Movie Monday

What a difference two eight-hour days of working will do to bring order to shambles. Furniture is back, everything is clean. The painter is finished with the living area; all that remains is the long stairway.

I have a rocking chair. I may be the only person to find a wooden rocking chair comfortable but I do. It’s set up near the fireplace, near the TV; heaven. The only problem is the TV will work as a television with channels or as the screen for the attached CD/VCR player; not as both. So I must choose: TV or videos. Since this is the only CD/VCR player in the house and the cable box attached to the TV is the freebie from the cable company, therefore, practically without any features, I’ll probably choose the videos.

Such a decision segueways me right into the movie trailer review this Monday: Gran Torino.

I’ve never really liked or disliked Clint Eastwood as an actor. What a frivolous line that was: Go ahead, make my day. from Sudden Impact was. It was a stupid remark in that movie and a stupider remark from the frivolous, Ronald Reagan.

Workmanlike and mundane sums up Eastwood for me as a director and actor, perhaps because, even with big issue movies, I don't think he stretches. But I’m in the minority since his peers reward him. And the public, since Gran Torino is #1 in the box office.

Movie Review from Trailer: Gran Torino

I guess I need an admission here: until I saw “Gran Torino” on the car in the movie, I didn’t know that was a car brand.

I saw two videos for this movie: the music video and the trailer. Then I read the Movie Spoiler site so I sort of know the chronology of what is happening. The time sequence of events is a bit choppy in the trailer. However, the music video was quite sweet and slow. Sweet? For an Eastwood movie? But I'm a sucker for someone who plays a Yamaha that well.

In this movie, we have Eastwood as an old man and it is refreshing to see him play one with no romantic entanglements. He lives in a small house with a small front yard on a street with very close neighboring houses. On his birthday, his son and daughter-in-law visit and try to interest him in a retirement community. They’re kicked out of the house.

The movie trailer is not sequential because you first see Eastwood talking to an Asian boy and being concerned that he was beaten up. After this, you see him driving up in his truck to protect an Asian woman when black youths harass her.

Then finally we have the scene where his new Asian neighbor sits on her front porch and Eastwood mutters something like: “What the hell right do the Chinese have to move into this neighborhood for?” Time is out of sync here.

While we see Eastwood defend the Asian woman from black youths, we also see him beating up an Asian youth who is part of the gang which beat up the Asian boy. So the message may be: gangs are bad regardless of racial composure.

The church (probably R.C.) plays a part here, as it did in Million Dollar Baby. We see Eastwood at a funeral service; going for confession; confronting the priest.

We learn three things about Eastwood's character: he was a war hero; he will not allow his Asian friends to be threatened and he definitely will not call the police.

A final shot is Eastwood sitting alone is a dark living room.

What I expect from the movie after seeing the trailer:

I see a lot of potential here. There is the issue of aging, white America living among new minorities. The trailer shows Eastwood becoming friends with his Chinese neighbors; being a loyal champion of them. There is also an issue of the young poor. Youth gangs beat up people and engage in drive-by shootings.

It would be interesting to explore the real dilemma of clashing cultures in the U.S. With whites becoming the minority even sooner than expected (2042) this is a issue to be dealt with outside of the “art house movies” and Eastwood has the clout to do this.

But I just don’t see him tackling these issues in depth; he reminds me more of a once-over-lightly actor and director - not that there’s anything wrong with that - most people live their lives once-over-lightly.

Two final facts: The Gran Torino doesn’t play a large part in the trailer or music video; I think we have a metaphor here. And, Clint Eastwood is 78. I’m impressed by his stamina.