Do you remember that guy on your street who people referred to as “Old Man Hastings” or what ever his last name was? The kind of guy the kids in the neighborhood never played around, because he would get so scary if anyone touched a blade of grass on his lawn?
The greatest strength of Gran Torino is Clint Eastwood’s sheer embodiment of that guy we all knew, the guy who seemed to be about 68 for the last thirty years. Eastwood’s character has all of the attributes you would expect from That Guy- he’s tough, racially insensitive (if not a sheer racist), set in his ways and frequently uses the phrase “Get off my lawn!”
In the movie, The Guy’s name is Walt Kowalski, and the picture opens at the funeral of his wife. Walt’s marriage was successful and one gets the sense that the departed was a bridge between him and his sons (Brian Haley and Brian Howe), who do not seem very close, or indeed, very able to communicate with each other very well. Walt is the last white left in his Detroit neighborhood, which consists almost entirely of Hmong immigrants and their children. A veteran of the Korean War, Walt does not like Asians (although he doesn’t have much nice to say about African Americans and Latinos, either). Next door, teenager Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) is being pressured by a gang to join them, and eventually the harassment spills over onto Walt’s lawn. Motivated more his love of his property than altruism, Walt uses his rifle to rescue Thao, and unintentionally becomes a hero to the neighborhood.
I am not giving anything away if I state the unsurprising character development that Walt slowly begins to lose his racism. In fact, there is a lot in the movie that is not surprising. If you have seen the trailer, Gran Torino is pretty much the movie you would expect it to be, except for the climax, which is unsuspected though not satisfying.
I have consistently argued that I have found Eastwood’s recent series of critically acclaimed films (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima and Changeling) to be overrated, and I still feel that I way about Gran Torino. Like Baby and Iwo Jima, it’s a good movie, but not a great one, and not a film that’s particularly deep, either. Perhaps the greatest weakness of Eastwood’s film as a director has been the fact the films seem more serious or profound than the actually are (Unforgiven being an exception that actually is deep). But Gran Torino is more entertaining than any of the films listed above, merely because Eastwood’s character is so much fun to watch. Even as we see the screenplay’s manipulations, the actor is a great screen presence.
I am not sure, however, that this is a “great” performance, though Eastwood is considered to be the front runner for the Best Actor Oscar. It’s more like a version of a movie stars persona than an actual “actorly” role, which Eastwood is capable of doing (as in The Beguiled, for example). Still, the lead performance is clearly the best thing about the movie. It is occasionally ridiculous, and usually predictable, but Gran Torino gives you a sold night of entertainment at the movies.