Review of Gran Torino

Gran Torino (2008)
7/10
They say that falling in love is wonderful
18 July 2009
This movie is some kind of snake-swallows-its-own-tale cap for Eastwood's career. Somehow he manages, in the course of almost two hours, to work in every one of his famous facial gestures. Disgust, rage, threat, snarl: it's all there. That's one reason to love it. Cuz this movie is about Clint. Forget the plot, really: it's about those adoring Hmong ladies bringing him lots of plates of food. Now there's a hero: Love me.

= SPOILERS=

Another reason to love this story is that the next door neighbor kid abandons an opportunity to be a gangsta. Not does he do that, in favor of the beloved *hard work* this country was built on, he learns how American males talk mano-a-mano. It's so CUTE!

Best of all, the movie's all about cars, our beloved cars. It's set in Detroit. Much of which is lying in ruins after what we called the American dream has awoken in ruins. With the auto companies on life-support, after what they did to us and their employees and the environment (see Michael Moore et al), thanks to the tax dollars earned by us hard-working, self-sacrificing Americans, we get a movie whose main inspirational symbol is an (ugly) US classic automobile. The only 'special features' on the DVD are about the car.

And that legacy gets handed on to the next generation in the end. Along with a great-big-dollop of self-sacrifice. Yeah, take what we've learned from cars and run with it, neighbors. Cuz we're at the end of the line here. You zipperheads.

What did Clint learn from a long life of heroically defending the good against the evil? I guess you'll have to see this film. Marvelous.
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