Word: film
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...film generated controversy in India even before its release there. A Jan. 13 blog entry by Bollywood maharaja Amitabh Bachchan, in which he asked if the film would have generated such hype if it had been made by an Indian director, led to an avalanche of Bollywood stars and critics taking positions for and against him. On Jan. 22, some 40 slum dwellers protested outside the Mumbai home of actor Anil Kapoor, who plays a leading role in the film. The protesters held banners reading "I Am Not a Dog" - referring to slumdog in the film's title - and "Poverty...
...slum dwellers have been as down on the film. In Dharavi, the Mumbai slum where parts of the movie were shot, many say they want to watch it. "I liked the songs," says Vittal Naravane, who runs a printing workshop. "And I liked the idea that even if you're not educated, like the hero of the film, you can be successful by dint of your common sense and hard work." This message of hope seems to have worked for many among India's lower middle-class aspiring for a better life. "The film only shows what is real," says...
...Originally released Dec. 12 in only six theaters and hyped by Warner Bros. as a major-awards contender, the film won Eastwood early recognition by the National Board of Review as Best Actor, but that's been the exception to the rule. At the glitzy Golden Globes, Gran Torino was mentioned in just one category: original song. When the Oscar nominees were unveiled last week, Gran Torino was shut out of the competition completely. (See TIME's top 10 films...
...film confronts issues that are very timely, from racial violence to economic struggles. It's a working-class world that we may not see all that often in blockbusters, but it's something a good many people can relate to," says Karie Bible, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. Surely Eastwood could not have predicted, when he first set out to make the film, that Detroit's economic woes would be making national headlines by the time Gran Torino arrived in theaters (his character is a retired Ford assembly-plant worker), nor that the movie would be launching into wide release...
...Audiences, though, have embraced the film's realism. Bible's firm projects that the title will soar north of $150 million before it leaves theaters - making Gran Torino the biggest haul ever for an Eastwood film. By then, it may well pass the box-office totals posted last year by such summer tent poles as Mamma Mia!, The Incredible Hulk and Sex and the City. "Slumdog and The Wrestler are these Cinderella stories that have overshadowed Gran Torino, and yet here is another Cinderella story all its own," Dergarabedian says. "You look at Eastwood, and here he is directing Changeling...