I just saw the movie "Gran Torino" last night. Generally speaking, I liked the movie. Who better to play a tough, crotchety old man than Clint Eastwood, right? Gran Torino is about an elderly white man who sticks out like a sore thumb in a neighborhood that is growing increasingly racially diverse. He's bitter about the change and takes that bitterness out on anybody and everybody with very imaginitivly articulated slights and racial slurs. His prized possession is his mint condition muscle car (a Gran Torino) that sits in his driveway only to draw the criminal attention of neighborhood gangs. Through an unusual twist of fate, Eastwood's character develops a bond with his Asian neighbors, an experience that profoundly impacts both the neighbors and Eastwood's own temperament.
There are two really important themes in Gran Torino.
There's the broad theme of racism and relationships as a man who feels disconnected from almost everybody begins to find he has much more in common with someone of a different ethnicity than he has with his own family. There's another interlacing theme of life and death. What Eastwood's character learns is that life and death are actually very closely related . . . often one learns the significance of life by way of death and sacrifice. There are some definite Christ motifs in Gran Torino, too, but you'll have to see it to discover what I mean.
As I said, I liked the movie. I didn't love it. My friend who watched it with me put it this way: "It felt alitlle like an extended after school special with alittle more cursing," and I don't think I could've put it any better. I grew to care for Eastwood's character, but I had trouble connecting with the Asian actors in the movie. Their acting wasn't very good in my opinion . . . which made it hard for me to care about them. It's too bad. There ARE very good Asian actors. But these folks seemed outmatched by Eastwood's intensity, which made the whole movie feel just alittle flat. . . Not bad. Still worth the time. But not great either.
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Posted by: Taobao buy | January 24, 2011 at 12:09 AM