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Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Oscar prospects for Eastwood stall - as he sings!
People have seen Clint Eastwood’s new movie Gran Torino, and often I’ve heard a discouraging word.
As he has done on more than one occasion in his career, Eastwood has directed two movies in close succession. This year, it was the somewhat underrated Changeling and Gran Torino, due for release here in January. Word around the Oscar campfire was that Changeling would grag a nomination for Angelina Jolie, but that was it. Gran Torino was the real awards bait.
Now, Warner Bros. has started to screen the film, and the buzz has suddenly turned very sour indeed. At the Hot Blog, David Poland writes his review to the tune of “Those Were The Days.”
“Gran Torino takes a spin. Saying “gook” out loud gets thin. Hang yourself if you had money on this film for the win.
“His temper short, but films were long. “Make my day” made a terrific song. I don’t know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days.”
Over at In Contention, awards guru Kristopher Tapley wrote Tuesday that “in the way of a one-off, I expect John Wilson and his band of gleefully destructive voters may (regretably) have a field day.”
John Wilson is the head of the Golden Razzie Awards, which skewer the worst films of the year.
In the word of E.T. - ouch.
On the other hand, Pete Hammond, who writes the “Notes on a Season Column” says “If Gran Torino does prove to be Clint Eastwood’s acting swan song, he couldn’t have picked a better way to go out.”
And just to make things even more fun, Gran Torino sports a song sung by Eastwood, which you can hear part of by clicking here.
Now, this isn’t the first time Eastwood has sung for a movie: he warbled “I Talk to the Trees” in the infamous misfire Paint Your Wagon. Eastwood is an accomplished musician, having composed songs and scores for many of his movies. But this title number from Gran Torino brings back uncomfortable memories of his Paint Your Wagon castmate Lee Marvin growling his way through “Wan’drin Star.”
A few weeks ago I questioned the viability of the film based on its trailer. Now I’m not so sure I’m looking forward to it. I’ll never rule Clint out, but da-yum …
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