Gran Torino Review

A Long Road To Walk: Gran Torino Review
by M. R. Brown

Clint Eastwood is among the hardest working men in Hollywood. His second directorial effort of the year has him casting himself in a role Dirty Harry Callahan would play, if he were a retired racist. Just as Ernest Hemingway is a man’s writer, Eastwood is a man’s actor. Whether scathing off every racist term imaginable or wielding an M-1 rifle at anything foreign that walks, Eastwood can do no wrong with audiences in Gran Torino.
Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is a Korean War veteran who has worked in the Detroit auto factories his whole life. After the death of his wife, Kowalski is left alone in a deteriorating neighborhood that has fallen to crime. Shortly following the arrival of new Hmong immigrants in the house next door, Kowalski is awoken by sounds in his garage where new neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) is attempting to steal his prized Gran Torino. Kowalski opts for a less vengeful path after he nearly shoots the boy, recognizing the gang culture that Thao has become mixed up in. Providing solace and a role model to Thao, as well as his sister Sue (Ahney Her), Kowalski is faced with answering to his own prejudices in order to save those around him.
The film centers on social issues of gangs and violence in American immigrant social systems as well as providing a look at the underlying racial attitudes towards these new waves of American immigrants.
Gran Torino is named after the 1972 car that sits in pristine shape locked away in Walt’s garage. Not only is the vehicle a product of the fading American car industry but it is also the last thing that Walt holds dear in his life, along with his dog Daisy and his Pabst Blue Ribbon beers. It is Thao who breaks through the walls of prejudice built up by Walt and begins the transformation of a truly in-depth character study by first time screenwriter Nick Schenk.
The film is surprisingly funny and quick witted. Eastwood’s character even admits that he has “been called a lot of things in his lifetime but funny is not one of them.” The style of mentoring Walt chooses to employ on Thao to help him with the ladies and the banter between he and his barber shows that even at age 78 Eastwood still has range left untapped.
Eastwood has adamantly insisted that this may be his final acting role. As cemented in memory as the Man With No Name, Walt Kowalski is a character befitting the aging icon. Nearly every utterance in the film is as raspy and gritty as though he had a cigar in mouth and twin revolvers in hand.

Gran Torino is rated R and is now showing at Showcase Cinemas Worcester North in Worcester and Blackstone Valley 14: Cinema de Lux in Millbury.