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Racist old man sits on porch, scowls at children

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Nodaisho:

--- Quote from: Inlander on 27 Jan 2009, 16:35 ---It's the Guardian, so the link's not dead, it's just borked. They'll fix it up eventually. They always do. Their website is pretty amazingly comprehensive - you can still read articles from the 90s there, for gods' sake!

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I've never been on their site before, so I wouldn't know. I just figured it was dead because it wasn't working right.


--- Quote ---As for the other bit, I just find the whole culture of violence in which it's assumed that because someone's the bad guy their life is disposable to be absolutely disgusting. It's the kind of thing we see over and over again in Hollywood - see Die Hard, for instance, or that horrible end to Bad Boys where they try to have their cake and eat it too ("You can't kill the bad guy! That's wrong! LOOK OUT, HE'S GOT A GUN! BLAM! Phew, that was close." A nice counterpoint to this was Hot Fuzz, which was incredibly violent without ever becoming vengeful. So I really appreciated the fact that Gran Torino managed to resolve itself in a different way - and in fact the whole point of the movie seemed to be that there is a different way to resolve things other than going on a killing spree - even if it was rather melodramatic.

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So you'd rather see someone have to sacrifice themselves to get the bad guys put away, likely not even for life, with their testimony of his previous threats and violence? I'd much prefer to see them get shot, though I wouldn't want to see it presented as wonderful and heroic (though in my opinion, it would be less than they deserved. Not the place to discuss that, though). The way that I think Unforgiven presented it.

Inlander:

--- Quote from: Nodaisho on 28 Jan 2009, 20:42 ---So you'd rather see someone have to sacrifice themselves to get the bad guys put away, likely not even for life, with their testimony of his previous threats and violence?

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I'd rather see murderous violence portrayed as an essentially evil act - regardless of who perpetrates it. I think this is basically the message that comes across in Gran Torino. I don't think the resolution of the film is perfect or ideal by any means, but I'm immensely pleased that for once we're not being asked to cheer for the good guy while he goes on a killing spree. The message of the film is pretty clear: "bad guys" kill people, "good guys" don't. That's much more in keeping with my own thoughts on the matter than the usual Hollywood line of "It's okay to kill bad guys because they're bad guys."

Nodaisho:
I guess I understand that, I just disagree with you on it being that clear cut.

Catacombs:
I did like that they attempted to create an alternate ending than what you thought was going to happen (Eastwood going back to the gang's house and killing all of them).  However, while i was watching them get arrested, and the cop saying they would be put away for a long time, I couldn't help but thinking "really?  i doubt they'll do THAT much time in prison, most likely they wouldn't get life".  Which is sort of depressing, but it's just the way the world is i guess.

Alex C:
You guys are forgetting that in this case the gangs shot a white guy for once.

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