Gran Torino and Clint Eastwood

I watched the movie Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood recently. I am a huge Eastwood fan and I loved the movie. Eastwood still has the same tough guy presence that made him famous. He delivers his curt one liners as as well as ever. It's a good movie and there are a lot of other things to praise, but this is not a movie review blog so I will let someone else handle that. I want to write about the tough guys we all loved and to wonder if any more will follow in the future.

For my money Clint Eastwood was the coolest, toughest leading man of all time. Before any John Wayne supporters attempt to bomb my house I want to throw some support his way as well. The Duke is great and I would never say anything bad about him. It just happens that I like Eastwood better. I think he is the tough guy of my generation or at least the generation closest to me while John Wayne is for the older generation. You can't lose with either one. They both carried all the pictures they were in with their presence. All guys wanted to be like them and all women wanted to be with them. Like I touched on in my Diaper Fear post, all boys want to grow up and be tough like these two heroes of the silver screen.


I hope Braden wants to grow up to be like me. I want to be his hero but it would be nice if there was an up and coming tough guy for him to enjoy at the movies. As long as AMC is around the Duke and Clint will never die, but the new generation needs their own heroes. So I wonder like George Jones once sang about the great country crooners, "Who's gonna fill their shoes?" I'm open to any suggestions because frankly I don't think it can be done. There will never be another John Wayne. There will never be another Clint Eastwood. Gone are the days when acting carried movies. When a strong male lead could guarantee a great movie. Today most movies filmed with guys in mind are special effects monsters. We are supposed to get more excited by motorcylces jumping into helicopters and other ridiculous stunts than by the actors. I hope a new hero emerges some day. The western genre that made John Wayne and Clint Eastwood famous is pretty much dead, but there are still a lot of cop movies to be made. There may not be another Dirty Harry but for Braden's sake I hope Hollywood can come up with somebody.