Why Gran Torino is the Best Movie of the Year

Note: Thanks to Sylvia for reminding me I need to write this.

When I posted my Best of 2008 list I got a few emails from readers who were surprised that I picked Gran Torino as the best move of the year over The Dark Knight since they knew what a big Batman fan I am and how much I raved about the movie.

Yes, I loved The Dark Knight. It had everything you want as far as good writing, great special effects, wonderful acting, and a wicked plot. However, it lacked the personal intimacy of Grand Torino. And though both movies had themes of redemption, atonement, and salvation, Gran Torino did it on a more personal and, therefore, more powerful way.

In Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood starts as a grumpy, racist, Korean War vet named Walt. The Detroit neighborhood he lives in is falling apart, controlled by gangs, and inhabited by Asian people who Walt despises. To top it off, he has a strained relationship with his two sons, a catholic priest, and has a bunch of spoiled grandkids.

The movie revolves around Walt’s relationship with the Lors – a Hmong family that lives next door. As part of his initiation into a Hmong gang, the neighbor kid named Thao (Bee Vang) breaks into Walts’s garage to steal his vintage Gran Torino. As a result he inadvertently ends up getting involved in the lives of Thoa and his older sister Sue (Ahney Her) and defending them against violent intimidation.

Slowly we see Walt’s toughness melt away as the kindness from the Lors makes him realize that they’re just like anyone else. This is where the movie could have run down the path of being your typical Can’t-We-Just-All-Get-Along movie. But the movie doesn’t focus on Walt’s acceptance of the Lors (thought that happens). Instead it focuses on Walt and what’s makes him one of the most complex characters in recent cinema history.

What really makes the movie, however, is the ending. No, I’m not going to spoil it for you, but it’s an extremely moving ending that has surprised everyone that’s seen it. It makes the movie and gives the movie a deeply satisfying conclusion.

Gran Torino isn’t a perfect movie. Some of the acting from Vang and Her is far from perfect. But the best movies are the ones with the best special effects and well-known actors. Instead they’re the ones that show real, complex characters trying to make the best in the world we live in.

Grand Torino wasn’t a movie I expected to like. I have a love hate relationship with Clint Eastwood movies. Some have been great while others have been plain awful. I’ve never really forgiven Eastwood for royally screwing up Mystic River. Eastwood, however, redeemed himself with a realistic movie that shows the audience that not one is beyond redemption. Best of all, the film reminds us what the true definition if love really is.

One word of warning. Gran Torino contains a lot of foul and racist language. If you’re uncomfortable with that, don’t see it. But if you can look past that, you’ll see a moving story of atonement and salvation that makes it the best film I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Gran Torino **** stars (out of 4).

The Dark Knight

Marathon Girl and I were able to attend Nerdtacular 2008 on Saturday and, as part of the festivities, watch the best movie of the year: The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight has to be one the best crime dramas in recent memory and might just set a new standard for comic book based movies.

Christian Bale reprises the role of Batman and finds Gotham slipping into chaos as the Joker goes on a psychotic robbery and killings sprees in order to turn the orderly city into one of chaos and mayhem.

The Dark Knight real quality to it that many comic book movies lack. Instead of special-effect laden stunts, we’re treated to the real thing. Several stunts, such as the semi being flipped over -- left the audience in the sold-out theatre gasping. It proved that, if done right, you don’t need computer animation to achieve spectacular results.

But, thankfully, The Dark Knight is more than just an action film. Writer/Director Christopher Nolan lets us see the many layers of the main characters in the film including characters that often aren’t given much depth including the Joker and Commissioner Gordon. Throughout the film there are no easy answers or choices for the characters to make in this movie. Often the characters are presented with no-win situations and simply have to make the best choice based on the knowledge they have at the time.

All the acting is superb, but it’s Heath Leger’s Joker that steals the show. It’s too bad that such a talented actor is dead because he takes Batman’s arch nemesis to a whole new level. I feel bad for the actor that has to play the Joker in the next film – if they decide to bring the Joker back – because he’s going to have some impossibly large shoes to fill.

The Dark Knight is over two-and-a-half-hours long but doesn’t feel like it. Nolan’s pacing keeps the film moving from the opening scene and doesn’t let up until the credits roll.

More than your standard summer popcorn movie, The Dark Knight is a serious drama complete with complex characters, and intricate plot, and great acting.

One note to parents: Parts of the movie are very dark, violent, and disturbing. It’s a not your typical comic book movie like Iron Man or the Spider Man franchise. I wouldn’t recommend letting kids under the age of 10 or thereabouts watch it.

The Dark Knight: 4 out of 4 stars. (And , yes, I plan on paying to watch this movie again.)

I Am Legend

 

Marathon Girl and I had a wonderful night out this weekend and weren’t going to miss the opportunity to see I Am Legend. And we’re both glad that we did. We both thought it was a movie that kept us our hearts pounding from the start to the closing credits.

Warning: Minor spoilers follow.

Will Smith stars at Robert Neville who is the last person on earth – or at least the last person in the New York City area. The rest of the population has been turned into monsters that are a mix between vampires and zombies thanks to a cancer vaccine gone awry. Neville spends his day, scavenging for food and other supplies, trying to find a cure for the virus, and, most importantly, trying to stay sane. At night he sleeps in a bathtub with his dog and tries to shut out the noise the monsters make as they roam the city looking for food.

