sir clint eastwood

I'll be an honest son of a gun, I've always held a certain resentment for Clint Eastwood-directed movies (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flag Of Our Fathers). I resented how much critical praise they garnered during awards season and how they overshadowed works which I considered entirely more deserving, but merely lacking "Eastwood" emblazoned in the credits. Make no mistake, Eastwood's direction is a thing of savvy, many times engrossing filmmaking, but by no stretch, revelatory. It's apparent Clint Eastwood had found degrees of truth and wisdom in his advanced years, he's a very smart man, and finding truth with age is something that shouldn't be discredited or unappreciated. But that in itself doesn't always translate into genius artistry.

Eastwood's latest, Gran Torino, again is assuredly not one of those works that will resonate for any kind of innovation, but man, does it resonate in the grandest way: simple genius. Eastwood, at his core, is a political artist. Not in the sense of governmental policies or war-time atrocities, but in his vision's straightforwardness and use of cultural-perceptional polarizations. Amidst all the extremism as device, Eastwood achieves an undeniable air of lightness in Gran Torino, and even a disarming sort of old-school whimsy.

What I found most beautiful is Eastwood's own artistic redemption at the end of the story, making amends for not only all the glorification of vigilante violence he portrayed early in his career, but also all the triumphalism that he perpetuated.

Eastwood's gonna undoubtedly make a few more films, but Gran Torino is a beautiful culmination to his legacy. And a revelation.