Gran Torino

Super

Even at the ripe old age of 78, American icon Clint Eastwood is still just a much Dirty Harry in 2008 as he was back in the 70’s. He maintains that same old anti-hero, no nonsense, tough guy persona we all know and love. Someone with enough chutzpa to go well beyond the limits of the law to obtain justice for himself or, even more, for others. His classic lines “Do I feel lucky?” and “Go ahead, make my day” are two of the most enduring in American pop culture.

I’m not sure if some of the dialogue in Gran Torino will reach such status. Much of it is racial epithets towards Asians which our hero delivers with such acerbic humor, you can’t help but to laugh. The offensive language penned by Nick Schenk and Dave Johannson fits him impeccably.

Eastwood plays a grieving old codger named Walt Kowalski who has just laid his late wife Dorothy to rest. He lives in an immigrant dominated Detroit neighborhood, making no bones about how “unappreciative” he is of the residents there. His brusque attitude is clearly evident from the church service , to the burial and finally to the reception at his house where everyone offers obligatory condolences. He sheds no tears.

When a new Hmong family, the Lors moves in next door, Walt immediately rebuffs them vowing in his own gruff, incorrigible way that he’ll have nothing to do with them. That is, until a perilous incident involving a local gang and neighbor boy Thao causes him to take action quite similar to a certain restaurant scene in Sudden Impact. Walt becomes, in Thao’s sister Sue’s words, a hero to the neighborhood and in the true
biblical tradition of doing good to those who don’t necessarily like you, they shower him with gifts and various types of home made foods.

Blu ray

Despite Kowalski’s racial slurs and using choice names like Click, Clack and Char Lie Chan, you know he’s going to come around eventually. He even takes a liking to Thao, ironically becoming a sort of father figure to him; notwithstanding the attempt he makes trying to steal his precious 1972 Gran Torino, an “initiation” dare forced upon him by his cousin’s gang.

On top of unwanted neighbors, Kowalski must tolerate a young priest, Father Janovich (Christopher Carley) who promised Dorothy that he would look after him- and express her desire to have her husband confess. You must admire his persistence in this. Considering Walt does everything possible to convince the seminary graduate that he has no desire to confess.

As with Mystic River and The Changeling, Eastwood has always drawn top performances from every actor he’s worked with. Gran Torino is another shining example of his prowess in getting his cast to tell an intensely human and emotional story we can all relate to on some level. Especially this cast of real Hmong people who were gathered from Michigan, Minnesota and California. Only one had ever acted before.

“Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t mess with?, our hero asks nonchalantly to a trio of African-American gang bangers he finds harassing Sue. As usual, he answers his own question with a “That’s me.” Hopefully, this same attitude toward his film making will continue to prevail.