Gran Torino Blu Ray
June 10, 2009
Gran Torino Blu Ray Review
Don’t write off Gran Torino as an “older version of Dirty Harry.” The trailer for the movie is not an accurate representation of the movie. Clint Eastwood has largely made his career playing tough blue blooded heroes in various forms. He made his mark with Dirty Harry and the unforgettable western, Unforgiven. With Gran Torino, he once again shows us why he is once in a generation type of actor. Released after much heralded Changeling, the Gran Torino did not receive too much attention from the public. However, with positive reviews, the movie raked in around $150 million.
The story is one we’ve seen before, the older person trying to mentor a troubled kid. This relationship has been explored in other movies. What sets this movie apart is the presence of Clint Eastwood. This role was written with Clint Eastwood in mind. He perfectly plays the racist Korean War veteran, Walt, who cannot connect with anyone, including his sons. The movie opens up with funeral of his late wife. He just wants to get through with the proceeding and send everyone home so he can be alone. The two sons try to convince him to move out of the old neighborhood inundated by foreign people. One family, Hmong origin, lives next door and eventually befriends Eastwood’s character. He eventually gets involved in the Kid next door, Thao. Thao gets tangled up in some gang problem and Walt steps up to help him out.
Again, this story has been told in many movies before. But, the execution and the acting by Clint Eastwood sets it apart from those movies. Clint Eastwood deserved to win the Oscar for his role in this movie. He was both funny and heartbreaking throughout the movie. The minor complaint is the lack of polished acting from the supporting cast. Sometimes, I found myself cringing at the lack of acting chops surrounding Clint Eastwood. Otherwise, this is one of the best movies I’ve seen in long time.
What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.
![Gran Torino (+ BD-Live) [Blu-ray]](http://buybluraymovies.com/media/images/i/51rAIUaekEL._SL160_.jpg "Gran Torino Blu Ray") |
Gran Torino (+ BD-Live) [Blu-ray] List Price: Sale Price: $17.49 You save: $7.49 (30%) Average Rating: 
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One of Clint’s best films
I enjoyed this film a lot. Clint Eastwood does a great job as both actor and director, and the story challenges to viewer – it’s not regular Clint fare, but it is both entertaining and moving. The approach to an old man winding down his life, and a young man entering manhood works fantastically. Strong stuff, well worth a view.
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Surprised that I loved this movie
I wasn’t expecting to like this movie and was pleasantly surprised. Clint Eastwood is pretty much what you would expect in this – a racist, grumpy old coot. There are some surprisingly funny moments throughout the movie and I cracked up at the scene where the neighbors brought gifts to Walt’s door. Not exactly what you’d call a heartwarming movie, but very compelling and highly recommended.
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Masterpiece
“Gran Torino” is actor/director Clint Eastwood’s best film, hands down. The way he coordinates the demands of his increasing age with the remarkably bitter and yet deeply decent character, Walt Kowalski, reflects a man rigorously dedicated not only to his art but to making sense of the ruthless, ultra macho image that has been created around him since “Dirty Harry”.
Walt Kowalski is an embittered Korean veteran who lives in a bad area of Detroit with the Humungs, a group of Koreans who fought with the United States in Vietnam and relocated to various economically impoverished areas. Walt liberally uses the terms gook, spook, dragon people, and an assorted list of racial epithets that fire off so easily one can’t help be amused by them. He’s a man of a different generation and is not a “value racist”: this is how he has emerged from warfare and 1950′s Americana.
Walt is in some ways like a ghost. The values he cherishes–extreme masculinity, tribal patriotism, family, and even the proper way to approach the tabernacle in the Catholic Church–seem to be disappearing before his eyes. His faith is also questionable at the beginning of the film. After his wife’s funeral, he tells a young priest that he has no desire whatsoever to confess to an “overeducated 27 year virgin who holds the hands of old women and promises them eternal life.”
His Korean neighbors reciprocate his feelings of animosity. There are parts of this fim that are drop dead funny because political correctness is dropped entirely. Walt is not unlike the racist grandparents some of us have had, and if we have, we immediately feel a mix of repugnance and adoration for his absolute certitude in all situations. Including putting an M-1 to the head of a gangster who steps on his lawn.
Thao, a young Korean who lives near Walt, is pressured by his cousin to join the local gang. After mistakenly trying to fit in with the gang and steal Walt’s beloved Gran Torino, which he built himself,
they see him as a punk but still insist he try another criminal act to be initiated into the gang.
The rest of the film is a meditation on mortality, self sacrifice, and what it means to love another group of people regardless of race, ethnicity, or anything. The ending, though sad, is also beautiful.
