3.5/5 stars
Clint Eastwood has a peculiar power in American cinema. Former man’s man badass to beat, all star of the Man With No Name westerns, he moved into directing and made his acting a side project, and in return brought us some of the finest American cinema of the past several decades. He’s one of the last directors out there who knows how to do a true American classic, and after he’s gone we’ll have to start all over again.
Gran Torino, intended to be his last foray into the world of acting, feels like all of Eastwood’s cowboy personae grown up and grown old, rolled into a callousy, gravel-tongued, gun-toting burrito, sauce extra hot. As Walt Kowalski, Eastwood plays a rather racist, over-the-hill Korean war veteran whose wife has just passed away, and whose days are only made more frustrating as his Detroit neighborhood becomes populated with Hmong (pronounced “mung”) immigrants. Rather unwillingly at first, he begins to look out for the children of his next door neighbors, who become the victim of Hmong gang violence and abuse.
Admittedly, the movie is kind of boring for the first half hour or so, as the exposition leaves you disliking the old codger, who comes off as more jackass than badass. But then Clint starts drawing a bead on gangbangers with his bolt-action M1903 Springfield and I couldn’t be happier. It is kind of sad that it takes him pulling his piece to get me interested in a movie that really has very little violence and isn’t even about one man’s bloody quest for revenge.
Then I remember the scene that has Clint Freaking Eastwood sticking a gun in someone’s face and saying “Get off my lawn” and all is forgiven.
Most of what you’ll end up liking this movie for comes in the middle 90 minutes where Walt is slowly learning to care about something other than himself, and the humor and charm of him teaching a neighbor kid carpentry or looking awkward at a Hmong family gathering is something I simply didn’t expect.
It has always been my belief that badasses are characters you can rarely develop, because we think they’re cool and all when they start busting skulls and perforating stooges, but show them going to the hardware store or getting a haircut and suddenly they’re vulnerable, human and the antithesis of the gun-toting warrior we’ve fallen in love with. In between the high doses of racial slurs and truculent cantankery you’ll find a movie about family and finding a place for yourself in the ever-changing world.
One of the better set pieces in Gran Torino are the Hmong themselves, who save one are all first time actors from real Hmong-American neighborhoods. While their acting isn’t superb…okay, no window dressing, their acting is bad, but even so I am totally ready and able to forgive it. Simply put, no one does this in films, big budget or otherwise. You know how you rarely see African-American actors in Westerns? In reality, one-third of the people living in the Old West were black. You know Milk, last year’s Sean Penn film focusing on gay rights activism? Nary an openly homosexual actor in any of the lead roles.
It’s a problem when you claim equality but then hide it behind standards and practices so old they’re basically discriminatory, and so I applaud Eastwood for making the effort for authenticity. It’s a statement, and honestly, a much needed one.
So, to re-cap, character good, story charming, cast authentic. All sounds good so far, right?
Well, it’s the little things that tore parts of this movie down for me. First off, the Gran Torino itself, Walt’s vintage muscle car which is just aching to be whipped out right at the film’s end for something truly amazing, is shelved the entire movie. And while the car having symbolic significance is nice and all, what would have been nicer were if it had driving-really-fast-to-somewhere-doing-something-really-cool significance.
Walt’s kids and their families are another issue, in that they’re portrayed as suburban, stuck-up, spoiled and ungrateful, but you have to think that if Walt treated his kids as badly as he does everyone else, how could they not? The film seems intent on painting them as a kind of antagonist for him, but it feels dishonest and unnecessary at every turn.
Most people will probably disagree with me on this last point, but I found the film’s ending very disappointing. It’s purposely an anticlimax, but the film is littered with set-up for it to go the other way and I have to believe that Walt isn’t simply “too old” to take the bad guys on.
It isn’t as engaging a tale as his other legendary works, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby or even Changeling, but it does have a lot of heart and is something I’d recommend to anyone looking for a really well done film.
Also, for reasons passing understanding, Eastwood sings the song that plays over the end credits. I can’t remember a time I’ve run out of a movie theater faster than that moment.
