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Dirty Harry to Walt Kowalski– Eastwood ripens with age ANDRÉ GENSBURGER
DEAL WITH IT
place between love and hate, the racial slurs seem to change tone into a mutual respect and a guarded affection, more than he has found with his own children. There are some hilarious scenes with Walt teaching Thao
Warner Bros. Pictures. BROOKE CHIA THAO, BEE VANG, AHNEY HER AND CLINT EASTWOOD in
Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Gran Torino”
epithets with which he is accustomed. A Korean War veteran, he knows, as he tells his deceased wife’s priest, a lot more about death than the young priest could know. The priest fires back that while that may be true, the priest knows more about life. As Kowalski defends his neighbors, he is also drawn into lowering his guard. And in that
how to be a man, resulting in the boy providing a comical rendition of Walt himself. And there are some emotionally charged scenes where he feels guilt at some repercussions that his involvement has brought. It is only toward the end that we find out the true reason for his in initial anger and isolation, how he felt unable to find redemption for one thing that
happened to him during the war. And in the end, atypically for Eastwood, his character frees himself of the demons that have haunted him with a twist ending. Watching Eastwood, one cannot help but recall the passage of time, of a life and the speed at which that seems to take place. Dirty Harry was another lifetime ago. Eastwood, about to turn 79 in May, is in great shape for his age, somehow changing into a blend of his former personas with the assurance of an older Paul Newman mixed in. The visuals of the film are clean and straight forward, masterful in the simplicity each scene presents. Even his ancient, croaky voice singing the opening verses of the film’s title song at the end leaves the viewer with a completeness and a satisfaction of a time well-spent. With the recent violence in Clayton, senseless and shocking, I took from this movie that it is not the length of a life lived, but the quality of a life lived well that counts. And I can deal with that.
“Coraline” is the newest in a series of films marketed to the cult following of 1993’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Although it’s been more than 15 years since that movie burst onto the screen to change the face of stop-motion animation, filmmakers still haven’t managed to do it again. In 2005, Tim Burton – the writer of “Nightmare” – brought us the snoozer “Corpse Bride.” “Coraline” is not a Burton brainchild, despite the
DAKOTA FANNING provides the voice for “Coraline.”
production design and advertising campaign which hails it as “from the creative team that brought you …” “Coraline” is written and directed by Henry
JEANNA ROSS
AT THE MOVIES Selick, the director of “Nightmare” and 1996’s “James and the Giant Peach.” The storyline centers on the bratty new girl in town, voiced by Dakota Fanning, who is sucked into an alternate universe where everything revolves around her. Her parents, who busily work from home, become Coraline-centric Stepford parents who serve full Thanksgiving turkey for an evening meal. Her annoyingly chatty friend can no longer talk, and her ugly neighbors are beautiful. It’s like “The Wizard of Oz,” if Dorothy had thrown temper tantrums about working on the
farm and Auntie Em had rolled her eyes and told her to go away because she was busy slopping the pigs. Thankfully, Coraline eventually manages to learn Dorothy’s lessons – or we would have had to smack her silly. “Coraline” is a whirlwind of gorgeous animation, though it is perhaps not suitable to its obvious audience of elementaryaged children. Scenes are both terrifying and gory and expose far too much female flesh. (Think Jessica Rabbit, then take off the dress.) It is nightmare fodder in the extreme, but this is 2009 – if your kids have already seen Stephen King films, then never mind my prudery. The wonders of “Coraline” will depend on why you go to the movies. If you are an aficionado of amazing graphics or the process of film, particularly 3-D or stop-motion, then “Coraline” is an amazing work. Every time the tunnel to the new world showed up, I spent five minutes analyzing how they had created the effect. Most of the art made me think back to the featurettes on my
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“Nightmare” DVD to remember how it was created. But that’s not what I want to be thinking about during a film. I’m a story hound, and “Coraline” doesn’t deliver. There are plot holes galore, questions left unanswered and most of the characters aren’t particularly likable. Each element of the filmmaking invades the consciousness – the animation, the voices, even the score by Bruno Coulais, which I loved, but when was the last time you were so disinterested by a story that you thought, “Neat music. I wonder who wrote it?” It doesn’t bode well. “Coraline” is definitely a departure from the usual kid fare, but the little blue-haired minx failed to win me over. Give me Wall-E and Eve any day. (By the way, mark your calendars! Pixar goes “Up” on May 29!) Jeanna Ross is an English teacher at Clayton Valley High School and a free lance writer. She regularly contributes to the Pioneer. Send comments to her at movies@claytonpioneer.com.
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André Gensburger is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Pioneer. His email address is andre@claytonpioneer.com
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I had to laugh throughout Clint Eastwood’s latest film, “Gran Torino” – named after the 1972 classic car that he maintains as the only pristine thing in his life. His character, Walt Kowalski, learns the most valuable of lessons: that living is infinitely harder than dying. Kowalski’s ingrained bigotry of his neighbors, comprised of immigrants and young thugs of varying races, plays off perfectly against his hard-ass, unwavering racial slurs and distinctive guttural growls at each encounter. Even his own children, with whom he later admits to having had no relationship, act as yet another foreign element in his world. It is only when young Thao from the Hmong family living next door tries to steal his prized Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation, and his sister Sue stands firm against Walt’s verbal wrath, that Kowalski finds a new purpose to the remainder of his life – trying to save both kids from the obvious cycle of violence that plagues his neighborhood.
Much of the humor in the film comes at the expense of one racial group or another, including the casual, yet comfortable manner in which Kowalski refers to them using any of the hundreds of racial
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