One of the top ten films of 2008.
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Great Tribute to Eastwood; Mediocre Film
If you’re a big Clint Eastwood fan, this is probably going to be your favorite movie. While I respect the guy for his amazing career and have liked his performances, I consider myself more or less neutral. This film definitely did bring him up a few points in my book, because his performance definitely makes the movie. He is without a doubt the main attraction, and if you came to see Eastwood being a badass, you’re going to get exactly what you want. GRAN TORINO is no big action flick, but Eastwood’s Walt Kowalski is more intimidating than any of the watered down action stars of recent years.
And that might be the best part of the movie, aside from Eastwood. It doesn’t rely on action. And when there IS action, the effects and tension of it is pushed to the side in favor of the emotion, which sort of blossoms out of nowhere and catches the viewer by surprise. While I admired Eastwood’s performance and enjoyed his character, the film itself didn’t really sell itself to me until the climax. By the time of the emotional peak of the movie, I realized that I had come to care a great deal about Walt Kowalski and his situation. But unfortunately, one performance from one actor, no matter how much he is the focus of the film, can’t make a movie.
The script is mediocre at best, and everyone seems to be saying stuff that normal people would never say. The dialogue was simply atrocious, and the supporting characters are all plot devices to pull Walt in different directions. There is the troubled Hmong who Walt will have to love, the quirky Hmong girl to initially break down his barriers, and the sinfully one-dimensional family that only exist to show that Walt has no one to rely on because everyone he knows excluding himself is an idiot. Father Janovich is the one character other than Walt that seems to have some depth to him, but it’s just not enough. And the fact that the actors who played Thao (Toad) and and Sue were literally the worst actors I’ve ever seen in a professional film doesn’t help.
So to sum it up, Eastwood was great, script was very mediocre, and the supporting cast was terrible. It’s worth watching because it’s essentially a tribute to Eastwood’s career, but just know going in that it isn’t the best.
5/10
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Where’s the song?????
We just finished watching “Gran Torino” on Blu-Ray and the song that Clint sings at the end was conspicuously missing. What happened? Am I the only one who got a copy with no song? It was there when we saw it in the theater. Nowhere have I found anyone who has had this problem. I know the music video is on the BD Live, but why isn’t it at the end of the film like it was in the theater? Anyone have this problem?
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An Awesome Film!!!
This movie was a lot better than I thought it would be! It had a great storyline, good message, some funny moments, and some heart-breaking moments. Clint Eastwood was awesome as Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who is very cranky, grumpy, and racist. He lives in a neighborhood dominated by poor Asian immigrants and infested with gangs. A young Hmong boy named Thao Lor who agrees to an initiation which requires him to steal Walt’s prized car, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, but Walt stops him. Walt finally befriends Thao’s family, and tries to help Thao become a man, and learn responsibility. When a Hmong gang threatens the Lor family, Walt knows what he must do. I highly recommend GRAN TORINO!!!
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Gran Torino Review
Great movie! Clint Eastwood talks just like the average older white guy from the Detroit area.
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So much promise…sqaundered
Before this movie devolved into clichés and predictability, I really was enjoying the tale of a retired, archaic war vet trying to hold onto lifestyle and time period. It was really a great study into assimilation. Mind you this is all before Toad, i forget his actual name, said passionately? his first awkward line, “Excuse me Sir, I need a haircut if you ain’t too busy you old Italian son of a bitch prick barber. Boy, does my ass hurt from all of the guys at my construction job.”
The movie never recovered, in fact, it got worse. I don’t usually pay attention to acting in movies so when it manages to distract me from the movie’s other elements, it must be pretty bad. The actress who plays Sue, while attempting to be intentionally funny, just manages to annoy the heck out of me. As the movie chugs along, albeit uncomfortably, Toad steals more of the spotlight. Maybe the director has some twisted sense of humor. An actor who steps out of character AFTER EVERY UTTERANCE should not hog the camera but should be hidden from it. After his every belch of “LET ME AOOOUUUT WALT, LET ME AOOOUUT NOW”, he looks awkwardly around the room as though he’s saying “that was good guys right? eh? eh?”, proceeding to say “WALT LET ME AOOOOUUTT!”.
Thank god this movie had its share of memorable quotes +1 star.
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Almost Everyone Went A Little Overboard, Here
I hadn’t heard a lot about ‘Gran Torino’ prior to renting it. I do know that it received some critical acclaim and that neighbors who saw it liked it…but that’s not surprising considering it’s a Clint Eastwood Joint. I love Clint, but everyone loved ‘Mystic River’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (more like ‘Million Dollar Boredom’) and I thought those movies were boring as hell.
