I hadn't seen a CVlint Eastwood movie for a while. I gave Flags of our fathers & Letters form Iwo Jima a miss and I didn't get round to see Changeling.
I managed to catch that one.
And I have to say it was worth it.
He started taking his aging into account early on and so he did the grumpy old man role before, but not up to the point of thee main character here, so it feels still a bit fresh. And he put all his charisma to it as well, making Walt Kowalski a very memorable character (those grunts will be remembered, that's for sure!).
The symbolic is also very strong: almost 20 years after finishing off The Man With No Name in Unforgiven, he's giving Dirty Harry a last stand here. And he evolved in a remarkable way...
The story might be quite predictable, but it's well paced and the themes are fairly subtly developed. I say "fairly", because there are a few tricks that I found a bit too obvious. For example, Walt's family feeled way too much like a bunch of bastards to me. Then again, if you want an old racist git to go towards an Asian community, you would want to set an appropriately stark contrast. So I guess that could blow away if I see the movie again in a different mood...
Anyway I don't think it will stand among the classics Eastwood delivered before, but it's still a worthwhile entry in his filmography. And it could be a very appropriate "filmic" epitaph...
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