USA Today has a the first peek of Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino,” and the movie’s one-sheet.
What can we tell you? An angry, old, bitter Eastwood playing a racist? We’re sick and tired of seeing Eastwood playing these scowling codger roles. Sure, maybe it’s all he can do now, but is this going to be any different from his work in “Million Dollar Baby,” outside of him being a blatant racist and a slightly more-unlikable than usual character?
Everyone has this pegged for Oscar hopes, but it’s more for consistency and track-record than anything else. Though let’s not forget that around the time of “Flags Of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” Oscar seemed to tire of him slightly. Sure, the latter WWII film did get nominated for four Oscars and did win Best Achievement in Sound Editing, but it never really had any serious hopes in the Best Director or Best Movie categories that year and the nominations were almost in-lieu of nothing better (‘Iwo Jima’ put us to sleep).
Opening Dec. 17 in limited release, “Gran Torino,” Eastwood plays a disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski who sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager whose Korean family he already resents, who tries to steal his most prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino.
In a previous USA Today interview, Eastwood say of his character. “I’m a weirdo in it. I play a real racist… But it also has redemption. This Hmong family moves in next door, and he has been in the Korean War, in the infantry, and looks down on Asian people and lumps everybody together. But finally they befriend him in his time of need because he has no relationship with his family.”
Hmm, redemption for an old bastard, do we smell Oscar-bait on the end of that stick? Hmm, could be, huh? But we’re still really sick of these stories and execution from Eastwood; they’re becoming stock dramas that feel all-too familiar over and over again.
Either way, Eastwood will be competing with himself this year, his first 2008 film “Changeling,” starring Angelina Jolie (which we didn’t love), comes out this Friday, October 24. Jolie is almost a shoo-in for an Oscar just because of history, but it’s a crowded field with many other deserving actresses as well (and frankly if we had our choice, we’d go with Michelle Williams or Kristin Scott Thomas instead).