Let me say before I swiftly bash this movie that Clint Eastwood is arguably the greatest of movie stars. This guy has been in more classics and played some of the terrific characters to ever grace the silver screen.
My guess is that this will be his last starring role and maybe that was what he intended when making it. It doesn’t really end the way most Eastwood films end in that he kills just about everyone in his path. Maybe this is just a metaphor for a ‘dying movie star’, so to speak. The way Harry Callahan or Philo Beddoe or Blondie would have handled these situations…well there would be some bodies left behind and/or a lot of people severely beaten left in his dust. This isn’t a bad thing, but the message I got from the ending was that Clint is showing us that he doesn’t have to use his guns or fists as he rides off into the sunset as a motion picture actor.
‘Gran Torino’ isn’t really much of anything, really. I can tell you that the script is appallingly bad and the acting by absolutely everyone involved is even worse.
It’s grumpy old man who hates everyone befriends neighbors he despises because he opens his heart up when they leave flowers and chicken dumplings on his doorstep. Perhaps those relationships would be more entertaining and believable if ANYONE in that house next door could act a lick or was remotely likable.
The first hour and twenty minutes are a complete and total bore and you will be asking whoever is unfortunate enough to suffer through it along with you, “What the hell is this movie about?” At least something actually takes place in the last twenty minutes of the thing, but the closure is a major disappointment.
I don’t know if this is supposed to be about what Rocky Balboa told all of those Soviets in ‘Rocky IV’ about “If I can change and you can change, EVERYBODY can change” or what…but it was very, very bland, boring and horribly acted. It would be a better story if he finally found good in some people upon opening his mind/heart and actually spoke to his children every once in awhile, but that whole scenario is just tossed under the door mat.
I hate to think that this could be (and probably is) Clint’s final starring role. He’s probably my favorite ‘movie star’, but I’m not going to bow down for him just because it’s him like everyone in Hollywood seemed to do upon this release.
Just say no to the Gran Torino, ya dig??
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Just when you think you know Clint Eastwood…
I initially begged off seeing “Gran Torino” as I assumed I got the gist from preview trailers, but you know what happens when you assume, right? I was expecting the clichéd Clint Eastwood ending and after seeing “Gran Torino” was instead quite stunned and surprised, yet I shouldn’t have been. If anything Eastwood has evolved far beyond the “Dirty Harry” days and if anything has become as much as an artist in front of the lens as behind it. Thinking of his more recent movies, Eastwood has transcended his earlier on-screen personas and evolved into something far deeper.
“Gran Torino” is as much character driven as plot driven and Eastwood’s character Harvey Kowalski is as much the antithesis of Dirty Harry as he is the antithesis of a vigilante. A retired autoworker and Korean War Veteran, Kowalski is also a recent widower watching the transition and decline of his Detroit neighborhood where he and his late wife raised their children. When touching on his somewhat estranged children “Gran Torino” becomes a vehicle for satire, emphasizing the dislocation and detachment of modern society. Kowalski feels about as connected to his children and grandchildren as he does to the equally alien Hmong family next door. Opening with the funeral service for his late wife “Gran Torino” sets the tableau of dislocation and despair in his neighborhood. Kowalski’s antagonism and dislocation with seemingly everyone is pled out with his neighbors, his children, the parish priest, and his neighborhood. The feelings of rejection and helplessness pervade the movie: children give up on parents, parents give up on children, neighbors give up on their community and the community crumbles around them. Without giving the plot away events unfold where Kowalski feels compelled to intervene on behalf of his neighbors and the community reacts in a way that catches Kowalski off-guard. Slowly Kowalski is pulled closer into the Hmong community as he grapples with his wartime demons and his distant children. The closer Kowalski gets to the Hmong the more the film builds to its stunning climax, and the climax is unlike anything you’d expect form a Clint Eastwood movie.
I don’t want to spoil the ending, but much like “Million Dollar Baby” and other recent Eastwood movies your mouth will be hanging open as it is not the ending you would expect. That’s because Eastwood has truly become the cinematic master, defying expectations and here offering up a sharp contrast that made me a fan of his work all over again. There wasn’t as much violence as I expected, and Eastwood totally chews up the scenery with an economy of words that are truly impressive. His facial expressions communicate more than words ever could. There is some VERY politically incorrect language presented quite frankly here but it serves a purpose. I’d questioned how good “Gran Torino” could be and it is easily one of the best movies of the past year, if not one of Eastwood’s best. It is a fitting coda to every Dirty Harry movie and all of his Spaghetti Westerns rolled into one. I’ve often thought that Eastwood approaches each film as though it might be his last and never holds anything back. If “Gran Torino” were to be his final film it would be hard to imagine going out on a better note!
