Oscar bait, anyone? This is the trailer for Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring beloved actor Morgan Freeman as beloved leader of South Africa Nelson Mandela. Hoping to unite his country in the wake of apartheid, Mandela calls on Springboks captain Francois Pienaar (Mmmatt Daaaamon) to get the country behind their rugby team during the 1995 World Cup hosted by South Africa. It’s basically Cinderella Team, or District 9 without the aliens.
Not only does Clint Eastwood think you belong to a generation of pussies and gooks, he thinks you fairies should cut it out with the politically correct bullshit already.
He says the world would be a better place if we could still laugh at inoffensive jokes about different races. The actor and director, 78, said we live in constant fear of being labelled racist for simply laughing about national stereotypes. ‘People have lost their sense of humour,’ he told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.
‘In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth otherwise you will be insulted as a racist. I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a “Sam the Jew” or “José the Mexican” - but we didn’t think anything of it or have a racist thought.’
‘It was normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem. I don’t want to be politically correct. We’re all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything.’ [DailyMail]
I know I’m supposed to say something cute and make fun of Clint for being old right now, but I agree with him 1000%. These hippie fascists at some point decided that recognizing obvious differences or using non-vague words not invented in the last 15 years is the same as hate or discrimination. Ridiculous. And as a sidenote, my clique also included a Jake the harelip, lazy-eye Charlie, Stevie stump hands, Eskimo Ray, and Judy the cheetah.
Hollywood had its first ever billion-dollar January, thanks to fine films like, uh, Paul Blart. Meanwhile, Liam Neeson revenge flick Taken took the top spot this week (forcefully, by shooting Paul Blart’s wife in the arm) with $24.6 million. Another reason it paid to be an old man with a gun, Gran Torino landed at number five, but its cumulative gross of $110 million makes it the highest grossing Clint Eastwood film of all time (the next two being In the Line of Fire and Unforgiven). Said Eastwood when reached for comment, “If only the gooks were here to see it. Too bad I killed ‘em.”
Gran Torino is sort of what Rush Hour might have looked like if Brett Ratner had balls and comedic sensibility. Which is to say that it’s a culture-clash action-comedy that isn’t particularly realistic and paints with a pretty broad brush most of the time, but it’s also funny, cathartic, and above all, entertaining as hell. Who knew Clint Eastwood had such a gift for comedy? I can’t remember the last time I missed this many lines because I was laughing so hard.
Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, the ultimate curmudgeon, a recently-widowed Korean War vet with a bunch of spoiled weiner kids and a house in a decaying suburb that’s long since been taken over by ethnic types, for whom Walt reserves at least four growls and three ethnic slurs. Eastwood is beyond over the top but it works, because there’s just something lovable about a straight-talking old man who thinks everyone in the world is a pussy, a foreigner, or some combination of the two. When Kowalski’s dead wife’s snot-nosed pasty ginger priest comes to take Walt’s confession (it was his wife’s dying wish), Walt calls him “an overeducated 27-year-old virgin who likes to hold the hands of superstitious old ladies and promise them everlasting life.”
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This Clint Eastwood PSA about “the glamour drug of the 80s” isn’t new, but its message is timeless.
[Thanks to Robo for the tip]
