*** Official GRAN TORINO Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

If Gran Turino didn't deserve any Oscar nominations, I can't even begin to fathom how people think The Dark Knight got screwed out of them.

 

[thehank]

Every movie has its flaws and this includes Gran Torino, but Best Director nomination would have been deserving.

 

[Jeff_Standley]

I can't even see that one and I love Eastwood. This was not his best directing effort by a long shot. The only thing it would have squeaked in was a sympathy nod for best actor.
Every movie does have it's flaws I agree. But most in this thread have acknowledged the poor acting and awful delivery of the supporting cast, and that isn't just a flaw, it's the makings of a sub par movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

What's your definition of the word "most" because I see some posters expressing that opinion, not most posters.





Crawdaddy

 

[Edwin-S]

You must have been watching a different movie than I was. Most of the supporting actors were first timers, as far as I know, so I wouldn't expect them to be as good as seasoned actors. They didn't seem awful or poor to me. The acting didn't take me out of the film, so I would say all involved did competent jobs.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Like Crawdaddy, I think "most" is an overstatement. Maybe I need to see the film again, but I don't get the complaints about the supporting cast. It's not something I even noticed while watching the film.

 

[TravisR]

Just to clarify, I thought The Dark Knight was a good movie. However, they're both two entirely different movies that aspire to completely different things but I think both were successful in what they wanted to be.

 

[Rob Foss]

Except that the absence of marketing or in your face hype is itself a form of marketing! When WB took the decision to open Million Dollar Baby in a handful of theatres that was a strategy known as 'platforming' & a marketing choice. It allowed viewers & a handful of prominent critics favoured with a sneak preview to generate intense buzz via the net & in print. Then you have a situation where people are hearing about a movie but they can't get to see it because it's only showing in a handful of theaters. By the time it finally breaks wide the interest levels are sky high because everybody's heard about it yet nobody knows anybody who's seen it. Comparisons to Unforgiven are deeply misleading in any case because if the YouTube/Internet era had existed in the early 90's, clips & viral videos would have been circulating & building hype for Unforgiven in exactly the same way they were for most movies in the last decade.

Your distinction is a false one. There's no purist distinction to be made between an audience discovering a film for themselves & one where the mindless masses have been allegedly driven to it by a blizzard of hype - at least not in the examples you give. There's always a crossover.

As for Gran Torino - again, another great Eastwood movie & superior to that 1992 western (it has the ending Unforgiven should have had). GT has been exceptionally well marketed by WB, using a similar strategy employed for M$B & Mystic River. That you don't perceive any hype or marketing to have been responsible for their success only goes to show just how well those people did their job.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I agree with this, although I still think UNFORGIVEN is his greatest film. I spent January going through several of Eastwood's directorial films and I don't think he was ever "great" until UNFORGIVEN and afterwards. I think the majority of his early stuff was "good" but could have been a lot better with a better director who knew how to cut stuff. The pacing and long running times often really hurt some of these earlier films.

UNFORGIVEN was the first Eastwood film I saw theatrically since I was born in 1980 but I seem to remember or recall he wasn't the critics pet back then. It seemed like THE ROOKIE and a couple other films dropped him from an "A" list actor/director into somewhat of a has been. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of his 80's work could update me on what the truth was. I remember UNFORGIVEN didn't get that great of reviews when released but caught fire later in the year when people went back and gave it a second chance.

To me Eastwood the legend, director wise, comes from the past few years with movies like this one, CHANGELING, LETTERS, MYSTIC and MILLION of course. I doubt this films out live something like DIRTY HARRY or various other acting Eastwood movies but next to Scorsese I can't think of a director since 1991 with better work.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Sorry, double post.

 

[TravisR]

I picked up the Dirty Harry Blu-ray set last year and I was surprised by how much more I enjoyed the Eastwood-directed Sudden Impact. I probably haven't seen that movie all the way through since I had the DH laserdisc set and while it's not a great movie, it was much better than I remembered.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I listed some of my sources previously. What are yours?

I note, BTW, that you conflated Flags with Letters from Iwo Jima, which I didn't mention. The latter did indeed make many critics' top 10 lists. I do not believe the same can be said of Flags, but if someone can point me to a compilation of major critics' top 10 lists from prior years, I'm happy to review it.

As for Changeling, it should ultimately do good business, but your phrasing is pretty strained. It's "well on the way to a $100 million worldwide gross"? Great; Gran Torino is well over that domestically, with foreign just beginning and domestic continuing. Million Dollar Baby did twice that. Mystic River did over $152 million worldwide. Meanwhile Changeling has stalled at less than $36 million domestic after 11 weeks in release ($82 million worldwide), which is still better than the $33.6 million domestic for Flags.

I am not trying to suggest that the caliber of these films equates with their box office, domestic or otherwise, but I didn't pick them at random.

 

[Jeff_Standley]

Maybe most isn't the best representation of this thread.
Only two or three I guess voiced negative opinions or pointed out negative parts for them in the movie.
Honestly, I thought the part when Thao is yelling at Walt through the screen door was down right awful.

 

[BrettB]

The acting wasn't bad enough to hurt the film too much, just a flesh wound perhaps . It was mostly Thoa. Check the scene where Walt locks him up at the end. I thought the female was mostly good.

Ocassionally the slurs didn't feel natural. Felt over-the-top/forced. If I remember right the construction foreman is an example where it just felt like bs.

Look foreward to watching the Blu-ray because there were many lines missed due to extended laughter.

Liked it quite a bit but I prefer the Unforgiven ending.

 

[Jeff_Standley]

See the ending of GT is one of the few kudos I do give the movie. The Unforgiven ending is too obvious, GT's ending is a sacrifice from a hard man rather than the typical Hollywood ending where everyone good is alive and all the baddies meet their maker.

 

[Brian.L]

 

[TravisR]

 

[Michael Reuben]

I agree with Travis. Ask your lawyer friend this question from another lawyer of your acquaintance (me):

How are the gang members going to prove that Walt pretended to draw a gun? Assuming anyone else saw it (and Walt positioned himself pretty carefully), why would anyone come forward to help them?

So now they have to testify on their own behalf, and given their history, they'd make lousy witnesses on their own behalf. Most defense attorneys wouldn't even put guys like this on the stand, because you can bet that every one of them has one or more prior convictions, all of which gets into evidence if they testify.

 

[Holadem]

I am gonna go out on a limb and guess that those guns are not only unregistered, ownership of the bigger ones is downright prohibited. To say nothing of connecting them to house they sprayed earlier in the movie.

And who knows what else is in the gang's house.

--
H

 

[Michael Elliott]

Gang members get away with crap all the time but I doubt they'd have a chance here. I think part of the "message" was Eastwood telling people they should speak out against them. I believe there's discussion at the end with the "scared" neighbors standing up, thanks to Walt, and giving their statements turning the members over to police.