Comments on: CINE-DEBATE: GRAN TORINO – Are You Kidding Me???

By: Andrew Stibor

Andrew Stibor — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:49:00 +0000

“not only would Gran Torino not have gotten theatrical distribution, I am 100% confident that it would never have been accepted at an even somewhat major film festival.”

you obviously haven’t been to many film festivals or only watch the featured selections.

By: MichaelTully

MichaelTully — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:49:00 +0000

Best take on this I’ve heard yet.

By: Teru Kei

Teru Kei — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:38:00 +0000

Well I stand by my opinion that this film is really just a comic masterpiece falsely marketed as a riveting piece of racial disparity in the economically ravaged Midwest city of Detroit..

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:04:00 +0000

Good one, Josephfort. I actually get Clint Eastwood very much. In love with A PERFECT WORLD and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA just to name two. In this case, it’s the movie not the man.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:04:00 +0000

Good one, Josephfort. I actually get Clint Eastwood very much. In love with A PERFECT WORLD and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA just to name two. In this case, it’s the movie not the man.

By: Josephfort

Josephfort — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:20:00 +0000

You love Josh Safdie and Lena Dunham and hipster stuff. So of course you do not get Clint Eastwood. That is not a surprise.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:03:00 +0000

I really liked UP. I really didn’t like GRAN TORINO. But you actually raise a good point mentioning UP, because even those cartoon animals had more of a human warmth to them than the stilted characters in Clint’s “real” world. I believed in that cartoon world more than I did the live-action reality of Detroit, which is actually a great way to distinguish between those two.

You know I love you, Vern, but since you bring it up, I would actually say that GRAN TORINO and CRASH would make for an excellent bargain bin 2-pack on a CVS shelf somewhere. That’s what bothers me about it so much. Even though it purports to be commenting on this man and showing that he isn’t actually racist or whatever, the assembly line filmmaking and almost across-the-board bad acting turns these people into CRASH-like caricatures as opposed to fully realized figures.

Your point about UNFORGIVEN is well taken.

That said, y’all should read Vern’s review if you haven’t already: http://outlawvern.com/2008/12/31/gran-torino/

By: Vern

Vern — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:31:00 +0000

But don’t you think if you could magically remove Clint from UNFORGIVEN that it would take away some of the meaning there too? I mean it would still be a great movie, but it wouldn’t have the same power as a commentary on his earlier westerns. I know GRAN TORINO wasn’t written for Clint, but that doesn’t change the fact that it plays out as a commentary on the racial politics of the DIRTY HARRY movies and the morality of vigilante movies. It questions some of the conclusions those movies come to and shows where somebody like Harry might’ve ended up.

Also it’s exactly like UP without flying. If you liked UP you have to like GRAN TORINO, that’s the law. And if you hate GRAN TORINO it means you love CRASH. These are proven facts, sorry.

I agree that some of the acting is terrible, but I think Clint’s performance, the weird sense of humor and humanity far outweigh those weaknesses.

By: Spunkyk

Spunkyk — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:44:00 +0000

I hated him in Bridges of Madison County. He was a wussy Alan Alda

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:18:00 +0000

If I may quote a friend here:

“Eastwood is king but that movie was a sloppy, horribly acted, cringy bore.”

I guess that’s what it comes down to for me. Not even sure how to begin breaking it down. Removing the multiplex from the equation, I’d still feel the same way about it.