Gran Torino

After several times, it really doesn't work anymore. Eastwood dusts off his proven plot concept, which remains completely identical with minor modifications. Only this time, instead of an emancipated boxer, he threw in an old good-hearted grump. The melancholic music, minimalist direction, and emotionally packed moments are there, including the interesting finale. I didn’t pay much attention to the several storylines running alongside the main plot. Eastwood is capable, but instead of taking turns in an effective loop he knows what to do, he just drives straight ahead like a heavyweight truck. Some people are pulled along with him, some manage to avoid him, but having three attempts to escape is a somewhat bigger luxury than would be appropriate. (09/05/2009)

Clint's Farewell, or Empties by the American badass. The film has a tendency to slide into cliché and calculation, but the character of a grumpy old man who finds redemption (?) in his old age has the kind of gradation that will make you swallow the two hours of mentoring and lamenting the good old days to the max. Objectively, there are many things that could be criticized about it, but subjectively, it affected me so much that I don't want to have any reservations regarding it. (15/05/2009)

While in Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood never left the boxing ring, here he never leaves his own front porch. Gran Torino is even more intimate than his recent boxing opus and delivers an even harder knockout blow to the audience. Eastwood portrays one of his most interesting characters in an incredibly smoothly flowing movie – the easy-to-follow setting of the simple story emphasizes the seamless continuity of individual scenes composing an intriguing character study of Eastwood’s Kowalski. Everything in this movie has its place and meaning, including a brief lawn-mowing shot. Not to mention the song in the end credits... (16/02/2009)

I have a reserved attitude toward guaranteed blockbusters that the film community considers serious contenders for the best film of the year. I usually prefer films outside the mainstream and am often enthused by a true film outsider. However, in the case of Gran Torino, I have to admit that it is a very decent melodrama, where Clint Eastwood has capitalized on his extensive experience in directing and acting. It's not that the old good Clint is such a great director, but he is rather a very high-quality and reliable craftsman who knows his limits well and steers his film into waters where he feels at home. His character is actually a direct continuation of his most popular protagonists, i.e., the headhunters from old Sergio Leone westerns and, above all, the tough inspector Harry Callahan. Add 40 years to Callahan and you have the grumpy retiree and devotee of true American values, Walt Kowalski. The plot is predictable for most of the runtime and its message is clear to any slightly experienced viewer after a few minutes, but Eastwood manages to enrich his film with a series of pleasant, audience-friendly scenes, such as the initiation of an Asian teenager into the language of real men or amusing multi-ethnic clashes between the grumpy American and his Asian neighbors. Where the director maintains a tragicomic tone, his story and performance are believable and highly sympathetic. However, when elements of a fateful drama and self-sacrifice creep in, the film teeters on the edge of self-parody - for example, the moment when the nearly 80-year-old man with cancer-ridden lungs knocks down a member of a criminal gang three generations younger. Generally, Clint Eastwood's films and his characters are indeed the perfect essences of the purest American values, and his films should be obligatory screenings at Republican Party conventions. They include firearms, a tough cowboy attitude, outspoken patriotism, and social conservatism. However, if the director can lighten and complement them with, for instance, a parody of political correctness, when he and his old friend from the barbershop make subtle jokes about their nationalities, it is not only digestible but also good. Overall impression: 80%. (27/04/2009)

For his grand finale, Clint chose one of his best ever stories. The decrepit and permanently pissed Wall-E Kowalsky is also one of his most original characters. He deals out snappy lines and threats with style, beats Koreans in the face while even having time to mentor another (this time good) Korean. Eastwood planned everything carefully and his Gran Torino has a lot to say and manages at the same time to be entertaining to watch, sometimes making you laugh out loud and sometimes (mostly at the end) shed a tear. A picture that I would happily watch again anytime. (21/02/2009)