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THE POPCORN REEL FEATURE
STORY: CLINT EASTWOOD'S "GRAN TORINO"
Is There Any Film That Clint
Eastwood Can Direct Wrong?
By
Omar P.L. Moore/The
Popcorn Reel
December 10, 2008
He starts directing his 30th feature film in early 2009. He is 78 years
old. He is:
a) Feeling More Alive Than Ever Before
b) Dirty Harry
c) Making His Day
d) A Filmmaker Without An Off Switch
Everyone has a passion and whichever of the choices above appeals most to you
about Clint Eastwood or how you think of him these days versus in the late
1950's "Rawhide" television era, one thing he can never be accused of is lacking
passion. Earlier this year he verbally sparred with filmmaker Spike Lee
through the press at Cannes about Mr. Eastwood's absence of black soldiers
fighting for their country in the San Francisco-born director's "Flags Of Our
Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima", which arrived just two months apart in
American movie theaters in late 2006. More recently this year behind the
scene, he was a strong supporter of Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee
for U.S. president. Mr. Eastwood's own political career was a relative
success in the 1980's as mayor of Carmel, a small, tranquil retirement community
village by the sea in Northern California, and even then he managed to complete
two films.
Now, in late 2008 in the U.S., Mr. Eastwood has the
two-films-in-three-months-thing down pat once again, as "Changeling", which
arrived in North America in theaters in late October, partners with this month's
(specifically December 12) "Gran Torino" as the Eastwood double dip.
Two different stories. Same director. Same result: acclaim.
Mr. Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie in "Changeling", set in late 1920's Los
Angeles, where Christine Collins is looking for her abducted son in this true
story that gripped the City of Lights. Critics of numerous publications,
including The Popcorn Reel, have hailed the artistry of "Changeling", not just
its strong performances but its technical artistry, from the direction to the
cinematography to even the music, which Mr. Eastwood also wrote, played and
composed. With "Gran Torino", about a xenophobic Korean War veteran
struggling to shatter his own bitter racist and prejudiced inclinations in an
evolving middle-class neighborhood of new immigrants, Clint Eastwood is already
gaining raves for playing the role of Walt Kowalski, the aforementioned veteran,
including winning the National Board of Review's Best Actor Award for 2008, and
being nominated yesterday by the Broadcast Film Critics Circle for a Best Actor
award. More nominations are expected tomorrow (Dec. 11) and next month
when the Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations respectively will have been
announced.
Perhaps economy of filmmaking style and technique accounts for the sheer speed
and frequency of getting four films on screen in the space of about two full
years. "Gran Torino" started rolling before cameras in July and completed
filming in August, and within four months from completion it has hit the big
screen. Filmed in Michigan, specifically Detroit suburbs like Royal Oak,
Grosse Point, Warren and Highland Park, "Gran Torino", written by first-time
screenwriter Nick Schenk, is named after the Ford car of the same name, the one
passion that Walt Kowalski, a Polish-American, has left. He gives the 1972
model car a good shine up, better than a shoe shine. He's a 50-year auto
worker who sees his neighborhood changing. Part of the change took place
behind the camera as Hmong actors were scouted to play the new immigrant class
in the neighborhood that Walt previously knew as all-white. When one of
Walt's next door neighbors tries to steal Walt's beloved car, well . . .
. . . if you're thinking Dirty Harry, think again.
In an interview with Warner Brothers, the film studio for which the director
helmed "Gran Torino", Mr. Eastwood, who has essentially retired from acting
(with the exception of this role and his Oscar-nominated role in his best
picture and best director-winning "Million Dollar Baby") says of his bigoted
character in the new film: "Walt is sort of the Gran Torino. He doesn't do
anything with (the car) except let it sit in the garage . . . Walt with a glass
of beer, watching his car -- that's about as good as it gets for him at this
stage of life."
The opposite is true of Mr. Eastwood himself however, who at this ripe young age
is getting ready to start shooting his next film, titled "The Human Factor", in
January. Taken from the first term in office of former South African
president and prisoner Nelson Mandela during the mid-1990's, "Factor" focuses on
a rugby sporting event that Mr. Mandela organized and commissioned in an effort
to unite and bridge the divide between black and white in the formerly Apartheid
nation. Morgan Freeman will play Mr. Mandela, a role he has played in the
past. Matt Damon is expected to co-star. "The Human Factor" will
mark Mr. Eastwood's third collaboration with Mr. Freeman, whom he directed to an
Oscar win in 2005 in "Million Dollar Baby" and co-starred with in his other best
director-best picture-winning tandem film, "Unforgiven".
So when on earth does Clint Eastwood take a break from filmmaking?
Rarely, it appears -- except to pick up the accolades he continues to receive
for his work. While some actors a decade below Mr. Eastwood's age bracket
have become retreads or parodies of themselves as thespians on film, as a
filmmaker Mr. Eastwood seems to age like wine of a certain vintage. He has
been in talks with Steven Spielberg, who co-produced both of Mr. Eastwood's war
films of 2006, about directing a supernatural thriller called "Hereafter" and
will be producing a documentary on famed American jazz artist Dave Brubeck.
Mr. Eastwood is an avid jazz lover and he directed "Bird" in 1988, a film which
was a source of both praise and controversy for its cinematic depiction of
Charlie "Bird" Parker (played by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker).
In what might be considered a touch of irony given the "Bird" controversy and
the contretemps with Mr. Lee at Cannes, "Gran Torino" producer Bill Gerber says
that "Clint has always dealt with complex issues of race, religion and prejudice
in an honest way, which can sometimes be politically incorrect, but is always
authentic."
Clint Eastwood's feature film directing debut was in 1971 with "Play Misty For
Me", a film that was a forerunner to "Fatal Attraction", about Evelyn, an
obsessive female caller (Jessica Walter) to a radio station who can't get enough
of Carmel radio jazz disc jockey Dave Garver (Mr. Eastwood). Now almost
forty years later, Mr. Eastwood is continuing to follow his directing heart for
as long as it beats soundly for the love of film.
It may be said that Mick Jagger, who has had his own foray into film acting and
producing from time to time, is the Clint Eastwood of 1970's British rock and
roll, but is Clint Eastwood the Mick Jagger of the film world? Mr.
Eastwood has written and performed music for a number of his films, including
"Million Dollar Baby", "Changeling" and "Gran Torino". Maybe the attempted
comparison does justice to neither man, although in their personal lives at
least, both men have had or been linked to relationships with numerous women
over the years. Each has children from different marriages and
partnerships, and each has always done things his way.
But Clint Eastwood's children are firmly involved in the film and music worlds,
with daughter Alison Eastwood having directed her father's alum Kevin Bacon in
her directing debut film "Rails And Ties" in 2007, and Kyle Eastwood writing
songs with his father (including for "Gran Torino") as well as composing, the
Eastwood legacy has at least a century or two to go before it moves peacefully
into the night.
Clint Eastwood has joked about contemplating an acting role if the right Western
came around, but what was it that propelled him back into an acting chair in "Gran
Torino", for only the ninth time since 1992? "I hadn't planned on doing
much more acting, really, [b]ut this film had a role that was my age, and the
character seemed like it was tailored to me, even though it wasn't. And I
liked the script. It has twists and turns, and also some good laughs."
"Gran Torino" opens on Friday in New York City and Los Angeles, with an
exclusive opening in San Francisco on December 19. The film expands its
release on Christmas Day before going fully wide across both the U.S. and Canada
in January.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2008. All Rights
Reserved.
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