| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A- |
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|
| Acting: |
B- |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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|
| Visuals: |
A- |
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Archie Bunker Meets Dirty Harry
by Renato (movies profile)
Dec 18, 2008
218
of
253 people found this review helpful
What a breath of FRESH AIR this film is in this overly feminised, overly politically correct, American world of ours (I say this as a woman, and as an immigrant).
Unlike most films, Gran Torino doesn't pander to the audience by treating them like easily shocked children. It's an old-fashioned character study unlike you've seen in a while.
An old coot is suddenly widowered, and he finds that he's raised a family of mooching hypocrites. He's disgusted with everyone, and bewails the days when his neighbours were caucasians, and kept their homes nice and tidy -- unlike his Hmong neighbours, who are noisy and unfathomable "barbarians".
But just when you think this guy couldn't get more unlovable, and you feel like walking out of the theatre because the story is so gritty, it begins to unravel itself.
It actually is a deeply layered story about a grouchy guy who who teaches a young, fatherless Hmong how to be a man. A REAL man, not just an hoodlum wannabe, which is some peoples' sad definition of being a man.
You'll love this film, if you let it.
And that, of course, is Clint Eastwood's underlying theme throughout. |
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