Gran Torino (2008)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Nick Schenk
Starring Clint Eastwood, Ahney Herr, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang
Release Date December 12th, 2008
Published December 11th, 2008
Clint Eastwood is a national treasure. Over his five decades in Hollywood he has created indelible characters, images, and phrases that will live long beyond himself. That iconography brings us to his latest film Gran Torino which combines the modern Eastwood image as a filmmaking auteur and the classic Eastwood icon of a tough guy, man's man. The combination gives life to an odd but engaging drama.
In Gran Torino Clint Eastwood is Walt Kowalski. Walt's wife has just died and the last thing tying him to life outside of the four walls of his decrepit house has disappeared. Walt doesn't appear suicidal but he is certainly unmoored as observed by the young priest (Christopher Carley) who presides over his wife's funeral and who, at the wife's behest, drops in on Walt from time to time.
More than anything, Walt just wants to be left alone. Even his grown sons do nothing but irritate him, one of them by trying to get him to move to an old folks home. Further irritating Walt is the change in his neighborhood. Hmong refugees began moving in more than a decade ago and they now dominate the local populace, much to Walt's dismay.\
As the story progresses, Walt is forced into the lives of his Hmong neighbors when their teenage son, Thao (Bee Vang), accepts a gang initiation that has him attempting to steal Walt's prized Gran Torino. Walt catches him in the act but doesn't call police. When confronted by gang members about his failure, Thao tells them that he won’t try to steal the car again and Walt ends up having to rescue Thao, brandishing a trusty shotgun at the wannabe gangsters.
This leads to more involvement with his neighbors and eventually a begrudging respect begins to form, mostly thanks to Thao's outgoing sister Sue (Ahney Her) who befriends the old man with beer and really great Hmong food. If you guessed that the gang thing comes back and plays a major role in the movie's finish, points for you. How it plays out however, you won't see it coming. Eastwood is a master of misdirection as both Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby have shown. Eastwood takes pleasure in rarely doing what the audience expects.
There is an odd quality to Gran Torino and it comes in the film's strange sense of humor. Though the movie carries the heavy air of drama there are moments when Walt is dealing with his neighbors, and especially when dealing with his two beefy, lunkheaded sons, where laughs are mined that wouldn't be out of place in a sitcom. I'm not complaining, I laughed. The laughter however is awkward when considering how oppressively serious the rest of the movie is. Then again, there goes Clint, once again confounding our expectations.
