If anyone thought Gran Torino was going to be director Clint Eastwood’s swan song, well, here he is again, with Invictus where he doesn’t wow the audience with lots of razzle-dazzle but, as Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, you will still find yourself cheering anyway.

Always felt Clint Eastwood, possibly one of the oldest, longest-working, most respected American directors still around, was too problematical. Always thought he never got out of the shadow of his true masters, Don Seigel and Sergio Leone (yep, Eastwood’s star shines brighter than Leone’s now - who knew then, when he directed his first feature, Play Misty for Me (1971)?).

Always thought he was afflicted with that most fatal of diseases, good taste. Always thought his most awarded work was flawed, in one way or another (felt Mystic River (2003) didn’t have a hard enough edge; Million Dollar Baby (2004) was too sentimental; Letter From Iwo Jima  (2006) presented a too-soft picture of the Japanese warrior).

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