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Friday, June 19, 2009
BD impressions: Gran Torino
9:56 PM / BD Impressions / 
8 Comments
I must admit that Gran Torino slightly disappointed me, particularly given the strengths of Clint Eastwood's previous film, Changeling, which I personally thought was terrific. The jury seems to be out on which of the two 2008 offerings from the grisled one is the superior movie, but there's no question about it in my mind. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Gran Torino: I did think it was a decent film on the whole, but it suffers from some critical problems, by far the biggest of which is actually not the uneven acting from the supporting cast (consisting largely of Hmong non-actors) but rather the script, which is pretty clunky in places. Writer Nick Schenk comes out with some shockingly clumsy dialogue that I'm surprised wasn't nixed prior to the project going into production, and the characterisation is, for the most part, completely two-dimensional. Eastwood once again puts in an acting tour de force, even if for the most part he is required to do little more than glower and make bigoted comments.
It's slightly difficult to say how good Warner's BD transfer is, given that the film is, for the most part, somewhat grubby and unappealing. Eastwood's preference for anamorphic Panavision continues, and it shares the rather murky look of Million Dollar Baby and Changeling. The former is the weakest looking of the trio in high definition and the latter is the strongest, with Gran Torino falling slap-bang in the middle. Detail is reasonable but not great, although I can't be sure how much this has to do with the lenses rather than the transfer. Compression is well-handled, and there's no blatant evidence of overt digital manipulation, but... eh, it just looks a tad underwhelming to me. 7/10
Gran Torino
studio: Warner; country: USA; region code: ABC; codec: VC-1;
file size: 27.6 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 33.98 Mbit/sec
By the way, is it just me or does the film's plot have rather a lot in common with that of Pixar's Up? Both are about a bitter old man whose wife has died and has isolated himself within the old family home, despite attempts to pack him off to a retirement home, and both rediscover a certain sense of joie de vivre thanks to the wacky exploits of a goofy Asian boy. Just a little left field thought I'm throwing out there.
8 Comments
Marcus:
No, I can't say I had any objections. It's one of the few films of that length that didn't bore me for a second. I was riveted from beginning to end and felt that the final hour contained some of the most powerful material.
Some Guy:
I'm familiar with Dirty Harry, although it's been a number of years since I've seen any of them. I definitely got the impression that Walt Kowalski was meant to be a riff on that persona, and I think this was one of the more effective elements of what was otherwise a somewhat hackneyed and obvious script.
Erik:
On the old site, the previous button was actually a crude spam blocker. By forcing everyone to preview their posts, I was able to significantly reduce the amount of automated crap that got through. With Movable Type 4, the spam blocking is vastly superior, negating the need for me to do this. I figured that the added step required to post a comment was just a headache for people, particularly given how sluggish this server is at running CGI scripts. However, if there's a general consensus that the preview function is helpful, I'll look into adding an optional one.
Christopher:
Interesting to hear. I figured as much, actually, although these days, with digital intermediates being the norm, it's often difficult to tell how much crap is applied before release prints are created. The example I often bring up is the Jodie Foster vehicle Flightplan, which exhibited DNR artefacts on theatrical prints. Likewise, when I saw The Machinist at the cinema, the same heavy edge enhancement visible on home video releases was present on the print.
(Posted on Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 6:46 PM)
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1. Marcus said:
The UP similarities made me laugh out loud.
Tell me Michael, you didn't have a problem with the last hour of Changeling at all?
(Posted on Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 12:04 AM)