King Vidor's mise en scene stands Rand's silliness on its head.
As for Eastwood's HEARTBREAK RIDGE: I re-watched it the other night, and it is one of the most deflationary war movies ever made. The rescue of the college students is filmed as if it were a training exercise, and the soldier's triumphal return home is "sparse" (Eastwood's own assessment), fractured by so many different lines that it makes no sense spatially. He even lets the credits roll over it as he and Marsha Mason disappear in the distance as the band seems to march without leadership or purpose.
GRAN TORINO is simply his Tempst as A PERFECT WORLD was his King Lear.
> How Green Was My Valley won best picture in 1941 over The Maltese
Falcon, Sergeant York and Citizen Kane.
Worse, it beat SUSPICION and BALL OF FIRE was not even nominated (though VALLEY is a fine and Ford is at one of his peaks with the material).
Brian