The Power Of Cinema

I realize I may be one of the last remaining humans who had not seen the movie, Gran Torino and maybe worse - this movie was the recipient of my first and only "Fandango" screw-up where I bought the tickets to go see it, and changed me mind one hour before it was to begin. How completely stupid was that?

Anyway, this past Sunday, the first Father's Day - 11 weeks following my father's death - I sat down with my middle son and watched this powerful story unfold on my living room TV.

I know that we all watch movies for so many different reasons. Most of all, we want to be entertained and escape the crap of life.....probably most of the time, we want to laugh, we want to enjoy a great adventure, watch things blow up, and see people fall in love, and appreciate our favorite actors being the heroes that movies tell us they are.

I had only seen a few previews for this movie, but from the opening scene, I was hooked. Maybe it was the emotions of my first Father's Day where I did not send anything to my Dad or talk to him on the phone. Maybe it was the amazing story, maybe it was Clint Eastwood's performance. I was so moved by this film, I practically made Karla sit down with me the next night and watch it again.

I will watch it several more times because (at least for me) there is so much in this film that causes me to stop and think about my life, my relationships, and my faith.

One of the blogs I like to read - listed on the side panel of my blog - is Brett McCracken. I have never met Brett, but I wandered onto his blog one day, and have been a regular ever since. He is a film critic, and I love his world-view, and his take on films. He is one of the film critics for Christianity Today. He and his fellow critics rated Gran Torino as #3 of the 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2008.

I couldn't agree more.

If you want to read Brett's review of this film, go HERE

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