Reviews

I thought this movie was superb. If this is Clint riding out into the sunset then what a way to go. His legacy is one that will never be matched. From Rawhide to Gran Torino, we have watched this actor/director transform a character into someone real and genuine. Clint is in a class all his own, with no peer anywhere near him both in focus and originality.

Walt Kowalski(Eastwood)is an individual distraught by his wife's death and the changing world around him. The remaining members of his family are viewed by Kowalski as blood-sucking vultures and rightly so. His neighbors, Asian in heritage, surround him and his dog. He has watched as his neighborhood has racially and culturally changed and has deep resentment toward his neighbors. His racial epithets continue, even though his next-door neighbors consider him a hero, after standing up to the neighborhood punks who rule the mid-western city neighborhood he lives in. His tough love and fatherly approach toward his young Asian neighbor is heartwarming, even after the boy tries to steal his Grand Torino initially. The boy needs Walt and Walt needs him to try and understand their place in an ever-changing world. Kowalski is a man who is lost in the 1950's. A Korean war veteran who has killed and has seen killing. His hate for Asians, presumably due to the war, is subdued after acts of kindness by his neighbors and the boy he befriends. Kowalski's parish priest is persistent in attempting to subdue the hate that boils within Kowalski. In the end the priest gets through to Kowalski, learning something from Walt as well. Kowalski repents in the end and offers up the supreme sacrifice for his Asian neighbors. A heart-warming story that leads one on an emotional roller-coaster.

Well, I saw this movie 3 days after it first premiered. I thought it lived up to its 60% billing by movie critics. I read where the movie only did about 3 1/2 million in box office sales over the first weekend. Came in at # 9. So maybe that is a disappointment to the producers.

This review contains spoilers.

Well, where do I begin? The movie starts off with Muddy Waters(Jeffrey Wright) being recorded by the US Gov't Historical Preservation Society in the south. Then it fast forwards to Muddy going to Chicago and playing the street corners. Being chastised by the city slickers, mainly Blacks, until he runs a cord from the apartment of his girlfriend to an amplifier and then his gifted amplified sound now brings crowds. He befriends harmonica player Little Walter(Columbus Short) and the two entertain the street corner crowds. Club owner, Leonard Chess(Adrienne Brody) hears of Waters and hires he and Little Walter. The two musicians woe the crowds and soon start their climb to local fame. Chess see's dollar bills in the two of them and soon burns down his club to get the insurance money to start Chess Records. Howling Wolff (Eamonn Walker) and Willie Dixon (Cedric The Entertainer) are signed. One day Chuck Berry (Mos Def) shows up and Chess Records is on top of the R&B charts. Berry soon crosses over (to the White audience) and the money starts rolling in. Chess has a habit of giving a Cadillac to his stable of entertainers, but his stable soon finds out that the Cadillac's aren't free. Soon, Berry gets hooked up with White girls, and the film doesn't explicitly show it, but the connotation is that he violates the Mann Act (transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes) and is sent to prison for a few years, right at the peak of his career. Enter Etta James (Beyonce Knowles) Chess is in need of another hit-maker. Etta delivers and is once again cranking out hits for Chess. Etta has a lot of baggage though, and it becomes evident to Chess not long after she signs with Chess Records. Her father, pool hustler Minnesota Fats rejects her and sends her into a drug and alcohol stupor. Chess soon takes her under his wing and in the process falls in love with her (it appears) although he is married. Chess leaves or sells Chess Records as Etta sings "At Last" as he exits the Chess studio for the last time. On his way home he suffers a heart attack and dies( in reality he dies a few years later). Etta finds out that nothing was left to her in the will, but someone shows up with a deed to her house which she had turned over to Chess before she lost it while she was going through bankruptcy.

The film ends with Waters and Dixon going to Europe and being greeted like long, lost heroes.

All of the actors, I think, played a good part. Although some critics were critical of Beyonce's portrayal of Etta, I couldn't disagree more. The only criticism, I guess, is that maybe she could have been portrayed in a sassier mode, although Beyonce brought out that part of Etta's personality. Jeffrey Wright played a good Muddy Waters in the first part of the movie, but fades in the latter half. I had a hard time understanding what he was saying in the second half of the movie. That may have been how Muddy actually spoke though. The actor who played the best character though, in my humble opinion, was Columbus Short in his portrayal of Little Walter. Walter had many demons in his life and Short portrayed them well.

It's a movie worth seeing and the music will definitely take you back to a better time.