Thursday, March 19, 2009
Gran Torino
Went and saw Gran Torino at the Springfield Quay last night and I'm pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, partly because I had no idea just how funny it was going to be. Clint Eastwood (who directs it too and this is apparently his last acting role, why Clint?!) plays a retired Polack American car worker Walt Kowalski, who is cantankerous, stubborn, and above all xenophobic. The fact that his neighbourhood have all but become populated by Asians makes his life even more difficult as he has to adapt to them. However things change when one of the Asian group's family's teenage son Thao (nicely played by newcomer Bee Vang) gets bullied and goaded by a local Asian gang, Walt takes matters into his own hands and stops them. After this the Asian community suddenly become friendly toward walt and are indebted to him, soon after, Thao is given to Walt to repay a service to him.
Gran Torino is suprisingly hilarious as it is Clint's acting swansong it provides him with a great opportunity to show off his natural comedic acting skills not to mention that cantankerous film personae he has developed over the years. But it also provides some powerful moments of drama as well as Walt makes a stand against a local Asian gang things get more serious as it effects Thao and his family also. Despite the powerful drama that underlies the humour this film could honestly be classed as a comedy on its own because it so funny, Walt's prejudices are so amusing in a shocking kind of way (saying "what are you gooks looking at?!") and even though they sound offensive because of his old school mentality they never seem to dissuade the people who are subjected to them. It is an interesting film as well as it tries to bridge age and race gap and show more of an understanding on both sides of the fence for the Asian community and Walt.
So Gran Torino is an excellent fairwell to Clint Eastwood the actor, with the only off note being the very end where we hear Clint sing over the credits (mental note, Clint, you ain't no singer, stick to directing!).
Gran Torino is suprisingly hilarious as it is Clint's acting swansong it provides him with a great opportunity to show off his natural comedic acting skills not to mention that cantankerous film personae he has developed over the years. But it also provides some powerful moments of drama as well as Walt makes a stand against a local Asian gang things get more serious as it effects Thao and his family also. Despite the powerful drama that underlies the humour this film could honestly be classed as a comedy on its own because it so funny, Walt's prejudices are so amusing in a shocking kind of way (saying "what are you gooks looking at?!") and even though they sound offensive because of his old school mentality they never seem to dissuade the people who are subjected to them. It is an interesting film as well as it tries to bridge age and race gap and show more of an understanding on both sides of the fence for the Asian community and Walt.
So Gran Torino is an excellent fairwell to Clint Eastwood the actor, with the only off note being the very end where we hear Clint sing over the credits (mental note, Clint, you ain't no singer, stick to directing!).
# posted by kenny @ 8:24 am 
