Synopsis:

What happens when you take the padding of 'Gran Torino' out and replace it with flashbacks to Walt "Highway" Kowalski's life in the US Marines, from 'Heartbreak Ridge'? You get 'Fallen Hero', a Clint Eastwood mashup. Now you have a character who is meaner and driven by his past to do right! And boy does he! I hope you enjoy this, Wraith.

Intentions:

In 2012 a friend of mine suggested using Gran Torino as the anchor for a mashup of half a dozen Clint Eastwood movies to show how mean and dangerous his character was. The idea was, he starts in the Air Force (Space Cowboys), got kicked out after crashing the X2 (Firefox), joined the Marines (Heartbreak Ridge), got kicked out for insubordination, and then became a cop ('Dirty Harry' movies) and got kicked out again (Remember how he throws his badge on the desk?). A rough assembly was put together but it was tonally inconsistent and I abandoned the edit. Then it struck me that the character in 'Gran Torino' is the same as in 'Heartbreak Ridge'. Clint gives a deep gravely performance in both. Bingo! The edit came back to life...and here it finally is.

Change List:

Gran Torino: 116 min / 27 min cut Heartbreak Ridge: 130 min / 25 min used Firefox: 2 min used Fallen Hero: 118 min / 143 changes in all - Clint's Eastwood's character is named Walter "Highway" Kowalski for this edit - Wally's family almost completely removed - Substantial re-ordering of 'Gran Torino' material for more even pacing and plot evolution when stitched together with the 'Heartbreak Ridge' footage - All aspect ratio corrections for 'Heartbreak Ridge' are not noted below (most are shot specific re-framings) 000 Open with SD version of FANEDIT WARNING 001 NEW WRAITH LOGO with a CLINT growl 002 Warner Bros logo from Sudden Impact for a vintage feel 003 New opening constructed from climax of Gran Torino (9 trims) 011 Custom opening credit sequence 012 Funeral is trimmed 015 The wake is unaltered until Walt "Highway" Kowalski (WHK) chats with niece in garage 018 Trimmed to make KWG meaner, he now directly growls at suggestion he is going to die 019 Re-ordered scene segues to FIRFOX flashback 021 2 Continuity error of shot from too high up removed 022 Plane attack jump cut error in original, corrected 023 Footage is 10% de-saturated 027 Scenes that follow a re re-ordered 028 one scene has Gamma decreased to imply a sunset as next scene is darker 029 Cleaning of car is moved up to here to establish "love" of car prior to theft attempt 030 Bar scene moved up to establish bigoted old school WHK 031 Shot re-arrangement at end of scene to facilitate flashback transition 032 Jail fight has 4 edits 036 Courtroom has reference to name removed 037 Small section trimmed from court 038 Footage 10% de-saturated 039 Warehouse contraband discussion removed 041 Hard cut to attempted theft 042 scene re-ordered to establish Tao has some redeemable traits early on 043 Lawn confrontation cuts to Priest visit (re-ordering) 044 Shot re-arrangement at end of scene to facilitate flashback transition 046 Base intro has name reference removed 047 Incidental dialogue trim during base intro 049 Major having 'transferred from supplies' is deleted making him meaner 050 Barracks intro trimmed 053 Hard cut to WHK porch (re-ordered) 054 Barber scene moved up 055 Return home relocated 056 repetition dialogue "what's going on " removed 057 Lawn mowing moved up to create a lull between this and scene which follows 058 Scene tightened up with gang 060 Continuity error of WHK referring to dialogue "bro" which he could not have heard since he drove up post, is corrected 062 Hard cut to barracks 063 Semi-montage re T shirts created (8 trims) 071 Additional PTs sequences have trims 081 hard cut to WHK going to Laponte's home 082 WHK on porch hard cuts to fridge 083 shaman and Bathroom scene removed for pace and needless exposition 084 6 scenes re-ordered 090 11 trims to heartbreak ridge footage to create semi-montage of training 093 porch scene with Sue cross fades 096 Discussion with Tao has ref to working in Ford Factory removed (this is NOT about the car) 099 Sue returning beaten up is shortened slightly to facilitated removal of glass drop 100 "going to war" discussion trimmed and has "suntan" ref removed (inappropriate humour) 108 8 trims to fighting footage ending on WHK comment regarding the fate of a soldier to facilitate crossfade 109 5 trims to permit shot of medical report 110 Post shooting new crossfade to church 111 35 scenes from Gran Torino removed in total 146 Custom end titles.

Additional Notes:

I did not dislike 'Gran Torino', but it was a tad overlong, the pacing was uneven and it featured some crummy lines (quite a few infact). I liked 'Heartbreak Ridge' at the time, but I thought Clint's growling Gunnery Sergeant was a tad contrived. Wind forward and how did I miss that they are the same character. Hence this edit came to life. The idea was to remove Chaff from 'Gran Torino', tighten up the character and plot development, rebalance the evolution of the film and strengthen Clint's character by using "flashbacks" to his military past broadly in line with the main film's progression.

Other Sources:

Additional footage from 'Firefox' (1982), Directed by Clint Eastwood. (Trailer music: Lalo Schifrin).

Special Thanks:

Special thanks NotOrsonWelles, ThrowngnCpr, Bionicbob. Especially the Previewers: Neglify and Ranger613.