Gran Torino will open nationwide tomorrow (January 9th).

Before I tear into this film with all the reasons why you shouldn’t go see it, let me first just mention that you should definitely go see this film*.  It may be the typical inspirational ballad of a stubborn old-timer that reaches salvation through an unlikely friendship, but a little cheese can be good once in a while; even if it is from Hollywood.

The fact of the matter is that this is a Clint Eastwood picture, so if you like Clint, you’ll probably like this film.  The message is all wrong, but who cares, when Clint’s at the helm.  Basically Dirty Harry retired, moved to Detroit, and changed his name to Walter Kowalski.

*Addressed to those who are not minorities..read on for plot summery & critical breakdown

Eastwood portrays Walter Kowalski, a hardened Korean War veteran who’s disdain for everyone and everything occupies the time he hasn’t allocated for home repair, throwing back beers, or polishing up his past which is reflected in the 1972 Gran Torino that he helped roll off assembly back in the day when a flourishing Ford Motor Company afforded the typical white suburban family the American dream. 

                 "Children today are tyrants.  They contradict their parents,
                  gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers". 

Every generation has it’s own form of expression and rebellion, whether it’s Elvis dancing on the Ed Sullivan Show, belly piercing, or bustin out a 2 Pac rhyme.  Walter Kowalski, perhaps like many approaching death, finds a little bit of peace in a fresh face for whom his built up resentment over the years is only stereotypic rather than personal; by the way, the quote above was from Socrates (470-399 B.C.). 
 
With an M-1 war riffle close at all times, Walt finds himself a hero of the racially integrated neighborhood after confronting Hmong gang members that spill onto his lawn during a night time scuffle. 

Not wanting anything from his immigrant neighbors except to be left alone, he reluctantly finds himself compelled to do what he believes is right, despite his long held prejudices.  This includes rescuing Sue (Ahney Her), his teenage neighbor, from a trio of young aggressive African Americans-

                 "You ever notice how you come across someone once
                  in a while that you shouldn’t have f@#ked with?
                 That’s me".

…what a great scene, even little Eastwood was in it. 

Battling his bigot judgement, but compelled to call it like he see’s it, Walt brashly dispenses unsolicited advice to both Sue and her brother Thao (Bee Vang). 
Walt looks at the diffident young Thao (who pressured by gangbangers, attempted to steal his Gran Torino) the same way he looks at his grand daughter that wants his car when he dies, or the daughter-in-law interested in the house but not the man who lives there, and even his son who inquires about his fathers afternoon in hopes of scoring some lions tickets. 

Though a bit out of character, but compelled by a moment of loneliness at the loss of his wife and a recent attempt by his son to shovel him off into a retirement home on his birthday (not to mention the depletion of his beer), Walt accepts an invitation from Sue to join her families barbecue.  It wasn’t long before Walt discovered he had much in common with his immigrant neighbors (even more than his own surviving flesh and blood). 
The story had a very nice progression thereafter, gradually breaking down Walt’s walled off past and curtain of bigotry.  Slowly the Gran Torino made it’s way from under the cover and out of the garage, until it was displayed at the foot of the driveway.  Thao referred to by Walt as pusscake, egg-roll, and Toad (which gradually turned into an endearing term as their friendship grew), was even given the car to use on his first date, a reward for his advancements in becoming a man under Walt’s guidance.

It’s not hard to see where the story is going, and when the Hmong gang retaliates against Thao and later Sue, Walt’s ugly past is back to haunt him. 
The old man decides to act against the injustice that plagues his new friends and the neighborhood that until recently he viewed as another victim of immigration chocking the American town.  

I’m not going to argue the fact that Mr. Eastwood has some great movies under his belt both as an actor and a director, but I have some qualms with Gran Torino, which was obviously an attempt to show the world that old school Clint can be gangsta too.  First off, if Clint’s setting out to show audiences that he’s down with the times, he needs to drop the 80’s parlor tricks.  It’s true that children might commonly chat up the obvious flaws of their parents at every chance meeting, but we don’t need the 20 second prolog breakdown of Walt by his two sons, especially when the first 10 seconds tell us everything we need to know; without words.  Second, if you’re going to punch through balsa wood and sugar glass maybe you could put some force into it, you know, make it kind of realistic… it’s 2009, not a 1985 MacGyver rerun. 

The end has an interesting twist, but nothing we haven’t seen before.  So, aside from a bunch of directing shots that rubbed me the wrong way and the typical Hollywood scenario, the film was entertaining; some scenes even had me holding my breath.  If the overall message didn’t sound something like the Grinch who has a heart after all and the inept Hmong are a step above logs on the lazy scale without white man guidance, I might have been able to swallow some of the newcomer acting. 

Of course Clint nailed the bitter hard-ass role superbly, maybe almost too much; his ironclad glare of contempt could freeze Medusa in her tracks.  In a complete juxtaposition, the acting of Christopher Carley (Father Janovich) and Ahney Her (Sue Lor) made me twist and turn in my seat.  Carley’s more comical lines were delivered well, whereas Her’s just made me cringe every time she stepped on camera. 

Clint’s inflammatory racist remarks together with memorable stalwart lines will most likely make you laugh:     

 "If I have to come back here, it’s going to get
  f@#king ugly"

When all is said and done, like the generations before us and the generations before them, the story is the same, it’s just packaged by Clint Eastwood and stamped by Dirty Harry; dramatized by the original song "Gran Torino" performed by the man himself in a deep raspy hum reminiscent of Rod McKuen.

Movie Trailer-