Gran Torino

Gran Torino



Clint Eastwood is as much a part of movie heritage as the Hollywood sign itself. His wide and varied career has seen him succeed as an actor and now as a director too. With films like Mystic River, Sands of Iwo Jima and The Changeling under his belt, he's not put a foot wrong since making his career transition. Could Gran Torino be the exception that proves the rule?

Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski a retired Korean war veteran with a reason to be angry with everything. His neighbours have all died or left, being replaced with immigrant families who don't speak the same language as him. His two sons barely speak to him, unless they want something or they're trying to put him in a care home. What's more the local priest keeps pestering him to come to church and confess his sins as per Walt's dead wife's wishes. But, all he wants is to be simply left alone.

Unfortunately for him, it's not that easy. The son of a Hmong family living next door is being pursued by a local gang who want him to join. Thao (Bee Vang) is threatened with violence if he won't join and is chased on to Walt's property. Ever the man to protect his perimeters, Walt charges from his home and points his rifle at the gang who back off. For this apparent heroism, the community start to bring him gifts and welcome him as one of their own.

Reluctant to socialise with people he hates, he is gradually coerced by Thao's older sister Sue (Ahney Her) to open up. Through the course of the film, Walt's prejudices are worn down by the relentless friendliness of his neighbours and the potential he sees in young Thao.

Walt know that the gangs will drag Thao down with them and it sticks in his craw. He attempts to 'man-up' the lad by getting him a job at a construction site and, in the funniest scene of the film, teaching him how men talk to one another.

Things seem to be going great as Walt becomes friends with his neighbours and subsequently a less abrasive human being. That is until the gangs interject, shooting up Thao's house and brutally raping Sue. Walt doesn't need any more encouragement and comes up with a cunning vengeance plan. A plan that will defy all audience expectation.

The gang are always menacingly looming in the background, but only really feature at the beginning and the end. No, the real story is about Walt letting go of whatever atrocities he witnessed and, indeed, perpetrated during the Korean War. And the only person he can tell is a true friend, not a priest or his two selfish sons. That's why at the end he confesses to Thao through a grilled gate instead of to the Priest through the grilled confessional.

When I first saw the trailer for this I wasn't filled with hope. Eastwood seemed too old and his dialogue was so phlegmy I thought he was dying. After seeing it, his phlegmy voice is explained away early on and I came to realise Eastwood will never be too old. The last words the mighty Clint Eastwood utters on this earth will surely be read into a camera during a shoot. He lives and breathes for movies and he'll die for them too.

Gran Torino is the story of a man who lets go of his quasi fascist ideals to embrace the world as a whole. Just the same as Clint Eastwood has let go of Dirty Harry and moved on to bigger things.

Verdict 10/10
A beautiful, if sometimes brutal film, but altogether brilliant.