameras," he says.
"Every film I do, we kind of test the latest cameras that are out but I've never found one yet that has got quite the same feeling of film that I'm used to."
He arrives for the interview at the Mission Ranch restaurant as if he owns the place, and it doesn't make any difference that, in this case, he does. He had his first legal drink in the bar while he was stationed at the nearby army base in the late 1940s. In 1986, he bought the property and rebuilt it to his taste, with a piano bar, heart-stopping views of the ocean spray on Point Lobos, and plenty of meat on the menu. Despite what you might have read on Wikipedia, Eastwood is not a vegan, and he looks slightly aghast when told exactly what a vegan is. "I never look at the internet for just that reason," he says.
It's been 20 years since Eastwood was mayor of Carmel, but clearly he's still the king around here. Unlike the taciturn characters he plays on screen, he's voluble, chatting and laughing with his staff with a sharpness and enthusiasm that make him seem far younger than his age. After showing me around the property, he insists I come back that evening for a steak dinner. "We've got good chow," he says. You try telling him you've made other plans.
Eastwood is on familiar ground in another way. It's coming up on the Oscars, and he has two films in contention, Changeling, with Angelina Jolie, and his newest, Gran Torino, which he finished shooting only last summer and which opened in the United States last month.
In Gran Torino, he plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran, retired Ford line-worker and full-time bigot who stews on his porch in Detroit watching his block being taken over by Hmong immigrants from South-east Asia. When a gang pressures a teenager living next door (played by Bee Vang) into trying to steal Walt's vintage Gran Torino, the ageing veteran gets pulled reluctantly, then violently, into the lives of his neighbours.
Eastwood has already won the best actor prize for Gran Torino from the National Board of Review, and the Oscar talk – he has never won as an actor – is running high. He claims not to care deeply about awards. When asked whom he makes films for, Eastwood says, "You're looking at him." Calculated or not – those films do have a habit of appearing (sometimes unexpectedly) in prime Oscar campaigning season – that stance seems to charm the voters some 300 miles to the south in Los Angeles, who have rewarded his movies richly in the past 15 years, including two best-picture awards. Eastwood has become the George Washington of the awards season: if called, he will serve. But he seems not to believe in term limits.
Gran Torino is the 29th full-length movie Eastwood has directed – more than Scorsese, more even than Spielberg – so perhaps it's an accident of memory that his name first conjures up the impression of the squinty guy on a horse. In the mid-1980s he started changing minds by pushing the boundaries of his cowboys-and-cops image with films like Honkytonk Man and Tightrope, but he says about his reputation: "If that's how people want to pigeonhole me, that's fine."
If anything, his directing pace has picked up in the past five years.
The script for Gran Torino had been kicking around Hollywood for a while before Eastwood read it. The writer, Nick Schenk, who worked in a Ford plant years ago, based the character of Walt on the men he met there, many of them Korean War veterans. "I'd talk a lot to these guys, and they'd tell me stuff they would not tell their wife and kids," Schenk says.
Some directors are known as an actor's best friend. Eastwood may be the writer's. "He didn't change a word," Schenk says. "That never happens."
Eastwood says he learned his lesson after making extensive revisions on the script for Unforgiven, then phoning the writer, David Peoples, to announce he was returning to the first draft. "I'm emasculating this thing," he explained.
There was one major disappointment for Schenk: the setting of Gran Torino was shifted from Minneapolis to Detroit, the original home of Ford, and, not coincidentally, the home of 42 per cent tax credits for films made there. (That helped make it easy for Warner Brothers to sign off on bankrolling the movie, something that hasn't always been a given in the studio's relationship with the director.)
Eastwood bought the script last February, then shot the movie over the summer at a guerrilla film-maker's pace, finishing in 32 days. The fast clip, Eastwood says, helped him with the Hmong members of the cast, most of whom had never acted and many of whom didn't speak English. "I'd give them little pointers along the way," he says. "And I move along at a rate that doesn't give them too much of a chance to think."
It also doesn't give Eastwood too much time to worry about Hollywood. After shooting, he returned to Carmel, where he lives with his wife, Dina Ruiz, and manages his investments, including an ownership stake in the Pebble Beach golf course company. He worked with his two film editors in an 1862 farmhouse on the Mission property for a week or so. Between sessions, he sat at the piano and picked out a score: he has written music, including full scores, for many of his films. He even sings one of his own melodies over the film's final credits, his voice burned down to a whisper. Eastwood himself refuses to call it singing because that conjures up memories of Paint Your Wagon, the misbegotten 1969 musical. "I vowed I'd never do that again," he says.
Like Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River before it, Gran Torino is a modern story that feels anachronistic. Walt's neighbourhood is every bit as bounded and knowable as the town of Lago in High Plains Drifter, and the confrontations with the Hmong gang members build methodically, as if in a town square. But when the film threatens to descend into a vigilante picture Gran Torino takes some unexpected turns.
Before filming there had begun, internet gossip suggested that Eastwood was making another Dirty Harry sequel. What Gran Torino does share with the Dirty Harry movies is the sheer force of its incorrectness. Walt, who stokes his resentment with cigarettes, beef jerky and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, expresses his disgust for the Hmong and just about every other racial group in a steady stream of obscenities. Robert Lorenz, Eastwood's frequent producing partner, says that what he appreciated about Schenk's dialogue was that "he didn't hold back".
"It was left really raw," he says. "It sounded like those people you know, or your uncle saying something really bad at a wedding."
Brian Grazer, a producer of Changeling, sees this kind of directness as a strength. "What most interested me about Clint Eastwood as a director is the honesty and intensity he injects into the movies that he directs," he says. "He is so confident as a director that he will allow the occasional ugliness of life to live inside the scenes of his movies."
For Eastwood, the raw language is central to Walt's story. "If he comes in and just befriends these people and doesn't have any hurdles – any personal hurdles – to overcome that doesn't make for a very interesting character," he says. But Eastwood, who last spring had a verbal run-in with Spike Lee, after Lee complained of a lack of black soldiers in Eastwood's film Flags of Our Fathers, also confesses to some sympathy for Walt's choice of words in a way that's guaranteed to irk the Hollywood types who have finally embraced him despite his libertarian politics.
"A lot of people are bored of all the political correctness," he says. "You're showing a guy from a different generation. Show the way he talks. The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so ..." – here he pauses and narrows his eyes – " ... sensitive."
What we admire about heroes (and villains) like the ones Eastwood used to play isn't their sensitivity, it's their single-mindedness: they say what they're going to do, then do it. Whether in Spain or in San Francisco, Eastwood's heroes were never given the "kill one to save a thousand" liberal trapdoor of other Hollywood films. The violence of the Dirty Harry movies seems almost quaint now, but what Harry says – "Ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?" – still has the power to shock.
But if Eastwood shoulders some blame for every Rambo and Die Hard that followed, he should be given credit for looking at a more complicated transaction in the films he directs, one where people's actions are at odds with their beliefs. What helps sell the contradiction in Gran Torino is Eastwood's own physical presence. More so than any other leading man, he has been willing to play his real age. At 78, he is perhaps thinner than he once was, but in that sinewy way that reveals strength as much as diminishes it. After Walt beats up one gang member – hey, he's still Clint Eastwood – the next scene shows him out of breath, struggling to open his front door.
To Eastwood, being able to play 78 is just one of the benefits of a long career. "It's ridiculous when you won't play your own age," he says. "You know when you're young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have grey in their hair and they're trying to be old men and they have no idea what that's like? It's just that stupid the other way around."
The other benefit is that, even after a great career in the movies, you can fashion another. "After The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I'd walk down the street and everybody would whistle out" – here he sings the movie's famous theme. "Then it became 'Do I feel lucky?' and 'Make my day.' But it's progressed along. Whether it's taken this turn on purpose, I can't say."
Walt Kowalski has a catchphrase too in Gran Torino. "This is what I do," he tells the Hmong teenager before the film's final act. "I finish things." So does Eastwood, just not in the way anybody would have expected.
And he may not be done. There were reports – again on the internet – that this would be his last role, but now Eastwood says it is not necessarily true.
"Somebody asked what I'd do next, and I said that I didn't know how many roles there are for 78-year-old guys," he says. "There's nothing wrong with coming in to play the butler. But unless there's a hurdle to get over, I'd rather just stay behind the camera."
• Gran Torino (15) is released on 20 February.
Gran Torino: A glimpse at my later years minus the war vet and racial slur parts.
Durant: This movie has already won an Oscar in my book. Not for Clint Eastwood's performance, which was very good and may also win, nor for the screenplay, which was very good and may also win, nor for the movie as a whole, which was very good and may also win.
I am basing my Oscar call on product placement alone. This movie has the most shots, and even an audio reference, to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. It's everywhere and I couldn't concentrate on the movie.
A long time ago, when it was $5 a 12-pack, I wrote a story called “Pabst in the Movies” for Short Bus Magazine where I referenced the glimpses of the beer in movies like “M*A*S*H” and “X-Men.” I was even compiling stuff in my “who am I fooling, I'll never get to it” file for a coffee table book on the subject.
You don't have to look very hard to find PBR in this one.
What I don't get is how Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) can drink as many as he does in the movie and still be skinny. There's a few shots in the film where there's a good 10 or so empties next to him and A) he's not completely soused and B) he's still skinny.
I don't get it, maybe I should just go on the birthday cake, beef jerky, Pibber diet and maybe I'll start trimming up.
All Pabst aside, this was probably the movie I looked forward to most since “Iron Man” and I wasn't disappointed. ...
Some directors are known as an actors best friend. Eastwood may be the writers, discovers Bruce Headlam
Even at the age of 78, Clint Eastwood reaches out to shake your hand with a firmness that still intimidates no matter how much time you spent preparing your grip (for the record: three days).
He arrived for the interview at the Mission Ranch restaurant here as if he owned the place, and it didn’t make any difference that, in this case, he does. He had his first legal drink in the bar while he was stationed at the nearby Army base in the late 1940s. In 1986 he bought the property and rebuilt it to his taste, with a piano bar, heart-stopping views of the ocean spray on Point Lobos and plenty of meat on the menu.
It’s been 20 years since Eastwood was mayor of Carmel, but clearly he’s still the king around here. Unlike the taciturn characters he plays on screen, he’s voluble, chatting and laughing with his staff with a sharpness and enthusiasm that make him seen far younger than his age.
Eastwood’s on familiar ground in another way. It’s coming up on the Oscars, and he has two films in contention, Changeling, with Angelina Jolie, and his newest, Gran Torino, which he finished shooting only this summer and which opens from January through March around the world. ...
The Scotsman link (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Interview-Clint-Eastwood.4871005.jp)
Interview: Clint Eastwood
Published Date: 17 January 2009
By Bruce Headlam
BEING INTRODUCED TO CLINT Eastwood is something like seeing a California redwood for the first time. The difference is that this redwood, even at the age of 78, reaches out to shake your hand with a firmness that intimidates no matter how much time you spent preparing your grip (for the record: three days).
Gran Torino slipped a mere 23% in its second wide weekend on $22.2m for $73.2m and is well on its way to becoming Clint Eastwood's biggest domestic release.
Clint Eastwood isn’t really a curmudgeon, but he (lately) plays one in the movies. Whether het’s a reluctant relic of the Wild West or a grizzled boxing trainer with skeletons in his closet, overtime Eastwood has remolded the “Dirty Harry” archetype into a noble toughness that oftentimes betrays an underlying sensitivity. Bill Munny had it, Frank Dunn had it and in “Gran Torino” — which Eastwood also directed — Walt Kowalski has it. ...
“Gran Torino” has its flaws and certainly isn’t a masterpiece. But, strangely enough, it’s one of the more emotionally affecting and well-crafted films of the year. And all of it rests on Eastwood’s shoulders — as he delivers a perfect performance on-screen and behind the camera. ...
But it’s Eastwood’s directorial decisions that keep the film from stagnating or proselytizing. Eastwood reveals enough of Kowalski’s past to explain his persona but never leaves him on the porch to muse on his life. The movie pivots from character development to conflict to reaction to action and follows a perfect story arc.
And that’s the beauty of “Gran Torino” — Eastwood is doing nothing more than telling a very compelling short story about living in a time that doesn’t have a place for you and still finding a reason to live. And while some may find the rather shallow philosophical depths a bit problematic, this film isn’t meant to solve existential problems — just to feel comfortable in it’s own narrative skin. And moviegoers looking for a good time will find a curmudgeon makes for a pretty good story.
