Jan 11 2009
Grand Torino
OMFG…
We had a Ford Grand Torino growing up. It was a station wagon. Growing up Hutch’s Starsky had a Grand Torino, the cool kind, tomato red with a white stripe—we all wish we had. My friend Peach in HS had a blue Grand Torino, it was blue basic, killer engine and stereo system.
The name alone requires anyone from that generation to see this movie. This movie affected me deeply and I just saw it so I’m not sure I should be talking about it yet. I had to wait until all of the credits were over before I even attempted to get out of my seat. When I did stand up I had to rush out to avoid anyone see me losing it.
I don’t know that everyone will react the way I did, I’m still not sure why I reacted the way I did.
If the Sitcom All in the Family was a drama, Clint Eastwood would have been the definitive Archie Bunker character (played by Carroll O’Connor.) Archie was a lovable character regardless of his misguided racially inflammatory ways—he was a victim (he wouldn’t like to be called a victim…) product of his environment or nurture. He was a flawed character that when shown the light had character. That was Norman Lear’s point—transform society by using reverse psychological method.
(More irascible perspective of All in the Family can be read in The End of the World, TG, and Sacrifice.)
This movie is a drama and I can’t ever remember laughing so much during such a deep and culturally complex movie. It was laughing at the slice of life presented versus comedy, be it funny dialog, slapstick, or circumstance.
This is one of Clint Eastwood’s best films… Acting—Clint’s acting was so good I’m still unsure of my footing. Dialog—genius! Storyline—fantastic! Irascibility factor—through the roof!
I can’t explain it just yet and it will have to be revisited, but this could be one of the greatest movies of all time!
Skip work, skip school, skip eating for the day, skip any and all excuses, and make seeing this movie a top priority in your life!
—iChef Cinema
Other voices:
Someone who DIDN’T LIKE the movie (a lot of anger going on here) Wowie! Another perspective I guess: Grand Torino: Clint Eastwood And The White Mans Burde
Mickey Pagels’ Top 10 For 2008
Movie Review: Gran Torino by Ed Morrissey
Gran Torino had at one time been rumored to be the latest sequel to the Dirty Harry series. While that’s not the case, one might conjecture that Harry Callahan and Walt Kowalski might have been fast friends. Kowalski, a Korean War veteran, has the same attitudes towards minorities and the same distance from the people around him. Kowalski has to face off against criminals, like Harry Callahan, but Gran Torino shows that Clint Eastwood has done a lot of thinking about the vengeance genre — and has produced a deconstruction as worthy as Unforgiven was for Westerns.
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