Monday, July 29, 2013

Gran Torino: a very short review

Here I come, bringing up the rear: four years after its first release, I finally got around to watching Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.

Gran Torino, justifiably, won Eastwood considerable acclaim, although one wonders if much of the praise was of the rather back-handed sort noted by Samuel Johnson.

Gran Torino is not an easy movie. You will be angry, frustrated, and upset.

But if you persevere, you will be rewarded: you will laugh, you will cry, you will be horrified and shocked, and you will be transported.

Like great art in whatever medium, what Gran Torino does is to take a clear-eyed, unflinching look at an aspect of human life, and, without blinking or backing away, reveal to you the truth of things, letting you inside a new understanding of not just how things are, but why they are.

There are lots of ways that people behave towards each other which I could wish to wish away. But, failing to so conjure up some alternate reality, the best alternative is to come away wiser and with a fuller understanding of how the world comes to be the way it is.

I'm glad I spent my time with Gran Torino, and I hope Eastwood has many more such works to share with us.

No comments:

Post a Comment