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Thread: Gran Torino (slight spoilers)

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    Default Gran Torino (slight spoilers)

    We'd agreed to attend the 3-20pm screening over in Ashton-Under-Lyne not knowing that daughter and g/daughter would descend with her hubby to be and the 'extensions' a couple of whippersnappers of seven and ten.
    Good kids. I gave the little lad a spare copy of 'The Dambusters'...he was thrilled. Seems he wants to be a soldier when he growns up - plenty of time to talk him out of that one but...nowt to do wi' me really.
    Anyway, enough preamble.

    Said visitors had to be ushered oot the hoose after an hour and we were cinema bound once more - third time this year...blimey!

    I'm not sure what one expects from a vigilante movie where the main avenger is an eighty year old - or at least looks close to that great age.

    Our man Walt Kowalski is burying his wife. He despises his family and who can blame him? - the Grandchildren in particular disappoint him - frankly they'd disappoint most people.


    The neighborhood is changing fast - he's perhaps the only white guy left in it. Most of the houses have a distinct sub-prime look about them and the immigrants are moving in. Mostly 'HMongs' ....South-East Asian folk from the likes of Laos, and Cambodia...sympathetic to the American cause in the Vietnam war and now ushered in by Uncle Sam as they're persecuted in their homelands.

    Walt's a 'veteran' of the Korean war - where his G.I. buddies used to "stack up people like 'Mongs' five high and use 'em as sandbags" - charmin'

    As he sits on his front porch nursing beer after beer Walt does not like what he sees. When it came to the depiction of youth culture in the neighborhood neither did I. The inevitable gang. Unphotogenic beggars.The ones that didn't look distinctly devilish looked like fat buddhas in baggy pants.

    Despite his initial misgivings our man Walt is soon looking upon his friendly down home next door neighbours with a more benevolent attitude. Chicken Dumplings ca[tuire his head if not his heart - and the young lass of about seventeen also helps win over the crusty curmudgeon who is coughing up blood on a regular basis and looking decidedly auld !

    I'll not delve into the plot much more . What ruined this film for me was the appallingly poor acting of a certain Bee Vang - who played Thao, the young lad next door - he was bobbins. In fact the 'HMong' throng could not conjure up one decent actor from their entire ethnic group. Walt's dog Daisy herself an aged looking Labrador out-performed all of 'em...although she didn't have any lines as such.

    Of course, Eastwood is the archetypal avenger. Even at his advanced age he can summon up menace - here he growls a phlegmy if muted alarm now and again like a 'you are peeing on my chips' warning . A threatening ' Get off my Lawn' uttered in true don't bovver my hovver fashion.

    His pride and joy - a 1972 Ford 'Gran Torino' often referred to in the dialogue and looking like a gracious if immobile prop parked up on the drive - glorious in green. He'd helped to build it - having spent forty years on the assembly line at Ford's.

    Even the car - inanimate and retro outacts Bee Vang...who made a hash of trying to nick it and ends up polishing it with his new found mentors approval.

    The climax , when it eventually arrives is appropriate and age-related if a trifle underwhelming..We left the cinema with a sense of unspoken disappointment - and not just because we'd paid two quid for a small bottle of water.

    On the way home Mrs.T asked 'Why was it called Gran Torino'? Which had me thinking this normally astute woman had fallen asleep or been somewhere else mentally - if either theory was correct I might not have blamed her.

    I award this movie five of my stingey points because I owe Clint a few favours...he's entertained me often. This time too but I feel it's his last role as an Avenger....they were good cars in their time too but well past their use by date now. Every dog has it's day and Clint's had more than most. He should stick to directing now.

    In short I can't add this to the 'Recommendation' thread - and if I had I'd have much more sparing on detail. I'd watch it on dvd if I were you. The big screen lends little to the visual impact...which is not sudden, nor is it deep.
    Last edited by percy toboggan; 08-Mar-09 at 09:43.

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