A Great Film

Rating: 9/10 (29 August 2009)

Sometimes you are disappointed with the movie you watch, right from the first minutes, sometimes not. And then there are the gems, you just know they deliver good entertainment. It's just a good quality build.
This is one of those films. It had me the first time Clint makes that angry grin of his. There is the sense of humor, perhaps nothing new here from Clint on the technical side, but there is something very well weighed out in the combination of setting, acting and above all - pace. This film takes it's time and tells it's story and it does so in a rich flavor. It's surprising how often new films nowadays ignore this point because for some reason they have to make too many fast cuts and put too much stuff in there - just as if to make sure at least some scene hits the mark to please everyone an maximize the profit. As seen in this film, there is no need to, if you know what you're doing.
It's clear from the beginning that this is a film where the main responsibility is on one actor's shoulders alone. It a lot about heroism from one man's view alone. Many male actors seem to go along this path. Clint Eastwood it perhaps the best example. He can pull it off like few others. It's not an easy thing to do nowadays, people expect something more from the plot, and just few twists and surprises won't do. So what's different about this film?
For me this film succeeds because I can so easily relate to it. It's about a an old man seeing all these things going wrong around him, unwilling to confront anything good that might come out of it. I'm not an old man, but my grandfather was, and he fought in WW2 against the soviets. He survived, but it must have left some scars, and he was very reluctant in revealing anything about the horrors he might have seen. He was all about respect. During the last years of his life he must have seen me as Walt sees most of the younger people around him. Are these idiot's going to rule the world after I'm gone? My grandfather never said anything, one look at me when I was around 13 and useless for anything but being lazy and playing computer games, was enough.
Although that's mostly because how this film was directed I still have to give credit to the younger cast for portraying confused teenagers quite well. Christopher Carley also does a good job as priest serving as the only link to the authorities - the police are very busy elsewhere it seems. At times you can't help comparing this to a good old western where the sheriff is forced to clean up the town. Perhaps that's the point, for the sake of entertainment. That works for me at least. And the end completely surprised me, because:
"Ever noticed how you come across somebody once in a while that.. you shouldn't have f*d with!?"
There are these old guys you simply don't mess with. They have dealt with the really big messes of our recent history. Be it the Korean war or any other war and no matter whose side they were on, it must have been hell. You can perhaps afford to be young and stupid, but they couldn't.