Gran Torino

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) stoically sits through the funeral of his wife showing contempt for the church and his children. That first scene paints a vivid portrait of Walt; hard nosed, grumpy and disgruntled old man. His home is in a predominantly Vietnamese neighborhood in a Michigan suburb. He hates his Asian neighbors and all he wants is for them to stay away from him. But one rarely gets what they wish for. An attempt to steal his precious Gran Torino by the neighbor boy and ensuing run in with local gang, Walt finds himself inadvertently mentoring the teenager.

Like the New York Times review mentions, the film is almost a homage to the hard nosed Eastwood characters of yesteryear. Like if Dirty Harry had a retired life, this is what it would have been like. But in the end it turns to be the weakest Eastwood flick yet.

Rating: * * +

Escape from Alcatraz

The title should explain everything about the movie. But then theres a movie made about Alcatraz like this piece of shit, and then theres this classic. The man who has spoken the least number of words in his acting career, performs brilliantly in this simple but splendidly made movie. Clint Eastwood plays the role of Frank Morris, who was the only man ever to escape from the prison and the reason behind its closing.

Rating: * * *

Letters from Iwo Jima

I went to watch this film with very high expectations and was not disappointed. Maybe it was because it was in Japanese or maybe it was because of the hue and color the movie was shot in... I really don't know. All I know is that this film touches your soul in places which its companion film, Flags of our Fathers, did not even know existed. This not a knock against Flags. Flags was taken with a Western mindset laced with the kind of melodrama that is always visible in most American war films. Letters bow to the Eastern sentiment. What is startling is that both are directed by the same person. Clint Eastwood does a fine job of realistically portraying the US assault on Iwo Jima from the Japanese standpoint without a hint of partiality.

Thank you, Mr. Eastwood, Mr Haggis...
Arigato, Yamashita san, Watanabe san, Ninomiya san, Ihara san....

Rating: * * * *

Flags of our Fathers

These days when I see the words - 'A CLINT EASTWOOD FILM' - I shut the laptop and head to the nearest queue for cinema tickets. And when its based on a WWII incident, I am found missing from office for the rest of the day.

Its about the Battle of Iwo Jima; one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific; and specifically, the legendary flag raising photo and the heroes that it creates accidentally. However, the real truth behind the picture has emerged only slowly and thats what the movie centres on. It also shows how one of the largest and most highly promoted capital market bond roadshow was conducted - very interesting. It was instrumental on how WWII eventually turned out.

The timing of the film couldnt have been more appropriate - it shows nothing has really changed. Nothing that we see today about Bush/Iraq/Weapons of Mass Manipulation is new. Its been happening for a long long while and will continue to happen for a long long time to come.

The movie is a long one, and captures a lot through substantial 'to&fro' switching between the past & the future. Theres no real continuous motion of events and therefore quite different from other war movies. From purely a 'war' prespective, it would rank lower than 'The Thin Red Line' - arguably the best war movie out there.

Despite the inappropriateness of the underlying theme at this present moment & no real quality performances to talk about, it should be a front runner for the the Academy Awards.

Rating: * * *

Apparently, Clint Eastwood is also directing a complementary film on the battle from the Japanese viewpoint. Its titled Letters from Iwo Jima, and will star Ken Watanabe.