What Happened to Gran Torino?

Gran Torino is Clint Eastwood's biggest hit in years -- it's probably crossing the $100 million mark as we speak, and it looks to finish its run grossing roughly four times what his earlier 2008 film, Changeling, made. It's a box office monster, all the more impressive because the topic hardly screams mass appeal (a grumpy old man protects his Hmong immigrant neighbors from a gang?). The money it's raking in is due solely to Eastwood's appeal as a star and a legend.

The reviews didn't hurt, either. It's hovering at 77% positive on Rotten Tomatoes -- that's more than Oscar heavyweights The Reader (60%) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (72%).

So why did it end up with exactly zero Oscar nominations?

The cynic in me wants to say it's due to the Academy's desperation not to award anything remotely popular. Yeah, the big example is The Dark Knight getting snubbed out of a Best Picture nomination. But think about it: Eastwood's tiny Letters from Iwo Jima was released late in the year and barely seen by anyone, and yet it snuck onto the list of Best Picture nominees a few years back. Gran Torino followed the exact same release pattern, except it got a heck of a lot more attention. But no nominations. None. Not for Eastwood for Best Actor, nor for Eastwood's score, or song, or the screenplay.

Its total snub goes to show exactly how important that ephemeral "buzz" is. For some reason, Gran Torino didn't get very much Oscar buzz. Slumdog Millionaire is the perfect example of a film that did.

That's where Gran Torino's box office success enters the equation: it proved that the Hollywood "buzz" machine is alarmingly insular. While they were talking up Slumdog and The Reader, the outside world was talking up Gran Torino. Sure, there's been some spillover now, and Slumdog is becoming a breakout hit -- and yet as of writing this, it's only made half of what Eastwood's movie has made. Milk, The Reader, and Frost/Nixon are all still struggling at the box office, even after their Best Picture nominations.

In other words, there's a major disconnect. And the Academy and Hollywood is going to start having to admit that the problem might not lie with us, the mass audience -- it might lie with them.

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1. 1

   Candice Dance said:

   I totally agree with you. I have yet to see GranTorino but "The Dark Knight" snub is very upsetting. Nominating "The Reader" is like the McDonalds Cappiccino commercial--appealing to only the "high brow". Personally I like that kind of movie but --am I right and the world wrong--the academy needs to get in touch with "main street". Take a hint from our new president.

   Posted at 12:05 PM, on January 30 2009

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