I thought this was fantastic. I have some reservations about it, but overall the film was great. Clint's screen presence has changed over the years but hasn't diminished. This is by no means a perfect performance (though it's much better than some of those around him) and he's ten or fifteen years too late to be totally credible as Walt Kowalski, but he does draw out a fully rounded character with passions and humour and fears below the curmudgeonly, racist surface. Also, he reins himself in better than in some of his previous Director/Star vehicles. There is a greater economy in this performance than in some of his others when he didn't have a director to chide him.
It is a much better film than the basic premise of 'racist war veteran meets immigrants and realises that we're all the same beneath the skin'. In fact, in some ways it is basically a Western where a grizzled gunfighter reluctantly protects the weak from hostile attackers. Parts of the film are almost a machismo hand-job but the film overall is hardly the kind of Ford/Peckinpah reactionary right-wing ode to guns and violence that it threatens to develop into. Quite the opposite, in fact. It is just as much a film about a man confronting his demons and making his peace with his God. Or about a man out of step with his times and confused, frustrated, befuddled or angry by the world around him. Or an unlikely friendship/coming of age movie. It is not by any measure a simple film. I found it multi-layered, resonant and moving.
On the down-side, some of the performances from the younger players are pretty ropey at times and some aspects are overdone (not least Kowalski's final Christ-pose or the snare drums that accompany him taking out his rifle) but the film works better as a piece than the individual parts would suggest. We should cherish a film-maker who is as prolific and brave as Eastwood while we still have him. 9/10