3 1/2 stars out of 5.
Clint Eastwood has always been a staple in cinema since "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."For however long it has been, Eastwood has remained a respected actor, picking high profile and high brow films to star in or direct.
Unfortunately for me, I was one of the few people who did not enjoy "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Flags of our Fathers" as much as other people did.
Not to say they were bad movies, but they were almost too effective in making me, the viewer, feel the discomforts and tragedies of war.
I preferred "Iwo Jima" over "Fathers," but neither of them stood chance against "Unforgiven" and "Mystic River."
So I was a little apprehensive when it came to paying $8.50 to go see Eastwood's new "Gran Torino."
I had already missed my chance to go see "Changeling" written by one of my favorite writers J. Michael Straczynski.
That being said, the trailer for "Torino" looked a lot more intriguing than any solemn story Eastwood had released in the last nine years (discounting Mystic River").
Last Sunday I actually went to see the movie, and I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable films I have seen in the last six months.
Whether or not this is his swansong, Eastwood delivers his lines better than anyone, young or old, with such ferocity, that I felt intimidated seeing him on screen.
He's that good.
The rest of the film is sprinkled with trace amounts of actual actors and actresses, Eastwood choosing instead to cast authentic Hmong people from areas in Michigan, Minnesota and California.
The novice Hmong make the characters somewhat odd to watch, as if their old school traditions make them all the more unfamiliar to Eastwood's retired Korean War survivor.
At the same time, playing brother and sister, the two that shine the most among the asian cast members are Bee Vang and Ahney Her.
Together, they represent the most traditional Hmong family that moves in next door to Eastwood's grizzled and slightly racist Walt Kowalski.
What follows can only be described as a near comedy, with Walt calling his neighbors every offensive name he can think of to get them to leave him alone in the first half of the movie.
It soon becomes apparent that Walt isn't a racist, but merely wants to be left alone, and thinks he can accomplish that by insulting his two sons' families, his neighbors and his persistent priest.
What follows is a deep story of bonding between two generations and the knowing what matters most.
On set, Eastwood encouraged the Hmong cast to adlib as much as possible onscreen and it shows how thorough Eastwood is as a director.
Whether or not he channels his glory days as Dirty Harry or The Man With No Name is unsure, but in some ways the character remains the same. He is a man that knows what is right, cherishes what is good and attracts the right kind of people.
As for the rest of the story, which I will not explicitly detail here, the progression of danger is always underlying as Walt and Bee Vang's Thao Lor develop their friendship. It keeps the audience uneasy and commits to a better climax.
It's really hard to say which I like more, Eastwood's directing or acting in "Torino," but to be optimistic, I have to say it was the better movie I saw in December, beating out "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by a long shot and was a superior film than "Milk" in the way the story was treated.
At age 79, it's nice to see Eastwood retire from acting, if this actually is his last acting role, in such a heartfelt and ode to the kind of tough hero character Eastwood was known to play.
Matthew Reichl likes to think he knows film. It's hard to say whether he does or doesn't. Make suggestions through e-mail at mreichl@berksmontnews.com.
A street full of 1950s roadsters. James Bond in an Aston Martin. Superfly in a Cadillac.
The car is shorthand for many things in Hollywood -- time, place, power.
In "Gran Torino," it's a symbol representing a man out of time, out of place and absolutely powerless.
This isn't the cool set of wheels we're familiar with, thanks to "Starsky and Hutch." Clint Eastwood doesn't even drive it in the movie.
The 1972 Ford just sits in his garage, like a ghost, a reminder of a time when he was connected to an America that has passed him by. He lives in a working-class neighborhood that has experienced a crumbling economy and white flight and is plagued by gang-bangers.
Though the film is set in Michigan, it just as well could've been in Lorain -- where the Torino was built in a now-closed Ford assembly plant. It rolled out more than 800,000 Torinos, which followed in the tracks of the Ford Fairlane.
Like the neighborhood in Eastwood's film, Lorain went from a prosperous auto hub to a broken-down town when "Made in America" became an anachronism.
"When I saw 'Gran Torino,' it reminded me of a time when America was prosperous," says Paul Simpson, who worked on the assembly line in Lorain's Ford plant from 1968 to 2005. "The car says it right away: Every other car in the movie is brand new, except for that Gran Torino."
Simpson, who installed seats on the line, remembers the Torino as "the car most average Americans bought."
"It was sporty, but you'd see so many on the road," he says. "But that's what made it special."
'Special' because it was affordable, when America had a thriving working class.
"That Ford plant and the cars that rolled out of it represented the health of America," says Simpson, 62, who retired in 2007 after suffering from aneurysms. "Even if you lost that job, you could just get another one, in a steel mill or shipyard."
In "Gran Torino," it's despair aplenty. Eastwood transplants the outsider role he played in Westerns.
He spits like he did in "The Outlaw Josey Wales." Except this time around, it's at his Asian neighbors.
Or, well, anyone else who isn't white. Or didn't serve with him in Korea. Or didn't work in the plant. Or doesn't keep their yard neat.
Eastwood even finds his 27-year-old boyish priest annoying. Too green.
Like Josey Wales, he's a man on his own, with a dog.
Instead of a horse, he has his Gran Torino. Except he never rides it in the movie; the car is a reminder of past glory, and driving it might tarnish it.
It's a premise some would see as racist -- glorying a "White America."
But there's more to it than that, Simpson says.
"Once the jobs dried up, a lot of people moved out of the neighborhoods, and they just fell apart," he says. "Clint stays because he still loves his home and hasn't given up."
The last angry man standing befriends a downtrodden family living in an urban frontier not that different from the misfits he once rode with in the Wild West.
"Deep down, he wants to help people help themselves," he says.
CASSVILLE, Mo. — From humble beginnings to the silver screen, the latest car to join the ranks of Hollywood automotive icons shares a part of its past with the Four-States Area.
Jim Craig, a Cassville businessman, has a special connection to the latest Clint Eastwood film, “Gran Torino.”
He is the one who restored and eventually sold the film’s title character, a metallic-green, 1972 Ford Gran Torino owned by Eastwood’s character.
Craig said in an interview last week that he came across the car through a former employee who found the vehicle and thought it had potential for a restoration project. ...
Craig said he kept the car for a few years until he found another classic car to restore. He put the Gran Torino on eBay, where it was bought within a week by a company in Vernal, Utah, called Salt City Classic and Muscle.
Hugh Dean, a mechanic at Salt City Classic and Muscle, said he remembered the Gran Torino clearly.
David Fedewa, a physical education teacher at Dodson and Tonda elementary schools, wasn't nominated for an Oscar this week for his part in Gran Torino.
But, then again, neither was the star of the movie, Clint Eastwood.
"No Oscar nominations, I couldn't believe that," said Fedewa, 39, who spent three days this summer on the set for his "extra" role in the movie. "You can clearly see me in several scenes. They had me listed as a pallbearer and I thought I was going to get a lot of time on screen. But, they cut that part out." ...
In the afternoons, there's a hush and warm amber glow in Clint Eastwood's office, which, unlike other bungalows at the Warner Bros studio lot, has a rustic feel and furniture that manages to be just as practical as it is stylish.
All of that suits the 78-year-old Hollywood actor who started his career as John Wayne but seems to be finishing it as John Ford.
The newest addition to the office decor is a grim poster for Gran Torino, Eastwood's 66th feature as an actor and his 29th as a director; in the black-and-white photo, the movie star's face is clenched up in his famous scowl, a weapon that's been brought to bear on cinema street punks and sidewinders for decades.
Eastwood will be the first to say that, for Gran Torino, there's a bit of false advertising at work in that theatrical scowl and its message to long-time fans who might think the new movie is about "Dirty Harry" Callahan working a grand theft auto case.
"I think the movie will surprise some people, the nuance of it," Eastwood said as he sat back on a couch in his office.
"If it was just a kick-ass movie, well, I wouldn't want to do that. I've done those kinds of movies. These days, I would only do the movie if it had something to say.
"I didn't want it to be Dirty Harry at 78."
Eastwood chuckled at the idea that the film is a primer on the white American lexicon of bigotry. "He could be from another world but he's a common guy for his generation," Eastwood said. "Everybody talked like that in the 1940s.
"I remember going to Oakland Tech and it was a high school but it also had a trade school connected to it. All the vets coming back from World War 2 were going there, so we were going to the same campus as guys who were 25, 26, 27 years old.
"They talked like that. They called each other Sam the Jew, Joe the Mick, Frank the Dago, whatever. Of course, you always said it with a smile on your face.
"If you said it without a smile on your face, well, then it meant something different."
Eastwood, as is his style, made the movie quickly, cheaply and with a disdain for the industry convention of shooting take after take. He shot in Detroit and used non-professional actors - many of whom did not speak English - to portray the Hmong community members.
Most days, he would tell his amateur players to run through a scene on set and he would secretly signal the camera crew to start rolling.
"I actually shot them before they knew it half the time and then I'd go back and piece it all together," he said with a grin.
"I had to keep my eye on the ball pretty well. You can't afford to sit and mess around. You got to be ready.
"If you don't want to lose something, you have to have the camera on. Non-professionals don't repeat things. They do things by accident that turn out great."
"I liked the journey," he said. "Kowalski is haunted from his past. And all his friends are dying or dead. Everybody is dead.
"And that's the way it is when you're 78 years old. I like the fact that Kowalski learns something.
"I had to put him in that kind of extreme situation in order to take even one step on a journey toward tolerance of other people and other customs.
"He's thinking of these people as barbarians for cutting off the heads of chickens. That seems like a big deal to him. But he's cut off human heads or whatever."
Eastwood said one reason he took this role is, well, there aren't many other actors he could have turned to.
He said Gene Hackman would have been interesting but he's retired now.
Maybe Robert Duvall.
But in the end, the director decided it was a worthy role and one that had a vague resemblance to his longtime role as Harry Callahan, the San Francisco cop who kept reloading for five films.
"Maybe he's got some of the same loneliness," Eastwood said. "Kowalski believes in the law in an old-fashioned way; he's not trying to right every wrong.
"He might have a little of Frankie Dunn in him, the character I played in Million Dollar Baby. Maybe a little bit of the guy I played in Heartbreak Ridge.
"But this guy is his own guy. That's why I wanted to play him. There's no sense in doing something I've done before at this point."
-Gran Torino opens in theatres on Thursday.
-Geoff Boucher
This year's Oscar story lines have already been etched in stone — Mickey Rourke as the comeback kid, Slumdog Millionaire as the art-house wunderkind, Milk as the timely social commentary (released three weeks after Proposition 8 passed in California). Yet while the critics have been fussing over wrestlers and Mumbai quiz shows, audiences have been flocking to Gran Torino — an Oscar outcast that's been doing laps around the competition at the box office. At some point this week, the Clint Eastwood drama will pass the $100 million mark, easily surpassing the box-office receipts brought in by not only some of the Oscar front-runners (Slumdog Millionaire now totals $56 million, Milk $21 million) but also Eastwood's last Oscar winner, Million Dollar Baby.
"It's an amazing story that no one's really talking about," says Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst with Hollywood.com. "For a movie starring a 78-year-old to have a $29 million opening weekend in wide release, and in the process to beat out the likes of Anne Hathaway in Bride Wars, I don't know if I've seen that before ... It's a testament to how people still feel about Clint Eastwood."
Originally released Dec. 12 in only six theaters and hyped by Warner Bros. as a major-awards contender, the film won Eastwood early recognition by the National Board of Review as Best Actor, but that's been the exception to the rule. At the glitzy Golden Globes, Gran Torino was mentioned in just one category: original song. When the Oscar nominees were unveiled last week, Gran Torino was shut out of the competition completely. (See TIME's top 10 films of 2008.)
It is certainly one of the least likely blockbusters in some time. Starring Eastwood as a crotchety widower living in Detroit's Highland Park neighborhood — a veteran of the Korean War who eyes his Hmong neighbors suspiciously and launches into racist tirades when provoked — Gran Torino was filmed on location in a mere five weeks on a slim budget of $35 million. The majority of its Hmong characters were played by nonprofessionals. In addressing such tumultuous issues as racial strife, gang warfare and urban blight, it can hardly be categorized as escapist entertainment.
