Like many great Hollywood magicians Clint Eastwood does it again with his directorial and acting efforts. It is not often you watch a carefully crafted film with many different elements within the story that often reflect issues of modern day society. In this, we see a representation of that and much more. The masterful eye of Eastwood captures the story of Walt Kowalski played by Clint Eastwood as an angry Polish man who fought in the Korean War; he befriends a young boy Thao Vang Lor played by Bee Vang who he mentors in the ways of life helping him see things differently and making an impression upon him. The screenplay was written by Nick Schenk, and the story was written by Dave Johannson and Nick Schenk.
Thao’s sister Sue Lor played by Ahney Her also steps into Walt’s life, she impacts him in a positive way and changes his outlooks on things as well. Christopher Carley plays the character Father Janovich who tries to figure Walt out and his intentions as he meets with him. Walt also has a family and two sons; he has been in mourning since the passing of his late wife. He has become bitter about the world and the environment he lives in as things have changed before his very own eyes.
More of the cast includes: Brian Haley playing Mitch Kowalski, Geraldine Hughes as Karen Kowalski, Dreama Walker as Ashley Kowalski, Brian Howe as Steve Kowalski, John Carroll Lynch as Barber Martin, William Hill as Tim Kennedy, Chee Thao as Grandma, Brooke Chia Thao as Vu, Choua Kue as Youa, Scott Eastwood (Son of Clint Eastwood and Jacelyn Reeves) as Trey, and Xia Soua Chang as Kor Khue.
This film will grab a hold of you and won’t let you go until the end, the characters were quite realistic and seem to be a slice from life captured and represented. I think the film also deals with many issues including race, violence, relationships, territory and dominance. It makes you think what is wrong with society and how people are different from one another. If only we all could see eye to eye on things, if people would spend time getting to know one another better there would be less misunderstandings. Perhaps this film is trying to teach this lesson to us in its own way.
The film was very polished how it was put together the scenes played out nicely. I highly recommend watching this one. It was a fantastic film, one of the better films I’ve seen in the last few years. You will have to watch to find out why the name of the film was used.
This was an Oscar winner, so obviously it got lots of attention. I wanted to review it also; this movie was extremely well done in a very subtle way. The interconnected stories are all meshed together in some way or another. This makes the story dynamic in different ways, so you have to see and read between the lines of what is there. The movie was directed by Paul Haggis who has talent growing out of his shoulders, even though the man has lost his hair. You might know that he also won for his writing of the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby (2004) which was directed by Clint Eastwood. This means only since 1950 he is the only screenwriter who has won two back to back best film awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That’s quite an achievement. He directed this film also.
You will see a lot of familiar faces in this one, including Sandra Bullock playing Jean Cabot who is a rich woman without any real friends in life, until she wakes up to realize who is important to her. The unique Don Cheadle plays Det. Graham Waters who is a partial centerpiece for the film. You will also see Tony Danza in this as Fred and Brendan Fraser as Rick Cabot. Keith David is Lt. Dixon, Loretta Devine is playing Shaniqua Johnson, Matt Dillon as Officer John Ryan, Ryan Phillippe as Officer Tom Hansen and Jennifer Esposito is Ria. Also, Terrence Howard is in this playing the role of Cameron Thayer and his wife is played by Thandie Newton. The actor Michael Peña also gives a great performance. There are others of course, but you will have to see this yourself.
The performances given in this were excellent. The movie shines light on racial tensions, and takes place throughout various locations in Los Angeles. The open setting of the story takes place with several people involved in multiple car crashes, the movie flashes back to the daily lives of each of the central characters and from there we get a sense of what really happened and how things unfolded. I highly recommend this, and it will be put on my best picks list. The tagline for this film was: “You think you know who you are. You have no idea”.