Smith is perfect for this roll – one in which he get 90 percent of the screen time. Unlike Tom Hanks in Cast Away, Smith does an excellent job of portraying a man who hasn’t had any human contact in years.  He actually makes us feel the loneliness he’s feeling and how day after day of just surviving is driving him crazy.  And when he finally finds himself in another person’s presence…well, let’s just say he acts like just about anyone else would under those circumstances.

To help round out Neville’s character and make him someone we care about instead of some guy who’s slowly losing it, the movie includes Lost-type flashbacks where we learn more about Neville’s family and the events leading up the virus that turned most people into ravenous monsters. It makes him someone we care enough about that we understand why he starts taking out monsters by the dozen and are truly terrified for him when he finds himself caught in one of their traps. This movie easily could have turned into a monster/slasher/blood-fest type of film. But the writers wisely bring us in contact with the monsters only when necessary which adds tension to the film. (Are you striking writers paying attention? It’s not tons of blood and gore that make movies scary but the anticipation that something’s bad going to happen that truly scare people.) There are scenes – all in broad daylight – when Neville’s driving through New York, “renting” DVDs, or scavenging through empty apartment buildings but you’re still on the edge of your seat thinking that that monsters are going to jump out of a closet or from some dark tunnel any minute. And when we finally get out first glimpse of the monsters well in to the film, it pulse pounding, scary, and soooo fun to watch.

The best part about the film is that, unlike the book that was based on, it has very satisfying ending (more on this in my next post) and will leave with a feeling of hope instead of one where they feel cheated and let down. I Am Legend is a must see move for anyone who wants a 90-minute thrill ride.

Warning: Be careful about taking kids to this movie. Though it’s rated PG-13 it would easily terrify most kids younger than 12.

I Am Legend *** ½ out of 4 stars

Getting Over Grief and We Are Marshall

 

Anyone looking for a good DVD to rent this weekend might want to consider the recently released We Are Marshall.

For those who are rolling your eyes thinking that We Are Marshall is just another sports movie about a team that has to pull together and win, you're only partially right. The movie is about building a new football team from scratch after most of the players and coaches of Marshall University are killed in a tragic plane crash in November 1970. But that's just the setting of the movie.

We Are Marshall is really a movie about dealing with death and loss and how individuals and communities cope with the loss of loved ones. It's a movie about those who choose to move on and those who want to let the past hold them back.

And the desire to be held back by some sense of mourning is tempting. The university considers canceling the football program but only the quick thinking of one of the surviving football players convinces the board of trustees to let the football program continue.

Then there's Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), the only member of the coaching staff who wasn't on the plane because he opted to drive home and make a recruiting stop on the way. He's wracked by survivor's guilt, the loss of his mentor Marshall's head coach Rick Tolley (an un-credited roll by Robert Patrick) -- and the fact that he personally recruited many of the players who died after promising their mothers he'd watch after them while they were on the team.

After the program is reinstated, Dawson is offered the head coach job. He turns it down and spends his time building a shed in his back yard. Returning to football -- a game that he loves -- is something he doesn't want to do.

Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) takes the job that no coach in the country wants: building a football team from scratch in the shadow of dead players and coaches. Not only does he have to field a team, he has to help Dawson (who finally agrees to be an assistant coach for one final year) and the university president, other players, and members of the community to know that the best way to accept their loss and climb out from under the shadow of the dead is to play football.

In one emotional scene following the blowout loss to Morehead State, Dawson tells Lengyel that they aren't honoring the dead because he thinks the team is playing poorly and losing. Lengyel fires back that the Marshall football program isn't about winning right now but healing the community and the individuals who are still mourning over loved ones. He tells Dawson that building a football program, even one that's only marginally successful is about giving the people a chance to rebuild their lives. He tells Dawson:

One day, not today, not tomorrow, not this season, probably not next season either but one day, you and I are gonna wake up and suddenly we're gonna be like every other team in every other sport where winning is everything and nothing else matters. And when that day comes, well that's...that's when we'll honor them [the dead players and coaches].

In another scene, the morning before Marshall's home opener, Lengyel takes his team to the resting spot of six unidentified players. He gives them an inspiring speech about the dead players and coaches but at the end proclaims, "The funerals end today!"

His message is clear: stop living in and thinking about the past. Instead start doing what you were put on Earth to do and start living again.

Despite the dark and sad feeling that penetrates the movie, we see how players, individuals, and the community are slowly moving on with their lives.

We see an unopened case of beer that was to be used to console the players before 1970 teams' win before the fateful crash, sitting untouched until a new player opens a can and is joined by others. We see the fiance of one of the dead players take the advice of the should-have-been father-in-law and leave Hunington, West Virginia to move on with her life and not be held back by the past. And we see how the community celebrates the re-built team's surprising victory against Xavier by staying on the field for hours after the game.

Sadly, not everyone makes the decision to move on and we are shown how their decisions contrast with those who move forward.

Losing a loved one can be difficult and We Are Marshall portrays that agony in very heart wrenching scenes. But it contains a message of hope and shows how an individual and community can move on after the tragic death of a loved one -- even many loved ones -- and become stronger in the process.