"The film confronts issues that are very timely, from racial violence to economic struggles. It's a working-class world that we may not see all that often in blockbusters, but it's something a good many people can relate to," says Karie Bible, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. Surely Eastwood could not have predicted, when he first set out to make the film, that Detroit's economic woes would be making national headlines by the time Gran Torino arrived in theaters (his character is a retired Ford assembly-plant worker), nor that the movie would be launching into wide release the same day the U.S. government released the darkest unemployment report in 16 years.
Audiences, though, have embraced the film's realism. Bible's firm projects that the title will soar north of $150 million before it leaves theaters — making Gran Torino the biggest haul ever for an Eastwood film. By then, it may well pass the box-office totals posted last year by such summer tent poles as Mamma Mia!, The Incredible Hulk and Sex and the City. "Slumdog and The Wrestler are these Cinderella stories that have overshadowed Gran Torino, and yet here is another Cinderella story all its own," Dergarabedian says. "You look at Eastwood, and here he is directing Changeling, which got Angelina Jolie her Oscar nomination, and starring in this blockbuster where he proves again that he's one of the biggest box-office stars. To become a leading man again at 78, I think it's a story that's unparalleled in cinema."
Eastwood has been quoted as saying that this could mark his last outing as an actor. If that's true, he will be going out on top.
If you’re reading this in newsprint, you’re probably old enough to have once considered Clint Eastwood a reactionary creep. “The action genre has always had a fascist potential,” said Pauline Kael, reviewing Dirty Harry in 1971. “And it surfaces in this movie.” Remember, Eastwood emerged as what is now commonly called an “icon” in the late 1960s, leaping from his pungent television role as Rowdy Yates on Rawhide about the same time the core movie-going group was announcing the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. (I remember friends dropping acid to watch him in Sergio Leone movies, but that’s another story.) In a time of love and peace, decidedly antiwar at least, he was a man with no name and a long-pistolled cop who unapologetically used vigilante techniques to override a weak-kneed justice system—and, was applauded by the silent majority. To me, that man was a guilty pleasure at best. He had fans from the beginning, though. Or at least after his dicey debuts in the 1955 “classics” Francis in the Navy and Revenge of the Creature. Between Leone’s glacially long close-up shots and Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry kill shots, Eastwood was something like the last of the craggy adventurers descended from John Wayne. (It’s telling that he first met Wayne in 1968 at the Republican convention.) But even those precious love-dominated years demanded Western heroes, and as the subsequent decades passed, Eastwood’s public stature grew as our tolerance for mayhem and escapism spread At first, his roles remained laconic—prone to shoot first and sort it out later. Walt Coogan, Private Kelly, and Josey Wales were not significantly different from each other and, though it seems blasphemous to say it, could’ve been played satisfactorily by Charles Bronson or James Coburn. Later, as he “grew” into comedic parts like Philo Beddoe in the chimp and trucker buddy movies like Every Which Way But Loose, his relationship with critics remained truculent, while his international mass popularity ballooned, even in the low Reagan-iffic eras when Heartbreak Ridge (1986) and Firefox (1982) redefined him as our frontline against the Evil Empire
As a director, however, Eastwood’s critical estimation hardly ever suffered. He began directing right away, in fact—he claims to have stepped in for Leone, directing sequences of A Fistful of Dollars when the Italian auteur was ailing. But Eastwood’s first big splash was the nerve-rattling Play Misty for Me (1971). And though there are more than a few “meh” films among the 31 he’s made, very few of them are terrible. And some, mostly those made in the last two decades, have been astoundingly good—Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), and Million Dollar Baby (2004), most notably.Only Woody Allen can claim anything like it for lifetime acting/directing output, and his hits are bigger, but his misses are, too. For sheer adventurousness, Eastwood can hardly be matched by any young director working—the two Iwo Jima movies were not great, but the impulse to take them on was. This last year’s output—Changeling and Gran Torino—brings him to an unmatched creative pitch. The only comparable directors are the Coens, who made No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading back to back. But there are two of them. And, yes, before applying the I-word yet again, let’s reiterate: There is only one icon named Eastwood. (He’s a refrain in an Adam Ant song, the title of a Gorillaz song, and a smirky character in Back to the Future III—his poncho and cigarillo ought to be trademarked.) But the streak of conservative values that helped to define him hasn’t disappeared as his directorial virtues have gotten more renowned. I always thought, much as I like it, that Unforgiven was a con job. Preach all you want about the wrongs of violence, but the film ends in a satisfying blood bath. Likewise, Mystic River concludes by asserting that might makes right and street justice prevails even among Boston’s lace curtain Irish
And Gran Torino, well, don’t get me started. You can see it as a Shakespearean Tempest’s Prospero-like conclusion to a career. Eastwood plays himself again (doesn’t he always?), a growling racist addicted to cutting down bullies. And it’s genuinely a funny film, which critics don’t often mention. But what’s with the Christ-like allegory at the end? His character Kowalski’s abnegated way of circumventing gangland revenges seems noble, but it wouldn’t have been necessary if he hadn’t started in on the Hmong street gang in the first place. So when he leaves the GT to Tao, Kowalski—and I have to assume Eastwood—is leaving a legacy of tough-minded resignation to the violence that lives on in America.
This would be Eastwood’s legacy, from the nameless stranger to the racist neighbor. Eastwood did not fit in with a hippie zeitgeist, obviously. And as much as I wish that peace could be given a chance in Eastwood’s ethos, I still respect the man, actor, and director for not only making five decades of movies completely consistent with his own philosophy, but because he made some of them great with craft.
He also made a fistful of dollars, but he never really sold himself out.
4•1•1
The self-congratulatory slant that smothers perfectly ordinary Hollywood “message” films has inoculated audiences towards sincerity, making them somewhat averse to blatant emotion. It transcends genre. Comedies have to be deadpan and close to reality; dramas have to be austere and overly mannered; and action films have to have tortured heroes. Escapism is no longer the name of the game. Audiences want to recognize themselves within every character, and editorialization of the situation feels like the worst kind of audience manipulation.
Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” is unabashedly manipulative, perhaps to the extent that audiences unaccustomed to the dynamics of classical drama may find the film archaic and overwrought. This blending of weighty Catholic guilt, observational comedy and deconstruction of Eastwood’s own “Dirty Harry” franchise, however, is like a sharp blow to the gut, knocking one sideways with off-kilter humor and the realization that Eastwood may have made the first film to typify the era of President Barack Obama. ...
The Gran Torino in the film is a beautiful throwback to the days in which beauty was created for the sake of it. Part of what makes “Gran Torino” such a radical film is that Eastwood never romanticizes his character and never asks for him to be forgiven. Instead, he uses it to make a film that speaks to America’s divisive nature, which can be channeled throughout hatred, mean-spirited wisecracks or even violence. Eastwood is able to encompass all of these viewpoints to create a film sure to be seen as a perfect time capsule for what America feels at this moment of monumental change.
"Clint Westwood" ???
yeah...wonder where that person has lived in the last few years ;D
Great pics of Clint in the slide show.
Detrot VFW:P
It's hard speaking of the interpretations of Gran Torino, trying to avaliate the co-stars that had the tough mission of "leading" a so mind-blowing acting as Clint Eastwood's. The actor develops his character in a so visceral, organic and convincing way that you just can't get him out of the picture. He is the axle of the narrative, the pillar of a movie made with care and with the hands of a craftsman. Gran Torino reminds those exemplaries of old times, that didn't need big intricate tricks to hold the attention of the audience. Some people may accuse him for having a conventional plot, or of being methodical, which in my opinion isn't true.
Some subtexts make the movie even more interesting and Clint character even more human. If it is going to win Oscar or something, I don't know, but Clint Eastwood deserves all the awards he can get, because of the life he has dedicated to the art of the movie-making, to those pieces of quality and depth. If this is his farewell job as an actor, I just have to thank and applaud him for all the work that he've made all over those years, bringing to life so many different characters and culminating in this one, who is a masterpiece and who resides in a so beautiful and well done movie.
Clint Eastwood insists that he's still learning at 78, or he would have quit filmmaking.
The Oscar-winning director and acting legend - who's at the helm of and stars in new flick Gran Torino - revealed he'd retire if he got bored.
Eastwood said: "I hadn't planned on doing much more acting, really. I said a few years ago, 'I don't think I'll act any more, I'll stay behind the camera.'
"And then Million Dollar Baby came along and I liked that role, so I said, 'I think I'll do this role because I'm right for it', and then I did Gran Torino. It had a role that was my age, and the character seemed like it was tailored for me, even though it wasn't.
"The message from the story was great - it shows that you're never too old to learn. And that's why I'm still working at 78, because I like learning something new all the time, and every time you do a project, you learn new things. That makes it fun.
"When it's not fun, you won't see me doing it any more."
The Changeling director feels he learns from the young talent he works with.
He said: "Directing is a great thing. That's one of the reasons why I, in my senior years, do this kind of thing - hide behind the camera and let the young people jump and run with the ball."
Clint said he's always "amazed" at how good some of the young thesps are "because it took me forever to learn how to say my own name".
Gran Torino opens on February 20.
When I heard that Clint Eastwood was starring and directing a new movie, I got excited.
I haven’t seen any of his Dirty Harry movies in the past, but, I did happen to see Million Dollar Baby. I thought Clint did a great job in that movie; however, I hate Hillary Swank as an actress, but that’s a different story.
This movie was the best movie I’ve seen in a very long time.
Clint Eastwood shows his rough side but also shows his caring, compassionate side to the audience.
The movie had me laughing and it also had me quiet during the serious parts.
The crowd I was with in Rice Lake also thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
I heard many comments while walking out of the theater – people saying how great this movie was or I want to see it again.
I’ve seen the movie more than one time and I’m glad I’ve seen it as much as I have because it’s worth the ~2 hour running time.
Gran Torino was recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the Ten Best Films of 2008.
As of January 28, 2009, the film had taken in around $100 million at the box office .
The Los Angeles Times also praised Eastwood’s performance and credibility as an action hero at the age of 78.
Kenneth Turan said of Eastwood’s performance, “It is a film that is impossible to imagine without the actor in the title role. The notion of a 78-year-old action hero may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Eastwood brings it off, even if his toughness is as much verbal as physical. Even at 78, Eastwood can make 'Get off my lawn' sound as menacing as ‘Make my day,’ and when he says ‘I’ll blow a hole in your face and sleep like a baby,’ he sounds as if he means it.”
I would highly recommend seeing this movie because it really is a great movie to see; however, it’s not a movie for the kids.
Gran Torino is rated R for the language throughout, and there is some violence in the movie.
Thanks, higashimori. Your formatting was a little off so I fixed it for you. :)
Well, that's what Mods are for! :)
By Robbie Collin, 15/02/2009
GRAN Torino, the new film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, is about a retired auto worker who’s sick of immigrants moving into his neighbourhood.
And I’m not saying he’s a petty, foul-mouthed racist. But this guy could give Carol Thatcher a run for her money backstage at The One Show.
This film about age and race divides is classic Eastwood, with the 78-year-old showing his mastery at every turn.
As a leading man, he packs all the punch of a retired Dirty Harry, growling his lines in a voice so rough it could sand a plank.
And as a director, this is full of the measured, painstaking story telling that nobody does better.
In short, it’s a monumentally great film and keeps you spellbound till the lights come back up again. And even a Jamie Cullum dirge over the end credits can’t wreck it.
OUT FRIDAY
Slumdog Millionaire held steady with an estimated $7.2 million, outplaying its fellow Academy Award nominees by a wide margin, and its total climbed to $86.5 million. Push rounded out the Top Ten with an estimated $6.9 million, off 31 percent for $19.3 million in ten days, but it was Gran Torino that was built to last. Clint Eastwood's action drama was right behind Push with an estimated $6.8 million, easing six percent. With $128.9 million in the till, it pulled ahead of Escape from Alcatraz to rank tenth among Eastwood's movies adjusted for ticket price inflation.
- Polish American Congress
(Cynthia Zawatski is a long time supporter of the Polish American Congress and its Anti-Bigotry Committee. After she saw Clint Eastwood’s film “Gran Torino,” she wrote a Letter to the Editor which she wanted to share with us.
Now retired, she was raised in Detroit in a family of ardent Polish American activists. In the 1930’s her father, Thaddeus Przylubski, was prominent in labor circles as a founder and organizer of the United Auto Workers in that city.
