Gran Torino

Eh oui, c’était incontestablement un superbe film de plus de la part de Clint Eastwood. Ai-je été totalement subjugué ? Non, pas à ce point. Je me suis même légèrement assoupi pendant la deuxième moitié, quand la relation entre Kowalski et le jeune asiatique était devenue attendrissante à l’excès. Des dialogues drôles, un Clint Eastwood excellent, une fin qui m’a surprise et est bien pensée… Ce sont là des atouts incontestables, mais de là à mettre cinq étoiles… (07/03/2009)

Dans Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood ne bouge pas du ring, ici il ne bouge pas de la véranda de sa maison. Gran Torino marche dans les pas intimes de son récent opus de boxe et donne au spectateur un coup encore plus fort. Clint réalise l'un de ses personnages les plus intéressants dans ce film, qui se déroule sans accrocs. Dans un environnement clair d'histoire simple, la continuité parfaite des scènes individuelles est mise en évidence, servie à vos yeux sur un plateau dans l'étude curieuse du caractère de Clint. Même un plan court de tonte de pelouse a du sens dans ce film. Tout a un sens et sa place. Sans parler de la chanson pendant les crédits de fin... (16/02/2009)

“Dirty Harry" with one foot in the grave looks back on his live and ponders over questions of life and death. Clint approached this rather tired topic with great verve, and with transcends it and has a feeling of quality about it that only he has the knowhow to imprint into his movies. He follows the simple maxim “what you don’t do yourself isn’t yours". He played his best role for many years, shot his best role for many years, produced his best role for many years and partly wrote and sang his best song for many years. Shame that he didn’t shoot his best movie for many years. But still, it’s a great movie. And that’s what’s most important, isn’t it? P.S.: I couldn’t name another movie where a simple background song for the credits would make such an impact. It’s by far the best song in the whole movie. It says exactly the same, but needs just a couple of minutes to say it. (15/12/2008)

Clint's Farewell, or Empties by the American badass. The film has a tendency to slide into cliché and calculation, but the character of a grumpy old man who finds redemption (?) in his old age has the kind of gradation that will make you swallow the two hours of mentoring and lamenting the good old days to the max. Objectively, there are many things that could be criticized about it, but subjectively, it affected me so much that I don't want to have any reservations regarding it. (16/05/2009)

This really swept me away. The entire film flows with the same melancholic mood, regardless of whether they are exchanging bullets or sarcastic wisecracks. Gran Torino drives straight to a clear ending, but that’s one of its strengths. Really, a surprising twist wouldn’t be fitting, everything ends the way it should. And the end credits have a wonderful song with a powerful effect that multiplies the emotions of the film as a whole. For me, one of the year’s best films. (27/12/2008)