Saturday, January 10, 2009

Gran Torino: A Few Notes

I won't do a full review of the movie, since most of my readers have already indicated an intention to see the movie. I'll just pass along a few impressions, without including any major spoilers.

1. Gun handling. Walt Kowalski's handgun of choice is a 1911A1. In the scenes where he pulled it and brandished it, I didn't see him actively flick the thumb safety either off or on. On the first occasion he drew it, the gun was in a cocked condition, but since I didn't see him flick the safety off, I'd guess it was either in Condition 1 or Condition 0.

On the second occasion on which he drew the pistol, it was in Condition 3, and he pulled the slide back to chamber a round. He then thrust the pistol into his waistband. I again didn't see him touch the thumb safety, although he could have, so the pistol when he stuck it in his waistband was either Condition 0 or Condition 1.

2. The M1 Garand features in a few scenes. Kowalski uses it as a home-defense weapon. We watch him load it in the dark, and I notice that the bolt doesn't spring forward on its own when the clip is inserted, thus sparing Eastwood a case of "M1 Thumb;" instead, after inserting the clip, he slams the bolt forward with the heel of his palm.

3. Strangely enough for an Eastwood movie, he only fires a single round from either of his guns during the course of the movie, and that round is an accidental discharge.

4. Eastwood actually sings the first verse of the closing song; he wrote it himself, along with his son, pianist Michael Stevens, and vocalist Jamie Cullum. It is in the jazz style that Eastwood has been a fan of for many years.

5. Eastwood made the movie based on a screenplay from novice screenwriter Nick Schenk, and according to this story, didn't change a word of Schenk's dialog. Thus it is Schenk who is responsible for the weaselly political correctness touches, such as a scene in which the racist Kowalski confronts black thugs and can muster no more vicious an epithet than "spooks" to describe them, even though they are on the verge of committing a rape.

All in all it was a good movie that I enjoyed watching. I don't know if it will win Eastwood an Oscar; the Best Picture nominations have been all but locked up. Best Actor is a possibility as a tribute to the man, but there is stiff competition for that award, also. Eastwood, if he wins an Oscar at all, may do it for one of the minor awards such as score or best song, as sort of a consolation prize in recognition of his career.

2 comments:

Xavier said...

I'm not so enthusiastic about seeing it now.........

Bob said...

Xavier:

You should of course see it. It wasn't my intention to discourage anyone from going to see it. The movie, though, is less a Dirty Harry In Retirement than it is a simple fish-out-of-water story.