After moving to Ashland, Oregon where she now resides, Cynthia became an outreach director for the United Farmworkers Union.
Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of Walt Kowalski in his film “Gran Torino” struck such a responsive cord in her, it prompted her to pen her personal recollections and send them to us.)QuoteAshland, OR . . I am a longtime subscriber to the Journal. I wait expectantly for each new edition. I am seldom disappointed. But, in the January edition, a piece out of Los Angeles was reprinted. The subject was the new movie “Gran Torino.”
The reporter presented what was a simplistic, uninspired critique of a film about which he or she had little understanding. He called it a story about Hmong immigrants. He reported that Clint Eastwood played a Polish American man and that the film was made in Detroit.
Perhaps the journalist has no familiarity with Detroit or the industrial Midwest. The human drama that is taking place there, the heartache of those who built the great city of Detroit – the great union that gave them prosperity – the churches, the fine schools, the sense of place, the dignity and the pride they earned for themselves and their offspring.
It must be told, as in the case of the film’s main character, Walt Kowalski, many were in fact Polish. They built a new life after being driven out of Poland early in the century. My father was one of them.
Clint Eastwood’s character is—as the actor said himself—an “urban legend” born of truth and no small amount of agony as Detroit and its people see their beloved city vanish before their very eyes.
These brave people, who generations ago came themselves as immigrants, have seen many challenges and have overcome them as a people bound together by a sense of oneness.
But over the last decade, an obstacle named “globalization” has presented a chain of events that even they cannot seem to overcome.
No matter how hard they struggle, and as those who built this good life watch nearly helplessly, all they have known seems to fall into chaos. A new people arrive. A people from far away who come with hope to also find a better life. In “Gran Torino” these two cultures come together, a clash at first, and then they join together to defend their honor.
Walt Kowalski is not only a legend. He is a Polish American hero. This film should be in every Polish American home to be viewed by generations to come in remembrance of those who came before. As with Walt Kowalski, ours is a generation whose time, as we have known it, perhaps is coming to an end.
While we are remembering the past and observing the present, we also honor those new immigrants who must find a way to build a new beginning – even as our people did.
It is a beautiful aspect of the film that these new immigrants, the Hmong people whom Walt Kowalski came to love, were helped, protected and taught by a Polish American veteran who has his own private darkness caused by having been through a terrible war.
There are generations now of Walt Kowalski’s. But his is the definitive moment in our history. We perhaps shall not see the likes of him again.
Clint Eastwood has given us here more than he may know. He has given Polish Americans – truly all Americans – a legend.
It is a time now to pause and remember our fathers and mothers and to honor them as this film does, even in its sometimes hard-edged humor. We pray history will.
Cynthia Zawatski
Ashland, Oregoni
LONDON, February 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Gran Torino, which has attained the highest gross at the U.S. box office of any film in legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood's filmography, is set to open in the UK on 25th February, 2009.
Gran Torino has scored US$120 million at the U.S. box office and is still growing. The film is directed by Eastwood, who stars as an iron-willed Korean War veteran who is forced by his immigrant neighbors to confront his own long-held prejudices.
The film's U.S. gross tops the list of pictures directed by and/or starring Eastwood, including In the Line of Fire (US$102m), the Oscar-winning Unforgiven (US$101m) and Million Dollar Baby (US$100m), Space Cowboys (US$90m), Every Which Way But Loose (US$85m), Mystic River (US$90m) and The Bridges of Madison County (US$71.5m).
In the U.S., Gran Torino opened for a three-week limited run, during which it landed on a number of year-end ten best lists, with Eastwood's performance and the film's screenplay winning awards from the National Board of review, among other accolades. The film expanded to general release on January 9 and raced to the top of the weekend box office, earning a record-breaking $29.5m and becoming the biggest-ever opening for an Eastwood film as well as the biggest-ever 3-day January opening.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Double Nickel Entertainment, a Malpaso Production, Gran Torino. The film is directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Nick Schenk, story by Dave Johannson & Nick Schenk. Eastwood, Robert Lorenz and Bill Gerber are the producers, with Jenette Kahn, Adam Richman, Tim Moore and Bruce Berman serving as executive producers. The film stars Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley, John Carroll Lynch, Brian Haley, Geraldine Hughes, Brian Howe and William Hill.
The creative behind-the-scenes team is led by Eastwood's longtime collaborators: director of photography Tom Stern, production designer James J. Murakami, editors Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, and costume designer Deborah Hopper. The music is by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens, orchestrated and conducted by Lennie Niehaus. The title song for "Gran Torino" is performed by British jazz singer/pianist Jamie Cullum and Don Runner. It was co-written by Eastwood; Cullum; the director's son, Kyle Eastwood; and Kyle's writing partner, Michael Stevens.
Gran Torino is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. http://www.grantorinomovie.co.uk
Note To Editors.Gran Torino will platform at The Odeon Leicester Square from 20th February, 2009
Si, dans un siècle, on veut expliquer qui était Clint Eastwood, voilà le film qu'il faudra montrer
If, a century from now, someone wants to explain who Clint Eastwood was, this is the film that ought to be shown.
Catherine Hiegel joined the Comédie-Française (the French national theater) in 1969 and has worked there ever since. She's the doyenne of French actors, and has also worked as a director. Now she's going to see Gran Torino.
"I don't really care what the film's about. I'm going to see it for Clint. Like everyone, I loved his action films, when he played Western heros, avengers of the oppressed ... And then came The Bridges of Madison County. What shocked me was the acceptance of his age. It's very rare to find an actor who accepts aging, who shows his body, its weaknesses ... People who accept their age as a plus, rather than as a minus, that touches me. And the end of the film, when he leaves ... I love to cry in the movies, like a schoolgirl. I cried during Million Dollar Baby. But there, it was a fountain! I wasn't fit to be looked at. When I left, I stared at the ground so people wouldn't see my eyes.
You could be forgiven – though probably not by the man himself – for doubting whether Clint Eastwood is really an actor. With a range that’s not so much limited as, let’s say, specialist, Eastwood is at once an irresistible force and unmovable object, rooted in the screen like a gnarly, unbendable tree. More than any Hollywood actor alive, he is what he is.
And Eastwood is most what he is when directing himself. I have huge respect for his films in which he chooses not to appear, but it’s hard to feel much love for them. When he’s in front of his own camera, that’s another matter – and I’d take even a dud Eastwood-shoots-Eastwood film, such as the daft thriller Absolute Power, over one of the academic prestige pieces he makes when wearing his auteur Stetson: earnest, tendentious stuff like the recent Changeling.
In Gran Torino – which he’s said will be his final role – Eastwood is back on both sides of the lens, and that’s always good for him: he knows how to expend the least energy necessary in the two jobs. Not that there’s anything remotely Zen about his performance here: the intensity is always visible, but it’s all tightly contained around his jaw and neck muscles. In one scene, Eastwood’s character loses patience with his family and he just snarls at them. The camera closes in around his head and shoulders; the brows knit like tensed cable; the teeth clench and he emits a growl, a proper get-away-from-my-kennel growl, like the bulldog in Tom and Jerry. In fact, if Eastwood had done nothing but give close-ups of himself as a growling head, Gran Torino would still have been riveting. As it is, he’s turned in a terrific, taut, no-frills drama, with the kind of provocative social content that we’ve come to expect from Hollywood’s most unpredictable conservative liberal (or liberal conservative).
Written by Nick Schenk (story credit shared by Dave Johannson), Gran Torino has been read by some as Eastwood’s belated reparation for the vigilante ethic he embodied in Dirty Harry – although as a thoughtful humanist, Eastwood the director balanced the books long ago. But certainly, Walt Kowalski offers a sour portrait of how a Harry Callahan might end up. Throughout, the film seems to cater to the old-school Eastwood fans, who would love to see a cussed old white conservative getting his gun and sorting out the whole damn hell-in-a-handcart situation of America today. Several scenes give us just that, the fearless patriarch seeing off African-American and Asian gangs alike with his contemptuous glare: nothing less than an ancient God of Disapproval.
In the end, things build up to the showdown, Walt’s personal OK Corral. Gran Torino is, of course, a contemporary Western, although the Wild Frontier is no longer an America under construction, but an urban America that’s been allowed to fall into disrepair by successive governments.
However, the film proves to be about alternatives to prejudice and vigilantism: as in his great 1992 Western Unforgiven, Eastwood has made a sometimes violent film that is also a disavowal of violence. Gran Torino is also a modest anatomy of American racism. Admittedly, the Asian characters play a largely instrumental part in correcting Walt’s complexes, and you can’t deny the stereotyping: studious son, hip sassy daughter… But at least the film takes a genuine interest in its ethnic background: when did a Hollywood movie last bone up on the Hmong? And in fairness, the stereotyping works across the board, with white suburbanites coming off worst: Walt’s bland bourgeois son and sullen granddaughter with her nose ring and mobile. But Eastwood might reply that all this is less stereotyping, more getting the job done with a couple of basic brush strokes – and who would argue?
As usual when he’s also acting, Eastwood’s direction is brisk, clean cut, to the point: a let-me-show-you-how-it’s-done-godammit sort of job. The film’s prosaic look is spot-on: photographed by Tom Stern, this sleepy suburban backwater, with its dried-up front lawns, has the look of an abandoned war zone, faded khaki tones suggesting that combat could erupt at any moment.
Eastwood is one of the handful of veteran Hollywood leading men who have dared to be old on screen, as opposed to acting the lovable old-timer. Like Wayne, Mitchum, Newman before him, Eastwood turns in a late performance that shows how the ornery young hero becomes a dyspeptic old sod. He nicely leavens the severity with self-deprecating humour, but Walt’s grouchiness, verging on the sociopathic, isn’t just for amusing effect: it embodies a character sharply defined by a good script. Walt’s loathing of his own family, his reluctance to reveal his more complex emotions, the psychic damage he’s sustained from horrors both witnessed and perpetrated in Korea – all this is complex stuff that the script specifies, but that Eastwood fleshes out, for the most part with little more than a scowl and a simmer. And minimalism of that kind really is great screen acting.
Are there any films you've done in your career that you regret?
(A pause.) I'm not the sort to regret anything. That's not my mentality. There are some films I might perhaps do differently today. Particularly the ones I made in the 1980s. Simply because I probably hadn't investigated their subjects thoroughly enough.
Clint Eastwood says he is sick of political correctness and believes the world would be a better place if people could laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races once more.
In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, the 78-year-old said people now lived in constant fear of being accused of verbally treading on people's toes, adding: ' The people have lost their humour.'
Mr Eastwood, who plays a racist character in his new film, claims that political correctness has gone too far.
He said; 'We, in former times, constantly made jokes about different races.
'You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist.
'I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a "Sam the Jew" or "José the Mexican" - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought.
'It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem.
'I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.'
Mr Eastwood was a child during the Great Depression of the 1930's in America and recalls that it 'didn't do our family any good at all.'
He went on: 'We moved every few months because my father constantly lost his job. We did not have much and learned to get along with little.
'If we didn't have a toy we played with bits of wood or old cigar boxes we found somewhere. You had to develop ideas in order to survive.
'People then took fate more into their own hands; today we expect the state to take care of everything.
'I find it really presumptuous that some people compare this crisis with the depression of the 30's. I'm no expert, but that was much more dramatic.'
Mr Eastwood says he is not as euphoric as some of his countrymen about President Obama and believes that the high hopes people have invested in him may prove impossible to realise.
When asked if he is overrated, Mr Eastwood replied: 'Time will tell.'
The screen veteran's latest movie is Gran Torino, in which he plays an embittered Korean War veteran taking on gangs destroying his neighbourhood.
His next project is to make the movie of the Graham Greene classic The Human Factor.
SPIEGEL: Will the role of Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino be your last performance as an actor?
Eastwood: Ah, I said that after Million Dollar Baby. Perhaps it really was my last role. I'll let myself be surprised. There aren't so incredibly many exciting roles for old men. Sure, I could probably play a butler somewhere or other, but I'm only interested in roles where the character undegoes a transformation. If I come across another one like that, I'll be happy to stand before the camera again. Otherwise, I'm very content to remain behind it.
