Reaction

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2009)

As the films end credits began to roll, a very rare, tangible wave of emotion expanded throughout the theater. Added to this collective sigh of an audience finally being able to catch its breath was a few claps, which quickly became the loudest applause I have heard in a theater in years.
Gran Torino reaches a level of storytelling that successfully one-ups Eastwood's previous work, and indeed anything released in 2008. The sold out crowd left the theater, some silent, some crying, and others like myself feeling like I had just truly experienced something... something wonderful, something painful, something so undeniably true and loved that it will remain a part of the viewer indefinitely.