A few weeks ago I saw a movie trailer. Nothing new and exciting there, but in this trailer Clint Eastwood was standing around with a rifle requesting, somewhat less than respectfully, that a group of youths get off his lawn. That alone was reason enough to see the movie, and I'm glad I did, because I wound up coming face to (kind of) face with a level of curmudgeonry not even my old man could match.
Meet Walt Kowlaski: He's an opinionated, cantankerous old man from back when they built things like they used to. A veteran of the Korean war, he's never more than 5 seconds off a nasty growl or more than 3 feet away from a firearm. In short, he's as American as apple pie (except for his distrust of religon) and, following the death of his wife, he finds somewhere new to clean up: His neighbourhood.
The only caucasian left in his slowly deteriorating suburb, Gran Torino is an interesting character study as Walt slowly casts off the misconceptions he's held on to his entire life. Wanting nothing more than to be left alone, he winds up becoming a neighbourhood hero one night when he prevents the local gang from forcing his neighbour's son to join and, forced to meet his neighbours and their culture head-on, starts to find out he has more in common with them than his own family.
After a botched attempt at stealing his prized posession, a 1972 emerald green Ford Gran Torino, Walt sets about "manning up" his neighbour "Toad" (actually Thao, played by Bee Vang) and helps him get the girl "Yum Yum" (Youa, played by Choua Kue). Naturally the members of the local gang, headed by Thao's cousin "Spider" (played by Doua Moua) take issue with Walt's insistence Thao be a productive member of society and ex-military comes head to head with gang banger as they one-up each other until the gang steps over the line, forcing Walt to finish things off for good in a unique and quite surprising manner.
Clint Eastwood has been widely heralded as one of the greatest living cinematic talents of our time and this movie certainly does nothing to detract from that belief. Gran Torino is exactly what it needs to be, and Eastwood brings an incredible likability to his character and, regardless of whatever horrible things are coming out of his mouth, you can still see the core of humanity tucked away under the lonely gruff exterior.
It's very rare a movie comes along these days that makes the list of must-sees, and it was with great alacrity I pulled out the mental Sharpie and added this film in capital letters.
See For Yourself
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