:) " People should be able to laugh at jokes about different races, says Clint Eastwood "
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1155360/People-able-laugh-jokes-different-races-says-Clint-Eastwood.html?ITO=1490
Clint Eastwood believes the rise of political correctness is no laughing matter. He says the world would be a better place if we could still laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races. The Hollywood actor and director, 78, said we live in constant fear of being labelled racist for simply laughing about national stereotypes.
'People have lost their sense of humour,' he told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. 'In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist. I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a "Sam the Jew" or "Jose the Mexican" - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem.
''I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.'
His comments come in a week in which BT suspended 30 call centre staff after they had circulated an Irish joke by email. BT, however, insists other serious matters were involved and that a joke was not the sole reason for the suspensions.
His next project is to make the movie of the Graham Greene classic The Human Factor.
Eastwood strutted into the American consciousness in the 1950s in the TV series Rawhide and a string of big-screen Westerns. He caught the tail-end of the uncomplicated Us vs Them cowboy flicks where the Indians were evil, scalping savages who had to be destroyed by the white heroes. The films were gorgeous, romantic accounts of a genocide, told adoringly from the perspective of the genocidaires. The attitude of the genre was typified by John Wayne's jeer: "I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them... the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."
I moved Right Turn Clyde's post, above, here from the "Minor Mentions" thread (just as a reminder, that thread is basically for items that mention Clint incidentally but are not entirely about him).
It's one of the stupidest, most ill-informed articles I've ever read about Eastwood and his films. The guy seems never to have seen an Eastwood film before Unforgiven; it's his notion that Eastwood spent the first four decades of his film career doing nothing but "cursing liberals, shooting down suspects, and slaying Injuns on screen." He describes his Westerns in the following terms:
Does this sound like any Eastwood film YOU'VE ever seen? ???
Say, I have an idea ... let's pool our resources and send him a brand-new DVD of The Outlaw Josey Wales ... maybe THAT would do some good. ;)
" People should be able to laugh at jokes about different races, says Clint Eastwood "
At 78, Clint Eastwood still likes to play the tough guy but he is also a doting father and a champion of great female roles have a theory about Clint Eastwood, but that's no big deal: everyone has. Even The New Yorker's legendary film critic Pauline Kael - a legend among film critics, if not among real legends like Eastwood - had a theory, and she passionately hated his work. Having once described his Dirty Harry movies as “medieval fascism”, she later wrote that there was no reason to feel embarrassed by anything Eastwood did: “He's so hollow you don't have to feel a thing.” Eastwood's imagination was violent and heartless. Even his Oscar-winning 1992 western, Unforgiven, read by many as a brilliantly subversive adieu to the genre that made his name, had “hornswoggled” the critics. “It was,” she said, “another western in which you were a pacifist until it's necessary for you to start shooting.”
Kael rarely wrote a stupid word but I hope, had she lived, that she might, in the past five years, have eaten some of the above. In his eighth decade his work has matured beyond measure: Million Dollar Baby, an apparently formulaic movie about a female boxer, veers into the dark territory of euthanasia (it won best picture Oscar, and, for Eastwood, best director); his compassionate diptych on the war in the Pacific, Flags of Our Fathers and, from the Japanese side, Letters from Iwo Jima, drains all the colour from heroism; last year's Changeling, for which Angelina Jolie has just missed out on an Oscar, was a Kafkaesque missing-child drama in which the unflinching protagonist was a woman.
Now comes Gran Torino. I won't give away its ending, and it is not a western, but Kael's line about being a pacifist until it's necessary to start shooting is precisely reversed in Gran Torino. In it, Eastwood, who directs himself, plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet whose neighbourhood goes to hell - in his embarrassing opinion - with the arrival of Hmong immigrants. Eventually, Walt discovers that his Asian neighbours make a much better family than his own. ...
His tanned face is 15 years younger than it looks on screen. That cyst above his mouth which can look tuberous enlarged on the screen, is barely visible. Eastwood is not only ageing well, but obviously good at ageing up. The question is whether Eastwood has wised up, caught up with the critical re-evaluations of his “meaning”. His education, fractured by his family moves round California in search of work during the Depression, may have left him with a fear of intellectuals, but for a long time now, Eastwood, who now has five Oscars that bear his name, has attracted the attention not only of the Academy but the “academy”.
Christopher Frayling, rector of the Royal College of Art who has written books on Eastwood and Sergio Leone, the director of his early spaghetti westerns, sees Gran Torino as an “interrogation” of the revenge ethic of the Dirty Harry movie. Eastwood, he thinks, made Gran Torino in the spirit John Wayne made The Shootist, a film in which the fantasy shootouts of his career were trumped by the reality of the protagonist's terminal cancer. The theory has much going for it. Walt too, we may note, coughs up blood. Another critic identified Walt Kowalski as “Dirty Harry gone mangy, even rabid.” The trouble is Eastwood denies that Kowalski is even a distant relative of Dirty Harry Callahan and gives every impression that he has not seen The Shootist for a very long time.
“I don't know about that,” he drawls. “I know everyone is trying to make it analogous to something. I have played guys who are hard-ass characters before - but what I liked about the character of Walt is that he had somewhere to go, to change. And I also like the comments about the young generations trying to get the old people into assisted living schemes so they can put them out of the way.” ...
“Every one of these films seems to have elements of family or searching for family,” Eastwood agrees. “Even as far back as The Outlaw Josey Wales [in 1976] there was a man building a family around him and in Bronco Billy [1980] I was building a family out of an obsolete Wild West show. There is a family element that takes place in all these pictures and I guess if I was writing about myself I would point out that was an ongoing thing.”
He pauses, just as it is getting interesting. “But I don't write about myself and I try not to think too much about myself either.”
The reason that may be is that it would be too painful. Only his children can say how good a father he was, but he failed most of them in the crucial respect of remaining faithful to their mothers. The exception is Dina, his current wife and mother to his 11-year-old daughter, who married him knowing he already had six children by four women. His unauthorised biographer, Patrick McGilligan, calls this a “conservative estimate”. After all, Eastwood's oldest daughter Kimber - born to an extra on his Sixties TV horse opera Rawhide while he was married to his first wife, Maggie Johnson - was publicly acknowledged as his only in 1989. His personal life may be stable now, and he credits Dina for weaving his children into an extended family, but for decades it was chaos.
A critic, I remind him, called Million Dollar Baby “close to a confession from a man who doubts if he has been an ideal father”. He looks me in the eye, but not as if he is about to take aim. “I don't know about the parenting not being ideal. Every family has its problems and some people are better at it than others, but no one is an expert. There are people who are very good at it but there is no book on how to be really good. It is trial and error. Everybody has things they would do differently if they could get to redo it.”
Is he a strict father? “I don't have to be because my wife is so strict. Consequently my youngest daughter is always saying, ‘Daddy is the only one who understands me'. So we laugh about that a lot, my wife and I.” ...
His recollection picture recalls Changeling, the Twenties-set film based on the true story of a boy abducted after being left alone by his working mother, Christine Collins. Was Ruth Eastwood at all like her, dignified, elegant, but determined? “Yes, pretty much. She didn't look like Angelina Jolie. My mother was attractive and the real Christine Collins was not unattractive - but she was not like Angelina Jolie either.”
Few women are, we agree. In fact, Jolie's casting is exceptional for an Eastwood movie. Although Eastwood has often had affairs with members of his cast - leading ladies have included his long-term lovers, Sondra Locke and Frances Fisher - he has repeatedly hired actresses who are not, by Hollywood standards, glamorous. The unconventional looks of Ahney Her, the Asian teenager in Gran Torino, follow Hilary Swank's in Million Dollar Baby, Kay Lenz's in Breezy and Jessica Walter's in his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me. He says “picking a babe” would have sent Gran Torino in a different direction. ...
And my theory? It is that, whatever Pauline Kael believed, there has been more thought and care and cunning in Clint Eastwood's films than there has been in his life. Originally, the movies took his fantasies for a canter, now they rein them in. Art, as we know, is there to re-order life until it makes sense; in his case there was much to re-order. But that's just my theory. As I now accept, The Man with No Name remains The Man with No Theory.
Gran Torino is out now on general release.
LONDON, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Gran Torino, which has attained the highest gross at the U.S. box office of any film in legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood's filmography, is also a career best in the UK with the biggest three-day opening of his career. Gran Torino made GBP1,351,278 in the UK this weekend. In Ireland, where after its second weekend the film remains at the top of the box office, Gran Torino has accrued GBP729,768, losing only 14% box office share week on week.
Gran Torino has scored $138 million at the U.S. box office and is still growing. The film is directed by Eastwood, who stars as an iron-willed Korean War veteran who is forced by his immigrant neighbors to confront his own long-held prejudices.
The film's U.S. gross tops the list of pictures directed by and/or starring Eastwood, including In the Line of Fire ($102m), the Oscar-winning Unforgiven ($101m) and Million Dollar Baby ($100m), Space Cowboys ($90m), Every Which Way But Loose ($85m), Mystic River ($90m) and The Bridges of Madison County ($71.5m).
In the U.S., Gran Torino opened for a three-week limited run, during which it landed on a number of year-end ten best lists, with Eastwood's performance and the film's screenplay winning awards from the National Board of review, among other accolades. The film expanded to general release on January 9 and raced to the top of the weekend box office, earning a record-breaking $29.5m and becoming the biggest-ever opening for an Eastwood film as well as the biggest-ever 3-day January opening.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Double Nickel Entertainment, a Malpaso Production, Gran Torino. The film is directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Nick Schenk, story by Dave Johannson & Nick Schenk. Eastwood, Robert Lorenz and Bill Gerber are the producers, with Jenette Kahn, Adam Richman, Tim Moore and Bruce Berman serving as executive producers. The film stars Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley, John Carroll Lynch, Brian Haley, Geraldine Hughes, Brian Howe and William Hill.
The creative behind-the-scenes team is led by Eastwood's longtime collaborators: director of photography Tom Stern, production designer James J. Murakami, editors Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, and costume designer Deborah Hopper. The music is by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens, orchestrated and conducted by Lennie Niehaus. The title song for "Gran Torino" is performed by British jazz singer/pianist Jamie Cullum and Don Runner. It was co-written by Eastwood; Cullum; the director's son, Kyle Eastwood; and Kyle's writing partner, Michael Stevens.
Gran Torino is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. http://www.grantorinomovie.co.uk
At the age of 78, Clinton Eastwood Jr, plain Clint to his generations of fans, is still young enough for a run at the US presidency. Instead, that stint as mayor of Carmel aside, the four-time Oscar winner is content to leave politics to the suits and go on making films, Gran Torino being his latest.Yet this is part of the charm of Gran Torino. Eastwood is a straight- shooter among filmmakers. That's not to say he can't weave a complex story or handle difficult ideas.Quote
You only need to watch his majestic Second World War dramas, Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, to see he can match any young filmmaker for depth and creative vision.
Gran Torino is hand-crafted, traditionally fashioned filmmaking, as opposed to the flashy, machine-tooled fare on offer elsewhere.
Respectful of its audience and its actors, it doesn't take the viewer anywhere awe-inspiring, but you are glad to have come along on such a smooth ride.
Eastwood admirers will have noticed a Gran Torino-shaped hole in the Oscars this year, with not a single nomination for the movie.
For now, his filmmaking style is out of fashion, with Academy voters preferring the flash of Slumdog Millionaire or the pomposity of The Reader. In America, however, Gran Torino has given Eastwood his biggest box office hit to date.
British audiences, feeling lucky because it's Clint, will follow.
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- Memo to Hollywood: Tom Stratman didn't quite use up his 15 seconds of fame.
The 62-year-old Vienna Township resident has some "extra" time, in a manner of speaking.
Along with his wife, Sharon, Stratman garnered some degree of local celebrity after being seen on screen in the critically acclaimed film "Gran Torino" -- starring Clint Eastwood, who also wrote and directed the film.
Rubbing elbows with the screen legend, if only as an $85-per-day extra, made his day.
"Clint couldn't remember his lines to save his butt," joked Stratman, who said that Eastwood greeted everyone in the morning -- extras and all. "But, he was the director and producer, so probably wasn't studying his lines much.
"I think I knew his lines better than he did by the time it was done -- there were a lot of takes."
Stratman's niece Jessica Judd, who works in the business as a screenwriter, and her husband, Mike, an associate director, encouraged him to take part in the Detroit-based production.
