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.
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