Gran Torino is a drama about a disgruntled Korean War veteran who lives in some Midwest American suburb and isn’t particularly fond of Asian people. Having just buried his wife, he settles down to live out the rest of his days haunted by visions of his violent tenure overseas. Like any old curmudgeon, he just wants the kids to stay off his lawn, he wants to just be left alone, and he absolutely wants nothing to do with the poorish Hmong family that has taken residence next door. When he “saves” this family’s youngest son from a local Asian gang by foiling their attempt to steal his prized 1972 Gran Turino from his garage, he is begrudgingly introduced to their way of life and becomes more involved in flushing the gangbangers out of the community than he expected.
Overall, this is an excellent movie. At first, you may not think you could ever identify with or understand either the old man or Hmong family. But things warm up fairly nicely; you certainly learn some things about why Clint Eastwood is a grumpy old man, as well as how all Asian people aren’t evil even though this idea in 2008 is probably not appropriate. What really makes the film effective is its fluidity–the direction is very solid and the pacing is near perfect. I particularly enjoyed the abundance of bad-ass one-liners from gruff ol’ Eastwood and the hilarious spots where he teaches the young Hmong boy how to act like a real man.
Gran Torino, if you ask me, is an attempt to blend the tough-guy action movies of Eastwood’s hey day with the modern grittiness of today’s urban gangster motif. It’s hard to reconcile the old ways with the new in this regard, but with Clint in the driver’s seat there is no question that this one was done with grace and aplomb.
ThomFiles 