"They told me that this was the first film they've seen where everyone was the same," said Stratman, who has already seen the film three times. "Clint ate lunch with us, dinner with us, in the same room. ... They said that they had never seen that before. They were right there with us."
Stratman, an Eastwood fan all his life, said he could look Dirty Harry right in the eyes -- Eastwood wasn't as tall as he had imagined.
But, he was all gentleman.
"It was fantastic. I have never seen so many cords, cameras, and lighting. I had no idea what they go through to make movies," she said.
Sharon is, however, certain about two things: "Gran Torino" was hosed out of an Oscar, and Eastwood is a real stud.
"I loved the movie, and I can't believe it didn't win an Academy Award," she said. "I missed myself totally the first time I saw it because I was so engrossed in it.
"(Eastwood) looks fantastic. He's in really good shape. He's so down-to-earth. I would do it again in a minute."
Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" placed No. 3, cuming a handy $11.6 million, and beating "Watchmen" in Spain and France. Eastwood is sometimes even more popular overseas than in the U.S. -- "Changeling" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" grossed more abroad than at home.
"Torino" enjoyed the best bow for an Eastwood-helmed feature ever in Gaul, and was only off 21% in its second frame. In its first 10 days, pic has grossed $10.9 million in France.
Based on film's initial results overseas, Warners is already predicting that "Torino" will become Eastwood's highest grossing pic at the international box office, eclipsing the $127 million international total for "Million Dollar Baby."
Bookers in Spain had upbeat expectations for "Torino," but no one foresaw the level of business. "Torino" grossed $2.7 million off a moderate print count of 235. Per-location average of $11,421 was the best of any film since "Hancock's" $12,231 in July 2008.
"A key factor was the announcement by Eastwood that this was his last performance in a movie," one distrib noted.
$138 million in the U.S. now! Pretty good. I hadn't checked in a while.
By Jeff B. Cohen, Esq.
Friday the 13th grosses $43.6 million in its opening weekend, the most ever for a slasher pic! Gran Torino grosses $29 million to win the weekend and become Clint Eastwood's biggest nationwide opening of all time! What does this really mean? How does a film make money? It's important to understand thoroughly the economics of your profession, so let's take a look. Films are commonly distributed in the following ways: theatrical release, nontheatrical release, DVD and videocassette, Internet, video on demand, pay television, and free television. In addition, income is often generated from merchandise related to the movie and the release of a soundtrack CD.
It seems a joke to say that Gran Torino isn't a project that came from Clint Eastwood's mind, who says he has kept all the structure of the script written by the beginner Nick Schenk. The distribution of the themes, the relation of Walt Kowalski with the community where he lives and his notions of values and of the world, the impressive comprehension of the classicist model of movies _ which the director still is one of a few remaining _, everything seems have been methodically planned by him like a specie of meeting point of big part of the elements that in those 40 years of career made part of his cinematographic universe.
There are a whirlwind of themes being discussed in a little less than 2 hours of movie, in a exemplar model of reconstituition of values worked in movies, of classic directors like John Ford and especially Samuel Fuller. Eastwood goes step by step dismembering the influences from one and another as a way of finding a perfect balance of his own moviemaking, impersonating in some moments, an intense morale of adjusting debts to himself. The concept of community and memories of Ford, are the basis to the construction of that situation, which, as it goes closing the circle, it turns into a "fullerian" battlefield, especially because of the insignificance of the relations between the ethnic groups _ made for gangs and closed groups.
But Gran Torino is all constructed above a specific sign: Clint Eastwood body. Often filmed in stylized close-ups and shots that evidence the passage of the years to Kowalski _ and also to the actor _ ,with no reservations, Clint's face brings in its wrinkles an always impressive and overwhelming dramatic depth. For all the violence scenes effectively showed througout the movie, the real toughness in Gran Torino is in Eastwood eyes, in his mannerisms and in the way he deals with extremely delicate situations _ always defined by the trauma of someone who had to deal with violence and ended up having his vision of the world reavaliated by it.
It can be found out there some strong complaints about two aspects of Gran Torino: the amount of cliches of the script and the actors that work directly with Clint in the "key" moments of the movie. About the actors, I consider unfair, since as Cory Hardrict as all the others, held the task very well.
The ending is the definitive desconstruction of his mythologic figure, as well the mytho of "hero". We could say that it is a planned ending for what until today we understand by "Eastwoodian", the fact of his next movie is a biography of Mandela, give us freedom to suppose something like that but it still too early to be sure. Anyway, it's known that Eastwood has decided close his career as an actor with this character, which it seems to me a very right decision _ it's amazing how knowing this leave the final moments an even bitter taste.
Finally, is almost impossible hold the tears when you start listening Clint's voice performing the song theme, while the final credits shows up on the screen. The ultimate Eastwood movie.
If Marvel Comics are looking to relaunch The Incredible Hulk franchise for film, I’d urge them to cast Clint Eastwood as the big green one. It may not seem sensible to base a series reboot around a 78-year-old man who’s more eager to concentrate on directing rather than acting again, but look to Eastwood’s latest masterpiece Gran Torino and you’ll see that Eastwood is perfect for the part. ...
Having failed to kick-start a franchise with both the Ang Lee’s 2003 effort Hulk (with Eric Bana playing Bruce Banner) and Louis Letterier’s The Incredible Hulk (with Ed Norton in the title role), giving Eastwood a run at the comic legend could prove fruitful. The screen legend could not only portray the strain of the eponymous hero but would also no doubt make an excellent choice of director, delivering a bold film that powerfully conveys the rugged individualism of an alienated masculine hero who serves an American society that’s nevertheless indifferent to him. ...
Superhuman in his continued stamina, his filmmaking and his physical performance then, it’s a pleasure to see all aspects apparently undiminished in Gran Torino. And the film isn’t just enjoyable as a potent and thought-provoking story but also great fun as Clint concocts a movie with great comedy and scenes of cathartic violence and conflict that put a fair few so-called ‘action’ movies from recent times to shame. With this kind of awareness and such ability at skilfully balancing brains and brawn, something in the region of The Incredible Hulk or Superman would, I’d say, really benefit from Eastwood’s involvement. ...
If you're making a Hollywood movie and want to please the audience, beat up a bully.
Clint Eastwood has made a whole career out this rule. Dirty Harry was a no-nonsense bully beater-upper. Clint's more subtle in Gran Torino, but he's still giving bullies their comeuppance.
The School District of Palm Beach County emphatically does not endorse the Hollywood script.
Imagine you're a teacher walking across a middle school campus. You see one kid slam another against the lockers. What should you do?
If you follow the Hollywood script, you grab the offender by the scruff of the neck and growl: "Do you want to try that again? Go ahead, make my day."
Then the gruff teacher would give the bullied kid boxing lessons and, in the movie's big payoff scene, the former victim would beat the living hell out of the bully.
But that's not the script at Palm Beach County schools. ...
Box-office
Business - Vendredi 20 Mars 2009
Le "Gran Torino" de Clint Eastwood reste en tête du box-office français pour la troisième semaine consécutive avec plus de 400 000 nouvelles entrées et un total proche des 2 millions de spectateurs. Impressionnant.
Film Entrées Culmul
1. Gran Torino 407 388 1 929 478
4. Marley & moi 183 238 541 215
5. Slumdog Millionaire 178 614 1 900 197
6. Watchmen 167 524 544 759
7. Harvey Milk 133 966 369 212
The name of the movie suggests a kind of lenghty film based on electronic games of car races. Who imagine that isn't so wrong since Gran Torino is in fact, a legendary car model from Ford that was a hit in the 70's and until today is worshipped by old cars collectors. But the function of the car inside the Clint melodrama, has nothing to do with roads. It works as a double visual metaphor. Inside the fictional world, it is the object that defines Walt Kowalski personality, a bitter veteran who hates the world and is the main character of the story. In real life, the car joins qualities that personify his own actor/director career - classic, efficient, strong, dynamical - and defines very well the movie itsef.
It's worth reminding, one more time, the surprising trajectory of Eastwood, an average actor of westerns and violent cop movies that started as director in the 70's and built a solid and diversified work like a very few artists of his generation. It has been about two decades, Clint has made movies with a impressive quickness (sometimes even two by year, as happened in 2008 when the star turned 78 years old), almost always good quality movies, some of them true master-pieces. Besides, any other moviemaker has re-evaluated critically the own career - and why not, the own life - with the same serenity than him. Gran Torino is a genuine model of the simple, honest and moving cinema that Eastwood has presented the audience in 40 years of movie-making.
Gran Torino shows several themes from the late Clint work. Attentive fans will notice big similarity with the Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby(2004). Both movies have as central axle an unwonted friendship relation between a hopeless old man played by the director himself, and another young one, not understood by his family. However, in Gran Torino there is a inversion of roles. In this one, the main lead is the older character not the young one, as happened in Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood character is basically a variation of the boxer trainer: an out of date, lonely, misogyn person that built a barrier between himself and the world - a barrier runned down by the most improbable character (in this case an asian descendant) with who he constructs a genuine father/son relationship and which he uses as a way to set up things of his past.
The car is the element that approaches him to the family of asian immigrants that live in the house next to him (the fact Kowalski has fought in the Korea war isn't mere coincidence, of course) The movie-maker introduces a lament so in target about the lack of perspective of the youth nowadays, and broachs, one more time, the family issues that left marks in his own history and opens generous space to those actors stand out with natural and interesting performances - not only Bee Vang and Ahney Her, as well the supporting ones, as Christopher Carley (the young priest) and John Carroll Lynch. The ending isn't one of the best since it's possible anticipate with some facility what is going to happen - the beginning of the third part and the big similarity with Million Dollar Baby impede the movie from becoming one more master-piece in Eastwood career.
For all that, the movie has the legitimate trademark that has marked the spetacular career of this legend of the North-American cinema.
Clint Eastwood is famous for playing outlaws, rogue cops, crusty characters. But the actor’s influence transcends his iconic movie roles through work as a producer, Academy Award-winning director, and in the late 1980s as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.
As a director, Eastwood is viewed as a mentor by many. First-time actor Bee Vang, who plays an Asian immigrant teen in Gran Torino, says he found Eastwood patient and low-key—nothing like the intimidating character he’d grown up watching in Westerns. “I loved every minute working with him,” Vang says. “The whole thing was really life-changing.”
Eastwood, 78, says he likes casting unknown actors when possible. “I do like to give people a break. I like to see new people come along and have opportunities.” He also likes to share his insights to help others, especially students.
“Older people have a lot to contribute. You just never know what you have to offer until you start offering it,” he told interviewers with a Harvard University mentoring project. “What I think the mentor gets is the great satisfaction of helping somebody along, helping somebody take advantage of an opportunity that maybe he or she did not have.”
In his own life, Eastwood credits many mentors, including his maternal grandmother. “She was always encouraging. She always thought I was going to be something when nobody else, including myself, thought I was going to amount to anything.”
:) "Melodrama that resembles Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino is a genuine model of the simple, honest and moving cinema that Eastwood has presented the audience in 40 years of movie-making"
http://www.cinereporter.com.br/criticas/gran-torino/ (http://www.cinereporter.com.br/criticas/gran-torino/)
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It might not have the shelf life of “Go ahead, make my day”, but when Clint Eastwood cocks an M1 rifle and tells a group of gangbangers to “Get off my lawn” in his new film Gran Torino, it is a movie moment about as golden as they come these days. ...
But there’s nothing stereotypical about either Gran Torino or Changeling, which were both nominees at the 2009 Oscars, and he’s currently in South Africa making a sports drama about Nelson Mandela and the South African victory in the Rugby World Cup. ...
Gran Torino opens on March 27.
Is Dirty Harry back from retirement and for one last time? It certainly seems the case with Clint Eastwood's latest film “Gran Torino”, in which he directed, produces and stars in. ...
Eastwood shines as a gravely-voiced, cantankerous old coot with many scores to settle. He has all the best lines and one-liners, spitting them out through gritted teeth, eyes filled with hate. He may be unrelentingly racist and misanthropic but buried beneath all that baggage is a man with a heart of pure solid gold.
It's a treat watching him mellow - but only just a tad! - as he opens his mind and heart to the world around him.
The storyline itself is a gripping one, as we journey with a very flawed but strong individual who does whatever he can to protect not just his turf and his own little world, but also the people he cares about. And you'll get a kick watching this snarling old man standing up to punks one-third his age.
