“The thing that haunts a man most is what he isn’t ordered to do,” Walt says in Gran Torino’s defining scene, and the thing that has long haunted Eastwood is the legacy of American violence and the false heroic myths on which that legacy has been written. For him, romanticized movie violence long ago lost its allure, and at least since Unforgiven, the act of killing another human being has been depicted as one that leaves a permanent scar on men’s psyches. In Gran Torino, that strain of investigation reaches its apotheosis in an inversion of Unforgiven’s climactic barroom standoff, a scene that brings the curtain down on Eastwood’s cycle of urban-crime films as hauntingly as the earlier one did on his Westerns.
im not comfortable with martyrdom neither. but who cares really. Hes never been more magnetic than when He was in His neighbors house that first time.
[4 netflix stars]
3 responses so far ↓
andtheend // August 27, 2009 at 8:28 pm |
really? i thought it was his worst clint eastwood impersonation since white hunter black heart. and i lerve clint eastwood.
Xmastime // August 27, 2009 at 10:35 pm |
“magnetic” might be the word, though. I laughing out loud “this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen!”, bowled over by each line being more implausible than the last, rolling my eyes. Usually i woulda switched to the real housewives of atlanta (reunion special!) But I stayed glued to the goddam screen watching this flick. Whack.
and dont think i didnt notice the capital H’s ;)
ope // August 28, 2009 at 4:36 pm |
shit started like a christopher guest joint. but then i wound up floating along thinking Viva Hollywood!