You know I write about movies now and then, especially when I watch one that catches my fancy. I watched Gran Torino Recently and it is one fine movie that I think most of us should watch.

The more I watch Clint Eastwood’s movies, the more I realize movies are an epitome of art medium and sometimes the most restrained art strikes the best chord. The more I realize the whiz bang high budget Hollywood show biz is not art but entertainment and should be consumed as such. But when great movies come along, one should savor the moment (or the show) and hope more of such movies should be available for general consumption.

I want to watch Gran Torino expecting Clint Eastwood would be at his bad ass best since his spaghetti westerns and in a manner of speaking, he was at his bad ass best. But in line with his relatively mellow and personal movies like Mystic River, this movie ambles along at a very comfortable pace until the final showdown. There are relatively few movies that talk about the end of life issues of old farts (as a figure of speech). A couple come to mind, About Schmidt, Million Dollar Baby are really fine movies. it is difficult to keep attention when our ‘Hero’ is a septuagenarian with all the irritability that comes along with age and even more difficult to keep us interested in their future, but these movies do a good job.

Getting to the point, Walt (clint eastwood) is a tough old man with issues and is increasingly living in an alien neighborhood. His neighbors slowly befriend him and over time he gets closer to them than he ever got to his own kids. He takes care of the kids in his neighborhood in his personal style and when one of them is brutally assaulted, he takes the fight back to the gangs (also in his own style). It is difficult to say much more in terms of the story line. What is really nice is the building up of the drama till the final ‘showdown’. In his directorial style, the movie is very restrained in terms of the music and also the minimalist lighting and pace. But they come together well to build to the ‘climax’.

What was a let down was the acting, the kids were pretty shoddy unlike the supporting cast in Million Dollar Baby or About Schmidt. Well, I didnt really care much, the young girl was cute and dont give a damn if she can act or not, heh.

To me the best part of the movie was the meditative pace in which he builds up to the ‘showdown’. Cleaning out the guns, pausing for a smoke, a nice chat with his dog etc… It is like stretching a rubber band slowly until it snaps, it is pretty brilliant.

Another ‘Old-Farts’ movie I watched recently (I recall on in-flight shows) was the Bucket list, which incidentally had some brilliant actors with a shoddy ‘Hollywoodean’ premise and was something I don’t bother talking about. But in this case, it was a brilliant movie with some shoddy acting. I don’t mind that at all and think along with the Reader, is probably one of the best movies I would watch this year.

I know he watched this too, and if I guess right, this is probably his kind of movie too. Wonder what he thought of it.