“Gran Torino’s” tender side also arises when Eastwood's character puts aside his bigoted ways to bond with, and teach the rules of life to his socially awkward teenage neighbour. The film, Eastwood’s most successful film ever at the US and UK box offices, also introduces many to the rich culture and beliefs of the Hmong community, which adds more depth to this already well-textured film.
If there are but a handful of movies you're able to catch this year, make “Gran Torino” one of your main picks. It's grim, edgy, humbling, and it's unforgettable. It'll make your day.
Gran Torino poised to cross $70m internationally with Mexico launch
Jeremy Kay in Los Angeles
26 Mar 2009 20:34
Gran Torino should march on towards the $70m mark this weekend through strong holdover business and a debut in Mexico on March 27 through Warner Bros Pictures International.
Clint Eastwood’s drama has reached $63.9m to date and crossed $210m worldwide and its prospects are looking formidable with roughly two-thirds of international markets yet to open.
CLINT Eastwood gets away with it every time. He doesn’t act so that anyone notices; his performance is so weirdly ironic that he comes across as a self-referential cultural joke; his one-liners have their own register on the clunk-scale. And yet it feels like a treat every time.
Grouchy doesn’t begin to describe his character, Walt Kowalski, a relic from an era when Made in America was the gold standard of motoring value and Asians were “gooks” and “swamp-rats”.
If you’re sensitive about racist language, take a happy pill with you, because every sentence is laced with it. Some of it is mean, some of it falls in the category of banter, and ultimately, given the film’s message, it ceases to give offence.
So Walt is a racist, an old-school American who has passed his sell-by date and finds himself marooned in a neighbourhood once white but now mixed Asian, Mexican and African-American. The Gran Torino of the title is a 1972 Ford he keeps in pristine condition, a symbol of the world as it should be, without foreigners, death or decay.
But as much as he tries to stand apart from his neighbours, he gets dragged into a gangland feud involving the local Hmong community, flotsam from the Vietnam war seeking a future in the land of opportunity. Slowly, and implausibly, Walt, who is alienated from his own family, takes the neighbours’ son, Thao (Bee Vang), under his wing. He calls him “Toad” and “pussy” just to show he doesn’t really care, but of course he does.
The pace of the film is at times tediously slow, and that is perhaps the fault of the expectation that everything will erupt in a Dirty Harry climax.
There’s no question that Gran Torino is a giant nod to Eastwood’s iconic character, but the end, when it finally comes, makes a statement that undercuts that legacy and its era. The theme of reconciliation and self-sacrifice takes the place of vengeful self-righteousness that defines the vigilante genre, and of which Eastwood was one of its greatest exponents.
It’s best to define Eastwood as a force of nature. There’s nothing subtle or elegant or neat about him. But there’s a wisdom, and astuteness born of longevity, that carries him as an actor and a director, and allows one to forgive what is rough and awkward. A conclusion much like the film reaches.
This is a fine film about the development of respect – and liking – for ethnic differences. It’s all about morals and manliness, too – and who gets the Gran Turino in the end .
The Gran Torino which stands so proud, sporty and symbolic in the garage of Walt Kowalski's rudimentary Michigan home was - we learn - assembled in 1972 on an American assembly line by American hands. Walt (Clint Eastwood) was on that line: it represents a deep attachment to a past when he was in his prime, and which has been overturned by time and immigration.
The Gran Torino which stands so proud, sporty and symbolic in the garage of Walt Kowalski's rudimentary Michigan home was - we learn - assembled in 1972 on an American assembly line by American hands. Walt (Clint Eastwood) was on that line: it represents a deep attachment to a past when he was in his prime, and which has been overturned by time and immigration.
A foul-mouthed, misanthropic, racist, homophobic recluse, he is drawn into battle only when his manhood is challenged. He calls one girl "Yum Yum".
If that were simply it, one would expect a reprise of the legendary Spaghetti Westerns and Dirty Harry franchise that made his name. Yet, as Kowalski, Eastwood reveals a deep passion for freedom and decency - even in the final confrontation, he is restrained by his guilt over having killed a soldier who wished to surrender, for which he was awarded for valour, and a core conviction that to slay a man - even in war - is "the worst thing in the world".
It's a film that provokes reflection without sacrificing the dramatic expectations of Eastwood fans: far better and more subversive than most seem to have given it credit for.
So has the film's theatrical run ended? I checked Box office Mojo, and the last day they have a total for it is April 2 ($145,968,873).Aw, no, its run hasn't ended. I just saw it's been updated.
You can take Clint Eastwood out of the "Dirty Harry" movies, but you can't take Dirty Harry out of ol' Clint. So it would seem upon viewing "Gran Torino," an Eastwood-directed film in which the 79-year-old plays a tough retiree who goes vigilante to take on gangbangers terrorizing his neighborhood.
Gran Torino Rating: (4.5 out of 5)
By GIOVANNI FAZIO
Back in the day, Eastwood's rogue cop, "Dirty" Harry Callahan, was a snarling avenger who would stare down the barrel of his massive Magnum .44 and contemptuously dare some low-life to "go ahead, make my day." Audiences loved it not just because Clint had perfected steely menace, but because people were tired of all the crime and craziness of the inner city and the supposed liberal mollycoddling that let the muggers and junkies run wild. It was no coincidence that in many of these films the lowlifes were minorities. (Harry himself, was a guy who equated "the minority community" with "hoods.") Like it or not, the films tapped into a very white sense of insecurity.
On one level, nothing has changed some three decades on. In "Gran Torino," Clint displays the same old line-in-the-sand machismo when he confronts a trio of homeboys looking to rape a young girl. Whipping out a handgun, he snarls: "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while who you shouldn't have f--ked with? That's me."
I'm sure you can hear the audience cheering already, and it's no surprise that "Gran Torino" shot to No. 1 at the U.S. box office: Everybody likes to see jerks get their due. But there's a big difference here too: Clint's vigilante may be fighting Asian gangstas, but he's doing so to protect his Asian neighbors.
You could say "Gran Torino" is a "red-state" character coming to terms with a "blue-state," multicultural America. Clint's retiree, Walt Kowalski, a union man and Korean War vet, lives in a once-proud but now dilapidated blue- collar neighborhood where he's the last white guy on the street. Surrounded by Hmong immigrants from Vietnam and Cambodia, their big families, strange cooking and unfathomable customs all combine to really p-ss him off. He mows his lawn grumbling about "zipperheads" and "gooks," and the American flag that flies from his porch seems like an act of defiance.
When Walt's neighbor, a shy kid named Thao (Bee Vang), tries to steal his pride and joy, a vintage 1972 Gran Torino, Walt gets fired up, pulling out a rifle and daring the gangbangers to make his day.
But when Walt gets to know Thao's sister, Sue (Ahney Her), he rather unexpectedly likes her — she's as cantankerous as he is.
Through Sue, Walt learns that Thao's gangsta cousin forced him to try and steal the car, and Walt takes pity on the boy, trying to put him on the straight and narrow. But Walt soon realizes that as long as those gangbangers are around, Thao and Sue don't have a chance. The eye-for-an-eye realities of gang feuds mean the situation is soon spiraling out of control.
"Gran Torino" is a minor gem of a drama, which delivers laughs, tears, suspense, and those infinitely quotable showdowns, too. Nick Schenk's script does seem to hew close to the formula that worked so well with "Million Dollar Baby" — gruff old-timer slowly warms to younger generation friend, forms a kind of parent-child bond, and has to make a painful decision in the end — but I would argue that "Gran Torino" is even better, as it's less manipulative in making its point.
How long is it before everyone recognizes what a fantastic director Eastwood has matured into? Everyone says Martin Scorsese is a genius, and who's to argue? But if you look at the last decade or so — Eastwood's "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby," and "Flags of Our Fathers" vs. Scorsese's "The Departed," "The Aviator" and "Shine a light" — Eastwood wins hands down. His films are done in more of a classical style, minus the flourishes that define someone like Scorsese. Eastwood will never use 10 shots when one will suffice, and he makes you care about his characters by making them fully alive in a way that has eluded Scorsese since 1993's "Age of Innocence." His narratives are never as straight as they may seem, and bifurcate or veer off into unexpected directions.
With "Gran Torino," Eastwood wrestles with the tension between Catholicism and violence, between ideals and corruption . . . you could say stealing a theme from Scorsese ("Mean Streets" et al). Walt's parish priest (Christopher Carley) engages him in a number of conversations — often quite humorous — about life and death. Digging to the core of Walt's anger, the priest finds old wounds from Walt's wartime service, particularly Walt's belief that blood on one's hands does not easily wash off. What this film makes painfully clear — as does "Mystic River," "Unforgiven," and even "Million Dollar Baby" — is that killing someone is no easy thing, but rather an act with unimaginable consequences. He's no longer making Dirty Harry movies, as Eastwood has moved deeper within, without, and beyond that old persona.
The cult of Clint Eastwood has been quieting down recently. With the commercial failure of his World War II epics Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and the bizarrely cast Changeling (Eastwood reputedly felt the synthetically enhanced features of Angelina's Jolie's face fit the period setting of 1928 perfectly), even diehard Eastwoodites have been edging away from the sort of hysterical praise heaped upon the actor/director, beginning with his 1971 directorial debut Play Misty for Me and culminating with 2004's Oscar magnet, Million Dollar Baby.
Just how did the man establish a reputation as a great director with leaden and muddled pictures like Unforgiven (1992) and Blood Work (2002) under his belt? To many of us - and it must be conceded that our critical views are in the minority - his acclaim is a mystery. However, Eastwood's appeal as an actor is a less mysterious thing, and it's a relief to find him featured prominently in his latest project.
Gran Torino, starring Eastwood as a heavy-drinking retiree recently widowed in a declining working-class neighborhood of Detroit, was passed up by the Academy in the Best Picture and Best Director departments. Nonetheless, the film marks a return to form for the iconic actor.
Fans of Dirty Harry, the Spaghetti Westerns and the tough-guy films that made Eastwood famous will welcome back his signature piercing stare and penchant for pent-up aggression. Even at 78, Eastwood is surprisingly menacing. When he warns a trespasser at the end of a rifle, "I used to stack f@#ks likes you five feet high in Korea, use ya for sandbags," we believe him.
Gran Torino also exhibits a new tendency in Eastwood's otherwise self-conscious oeuvre: humor. The film's distributors misleadingly labeled the picture a drama, an apparent mistake in light of its wry and acerbic wit and tongue-in-cheek offensiveness. One is tempted to call it black comedy, and, were it not for the seriousness of its themes and the bitterness of its ending, the term would probably apply. Perhaps tragicomic is more apt. At any rate, this grim tale of love, loss, violence, retribution and, ultimately, atonement, is surprisingly funny, making good use of well-timed racial slurs and the spectacle of an elderly vigilante in action.
There is some question as to whether all the humorous aspects of the film are intentionally comedic. The choice of an aging muscle car as the story's central symbolic element is a little too peculiar to be taken seriously, and yet it's a very dry joke, indeed, if that's what it is. Certainly one of the most unintentionally hilarious cinematic achievements of the year is the film's regrettable theme song - co-written by Eastwood, and featuring the Great Auteur himself crooning miserably along, a la William Shatner's rendition of "Mr. Tambourine Man." If we aren't laughing with Eastwood here, we are certainly laughing at him as he grinds out painful verses in a muted growl over the credits before singer Jamie Cullum mercifully steps in to relieve him.
Throughout the film, Eastwood flirts with self-mockery as he threatens the life of anyone foolish enough to cross him (Kowalski literally spits out the words, "Go ahead …" at one point, stopping just short of a full homage to his infamous predecessor).
The film's final reels go off the rails a bit in a return to the typical Eastwood shortcomings of lazy plotting and wanton cliché. But it's over quickly enough, and one is left with good impressions of a refreshingly earnest film.
Gran Torino would make an excellent swan song for Eastwood the actor. To the delight of millions and the dismay of a few, however, that seems an unlikely outcome.
Gran Torino also exhibits a new tendency in Eastwood's otherwise self-conscious oeuvre: humor.
