Clint Eastwood has been making movies since 1954 when he had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in Revenge of the Creature. Since then he has been Rowdy Yates. He has been The Man With No Name. He has been Dirty Harry. Above all though, he has been Clint Eastwood, a scowling, growling tough guy with skin like sandpaper and an attitude meaner than a King Cobra. However his time has almost passed and the values he has come to represent are waning. Clint Eastwood is Old School, but he is also seventy eight and the world has changed significantly since he first pulled on his spurs.
Clint Eastwood is Walt Kowalski
No surprises then that Gran Torino feels like a thoroughly personal project for the actor/director. He plays Walt Kowalski, a retired mechanic and Korean war veteran living in a Michigan suburb. Bad tempered, racist and annoyed at just about everything that crosses his path, Walt unexpectedly finds himself the hero of the neighbourhood when he chases an Asian gang off his lawn.
Before he knows it, Walt's next-door neighbours, a tradition-bound Vietnamese family are persuading him to let Thao, a shy fifteen year old do chores for him as repentance for trying to steal his 1972 Gran Torino. As he teaches the youngster how to fix up houses, repair freezers and swear like a real man, Walt's rock-hard demeanour begins to crack and he finds his attitude beginning to shift. Shock horror, he discovers he even likes sweet and sour Pork and that maybe, his prejudices might be a bit outdated.
So far so very cliched and if Gran Torino has a fault, it's that things are spelled out too much. One point sees Walt staring at a mirror and muttering that he has more in common with the Asians than he does with his own family and this tendency to ram things home ultimately stops this from being a better movie. That and the running time. Coming to a close just shy of two hours, Gran Torino plods by at a very slow pace and by the time the credits roll, it feels like double that has passed.
Gran Torino: Old Men, Gangs and Racism
All of which would make this a difficult film to watch if it wasn't for one thing; Eastwood himself. Reeling off an endless barrage of racist insults, Walt is so bad ass he's almost a parody of every character the director has played in his long career. He's also surprisingly funny and some scenes are genuinely hilarious. Walt taking Theo to the local barbershop and getting him to trade insults with the owner is terrific fun, while the sight of him waving a rifle in the air and shouting "Get! Off! My! Lawn!" is just brilliant.
Sure, with the storyline feeling a bit hackneyed and some awkward acting from the rest of the cast, Gran Torino feels like a one-man show. The sheer star-wattage of Eastwood however lifts it above the average and audiences will be hard-pressed to find a more un-PC lead role for years.
Ultimately then, Gran Torino is an average film lifted into higher levels of entertainment by the magnetism of the leading man. It's a paean to all those old men of the world, sat on their porches drinking beer, cradling shotguns and watching the world go by. The ones who are dismayed by their doughy sons and self-absorbed Grandchildren. This isn't going to beat Unforgiven as Eastwood's best film, it won't even come close. But it is an incredibly personal and enjoyable offering from that grizzled old cowboy.
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