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Gran Torino
Received the DVD before the projected date. Purchased a used disc and was in fine condition. This is one of Clint’s best movies ever. Funny and tearful and a good coming of age story. Everybody that has seen this movie has something positive to say about it. Great movie.
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An Excellent Film
Eastwood at his best. This one proves he’s the best, and that he can act AND direct very well. This is an excellent story, great cast, excellent acting. Very believeable.
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Aging Macho Man Goes Global in a Mini Masterpiece
I watched most of his films, and even reruns of Rawhide. The only thing I ever really liked was his early 70′s movie “Play Misty for Me,” where he showed some emotion other than rage. I know some of his more recent films like “Million Dollar Baby” were more well rounded, but I was already too turned off by the gratuitous violence of his earlier films; but he always was, and is, his own man. But
shockingly to me, Gran Torino brought Clint, and his career, to a much more conciliatory, and ironically peaceful. higher ground through his enlightening encounter with Hmong culture.
Prior to seeing GT, I had read a book on the Hmong culture, Anne Fadiman’s “The Spirit Catches You and You all Fall down.” They had been an independent ethnic thorn in the side to the Han Chinese dynasties for centuries, before being forced to migrate to the highlands of Laos. During the Vietnam War they were offered various trinkets by the US military invaders to aid them in that awful war. Well,(General) Westmoreland and his cronies, as they often did with their imperialist insensitive inhumanity, did not keep their word and the Hmongs were bombed out of the Laotian highland home- they had always been mountain people. Well to make a long and gruesome story short, these proud people were exiled to the total alien, via squalid refugee camps, American Culture. One family ended up as neighbors of the aged Dirty Harry like character played by Eastwood in a bombed out Detroit, which was symbolically not all that dissimilar to the war ravaged Laos the Huongs were forced to leave.
We initially see the Eastwood character (Walt Kawalski) left alone with his only contact being with his vulturistic, superficial children, and his memories of Korea and his recently deceased wife. Then the “gooks” (the Hmongs) moved next store. Initially Kawalski sees his Hmong neighbors as another assault on the world of his past, when Detroit, Ford and GM were great. However, we slowly start to see similarities between Kawalski and his Hmong neighbors, who both were exiles from an earlier more triumphant time, and both were trying to hang on to their crumbling cultural identities. At first, Kawalski, in his usual hard ass (Eastwood) fashion rejects the friendly overtures of his neighbors, but soon he succumbs to their charm, honesty, innocence and authenticity. He becomes a protector and mentor to his neighbors and their children- particularly against the Hmong male gangs that were destroying their American born son. These conflicts were interspersed with moments of humor (e.g.,the thank you party for his protecting them). The transition comes full circle in the final scene when Kawalski doesn’t “bring his guns to town,” with his hardened heart being opened by his encounters with his proud and humble neighbors. It certainly did, as Dirty Harry once said, “make my day.”
This film can be viewed on many levels. It is a story of a man accepting change and diversity at an age when most people would prefer to dwell on their memories. On a more profound level, Gran Torino suggests the possibility of global unification, or at least respect, of diverse cultures and an unconditional acceptance of “the other,” no matter how different they seem on the surface. This was definitely the movie of the year. Moreover, in my opinion, this is Eastwood’s most socially conscious and finest film; as Elvis Costello once sang, and this could have been part of the soundtrack ,”What’s so funny bout peace, love, and understanding?”
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Stunning and moving film
Clint Eastwood is so often seen as just Dirty Harry that we often don’t see that he is quietly become one of the best directors of the past 25 years. Gran Torino is a touching and subtle film that evokes such basic human feelings that you can’t help but pay full attention and become absorbed into it. The characters are so basically human that you can see them in so many different settings.
Among the most refreshing aspects of this is how Eastwood’s character, an unabashed racist, SOB, doesn’t really change so much as evolve. What we see originally as racism is really more a case of a fellow who believes in protecting one’s own and that is exactly what he does here. Eastwood deserves credit for giving himself the candor, humor and humanity to play a real human being and not fall into a caricature. I have to say this is the film that should have won for best picture!
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Excellent
I was so very happy. It said the item wouldn’t be shipped until August 4th or 5th, and to my surprise I got it on August 5th… Just a few days after I ordered it.. Excellent service, it was in great condition and I’m very happy with my purchase..
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