Like many characters Clint Eastwood has played in his six-decade screen career, recently widowed Korean War vet Walt Kowalski is a man outside of his own time hurled by circumstance into direct conflict with the present. That transition occurs when the racist Walt steps across the property line in his economically depressed Detroit suburb and into the lives of the Hmong immigrant family next door, including the introverted, teenage boy, Thao (Bee Vang), who, menaced by a local gang, has made an unsuccessful bid at stealing Walt’s car. But if Gran Torino seems at first glance to be a gently un-p.c., geriatric crowd-pleaser of the Space Cowboys variety, it soon becomes clear that Eastwood is merely using the bass line of a butt-kicking Clint Eastwood action movie to play a series of complex variations on his career-abiding themes. “The thing that haunts a man most is what he isn’t ordered to do,” Walt says, and the thing that has long haunted Eastwood is the legacy of American violence and the false heroic myths on which that legacy has been written. For him, romanticized movie violence long ago lost its allure, and at least since Unforgiven (a film that this one in many ways mirrors), the act of killing another human being has been depicted as one that leaves a permanent scar on men’s psyches. In Gran Torino, that strain of investigation reaches its apotheosis in an inversion of Unforgiven’s climactic barroom standoff, a scene that brings the curtain down on Eastwood’s cycle of urban-crime films as hauntingly as the earlier one did on his Westerns.
Thu., May 14, 7 & 9:25 p.m., 2009
... it soon becomes clear that Eastwood is merely using the bass line of a butt-kicking Clint Eastwood action movie to play a series of complex variations on his career-abiding themes.
This idiot may have heard of Clint Eastwood, but his entire knowledge of Eastwood's films, as far as I can discern, was amassed by pausing a few second on an AMC presentation of Dirty Harry as he flipped through the channels on a bored Saturday night. It's clear that Gran Torino is the first film he has ever actually watched by Clint Eastwood.
Have you seen "Gran Torino"? (thanks to the link for the photo. Spoiler alert - big day for spoiler alerts here - Clint Eastwood's character, Kowalski, sacrifices himself to save a neighboring from a gang of thugs. He essentially allows the thugs to murder him in front of many witnesses, ensuring that the gang will be thrown in jail for a long time.
Whenever I hear Roger Clemens speak nowadays, as he did this morning, I think of him as a real-life Walt Kowalski.
Now, it is a profoundly imperfect comparison, for this reason ...
PICKS OF THE WEEK
"Gran Torino" — "Gran Torino" is not only one of Clint Eastwood's best movies (he starred and served as its director), but it is also one of the best films of 2008.
Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a grizzled, cantankerous Korean War veteran and retired autoworker living in a depressed, run-down neighborhood in Detroit, where he is the last white guy on the block.
Surrounded by Asians (of whom Walt isn't too fond), bitter and alone following his wife's death, he spends his days chasing kids off his lawn and working on his most prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino. One day, a teen named Thao attempts to break into Walt's garage to steal the car as part of his initiation into a street gang. He is caught by Walt. When the leader of the gang tries to intimidate Walt, he and his gang are run off by the wellarmed war veteran.
Walt, realizing Thao has no direction in life, takes the boy under his wing and begins to teach him the values of hard work and character. In so doing, Walt realizes he too had become directionless following his wife's death.
"Gran Torino" is a great film
“Gran Torino” Grade A: Clint Eastwood works his magic in a beautiful movie that roars with humanity and humility. Eastwood's Walt Kowalski, racist and bitter, slowly warms up to the Hmong neighbors living next door.
Using his own iconic “Dirty Harry” image, Eastwood satisfies the big-picture craving we have for larger-than-life drama, but he also relishes subverting those conventions.
For all the intensity of the film, the screenplay by Nick Schenk and Dave Johannson is simple in that graceful way that marks hushed, artistic experiences.
WARNER BROS.
Clint Eastwood, right, works his magic in a movie that roars with humanity.
When you get to the closing credits and realize that Eastwood actually sings the title song you’re reminded that “Gran Torino” is infused with every last bit of him. This is very much a Clint show.
Clint Eastwood doesn't care about awards or box office performance: ''I just want to do the stories I want to do.'' And over the past few years he's been on a tear of great stories — Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling and, now, Gran Torino. Eastwood sat down with us to talk about some of the 50-odd films on his résumé. The good, the bad, and even the ones with the orangutan. Here's what he had to say....
On the flight out to St Louis last week I watched Clint Eastwood's lastest film. ...
Walt is a Catholic, but he doesn't have much time for the nice young priest who tries to help him. Eventually they both learn more about life and death and faith and love.
I won't spoil the movie for you, but I highly recommend it to you. You should know that there is some strong language and violence, but overall the film is very redemptive and very positive in its treatment of Catholic themes. It's a deeply human drama, dealing not only with bereavement, but with the shifting of American values, immigration, lack of aspiration for young people, gang culture and the love and loyalty of family. ...
I had no idea how deeply I would be affected by this film until last night when I saw it, and then I couldn't get to sleep until around 4 in the morning. And I have never suffered from insomnia before!
I've long admired Clint Eastwood, going back to his days as Rowdy Yates on the television show, "Rawhide." From "Hang 'Em High" to "Unforgiven," and his days as Dirty Harry on the streets of San Francisco and New Orleans, Clint has always been both a "man's man" and a "woman's man," something that is not easy for an actor (or a director) to pull off. In his role as "Walt Kowalski," a bigoted and recently widowed Korean War veteran who is particular to Pabst beers and an endless supply of cigarettes, Clint embraces this hard-edged Polack in such a way that the viewer is always pulling for him. Even when you are gasping at the racial slurs he tosses at his Hmong neighbors, you know he is doing it out of emotional pain. The man just lost his wife; in addition to that, he is a combat veteran, who has probably been suffering with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) since 1952 when he earned a Medal of Valor. ...
New anti-gang public service television and radio spots will feature Hmong movie star and Twin Cities resident Bee Vang, who starred with Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino."
Sponsored by Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, the spots were designed to keep young people out of gangs. by urging adults and families to talk with kids about youth violence and gang activity. ...
I must start by saying that if you've not seen the movie and don't want to know the ending or even the plot, then you might not want to read further. Otherwise, I invite you to share in this meditation on Clint Eastwood's movie of a year ago, and now on DVD.
Grand Torino is a redemption story. Indeed, though the language may be rough and the violence very much present, it is a spiritually moving movie. Clint Eastwood stars and directs this movie filmed on location here in Metro-Detroit. I wasn't sure what to make of it prior to watching it -- I like Eastwood movies and appreciate his characters who are often silent and misunderstood. ...
Jamie Cullum has had a good summer. There was his appearance at the Glaston-bury festival, where he wowed the afternoon crowds on the Jazz Stage with his reworking of Please Don’t Stop the Music, the hit single by the American R&B singer Rihanna. He also found time to join Spinal Tap for a headbanging collaboration. ...
One thing was his collaboration with Clint Eastwood on the soundtrack to the actor/director’s film Gran Torino, released earlier this year. Cullum has known Eastwood’s son Kyle, a musician, for some time. Kyle lives in Paris and when he is in London often uses Cullum’s small Shepherd’s Bush studio (a bolthole Cullum has given the name Terrified Studios, a reference, he says, to his fear of studio technology) to record and rehearse. Last year Cullum helped Kyle with some other soundtrack work – Cullum took music that Clint Eastwood had composed for the John Cusack film Grace is Gone, married it to lyrics written by Eastwood’s neighbour Carole Bayer Sager, and recorded himself singing it. The plan was to have James Blunt sing the completed song on the Grace is Gone soundtrack.
'But Clint heard my demo and flipped out – “I love this, who is this guy?” ’ A noted jazz enthusiast, Eastwood asked Cullum to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival near his home in California. He then gave Cullum the script to Gran Torino, in which Eastwood was to play the lead character, a grizzled Korean war veteran who thinks his neighbourhood has gone to hell with immigrants. Could Cullum write an original song for the closing credits? 'Clint had the tune roughly worked out, a one-finger piano thing that he had written, and I wrote the lyrics after reading the script and fleshed out the tune with Kyle and his producer.’
Clint Eastwood loved the demo. So much so that he and Cullum ended up duetting on the song – Eastwood’s most notable vocal performance on a film since his duet with Merle Haggard in 1980’s Bronco Billy. A short time later Cullum was in Eastwood’s Bel Air home, 'in his front room, me at the piano, Clint sitting over there, recording our song,’ he says proudly. 'The second take is the one you hear in the movie.’ For co-writing the song Gran Torino, Cullum received a Golden Globe nomination. He was beaten by Bruce Springsteen, but the exposure means '20 or 30 million more people in America know who I am. In terms of offers to do things in America it’s been a massive, massive opportunity for me,’ he adds.
Despite this, it seems that a reaction closer to home has mattered almost more to him. To Cullum, Damon Albarn, the Blur/Gorillaz guru, has always been 'a total hero’, but he always felt like a nervous young pup whenever they met. Then one day earlier this year Cullum was walking down a street in west London, 'and he was coming back from a jog and said, “Hey, Jamie, that Gran Torino thing, nice one! How did you meet Clint?” ’ Cullum then adds with casual pride, 'I got proper respect from Damon Albarn. That was a big deal for me.’ ...
Expert View
Estate Planning, As Told By Clint Eastwood In 'Gran Torino'
Liz Davidson, 06.21.10, 11:10 AM EDT
The right plan will maximize the good you do and minimize taxes.
When I rented the movie Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood, it was because my husband is a fan of the actor-director. Having seen the trailer of an angry old man yelling at people to get off his lawn, I wasn't even expecting to watch the film. But watch I did and came away thinking about life and leaving a legacy, big or small.
Clint Eastwood's character in Gran Torino, Walt Kowalski, helps a teenage neighbor in desperate need by becoming his mentor, though reluctantly at first. The impact this intervention has on the teenage boy, his family and the whole community, is significant. In the end (without giving it all away) his will is read and a special gift is left to the boy. ...
In the end (without giving it all away) his will is read and a special gift is left to the boy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TuRbk-00Sw&feature=related ;D
Don't if it is mentioned before but, I think it is hilarious
" VIDEO – buzz : quand Pixar rencontre Gran Torino ";D
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b52e65ef84/pixar-s-gran-up-torino?rel=player
http://www.premiere.fr/Cinema/News-Cinema/Video/VIDEO-buzz-quand-Pixar-rencontre-Gran-Torino/(gid)/2160394
Gran Torino is a good movie in 2008. It is an American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also stars in the film. The film marks Eastwood's return to a lead acting role after four years, his previous leading role having been in Million Dollar Baby, and Eastwood has stated that this is his final film as an actor. The film features a large Hmong American cast, as well as Eastwood's younger son, Scott Eastwood, playing Trey.stars Clint Eastwood.
It's a compelling tale of unlikely friendship that develops between a bigoted Korean war veteran and an Asian teen who under threat from some gangbangers, tries to steal his car: a cherry 1972 Gran Torino. It's a great movie with good story, so watch it if you have time.
Posted: Aug. 12, 2010
COMMENTARY
How film credit is saving local hotels
BY DUANE M. SWANSON
In the first quarter of 2008, local hotels faced an incredible drop in corporate travel activity. The lack of business travel was forcing our hotel to lay off approximately 15 full-time employees.
Fortunately, film tax-credit legislation was passed in April 2008. ...
The Somerset Inn hosted the cast and crew of Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" during 2008. As a result, all 15 of our employees who would have been on the state's unemployment rolls were working 40 hours a week. ...
Clint Eastwood has a peculiar power in American cinema. Former man's man badass to beat, all star of the Man With No Name westerns, he moved into directing and made his acting a side project, and in return brought us some of the finest American cinema of the past several decades. He's one of the last directors out there who knows how to do a true American classic, and after he's gone we'll have to start all over again.
It isn't as engaging a tale as his other legendary works, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby or even Changeling, but it does have a lot of heart and is something I'd recommend to anyone looking for a really well done film.
I'm not sure why it's there more than two years after the movie's release. ???
Oh my... the other day I was cleaning my computer and found my "yet to be completed" review of Gran Torino, I have been looking at it and have been considering finishing and posting it :-\ :-\
... will you forgive me if I also post my review of Hereafter? ;)
Looking at BoxOfficeMojo.com, it's easy to see why Clint Eastwood is feeling lucky, punk. The venerable actor-director can still rock theatergoers. "Gran Torino," the gritty, thoughtful 2008 drama about an angry Detroit retiree learning to live with his immigrant neighbors, made about $148 million domestically and $121.8 million overseas.