"Gran Torino"

The previews suggested a sort of Unforgiven Redux - aging gunslinger reluctantly resorts to his old tricks after he is given no other options - but, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there is some familiar material here - after all, Eastwood is aging and he almost can't help playing a tough guy, but the denouement, when it comes, is unexpected and courageous even.

Gran Torino is the story of a Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski(played by Eastwood) who is almost the last remaining white guy in a neighborhood of an unnamed mid-western town that is largely occupied by people from the far-east, in particular from the Hmong community. The film opens with the funeral of his wife and wastes no time in establishing Walt's distaste for his asian neighbors. Racial epithets are freely thrown around - gooks, slope-eyes, etc are par for the course. However, Walt is an equal opportunity offender - he is equally frank in expressing his dislike for the Catholic church and the idea of going to confessional with an young priest. He has an uneasy relationship with his two sons and they are mostly glad to avoid him.

Walt meets his match in the young Hmong girl, Sue, who lives next door. Sue is not impressed by Walt's tough guy talk and dishes it right back to him. Her brother, Thao, slight and studious, is much more timid and inevitably, his relationship with Walt takes center stage. It is the relationship he never had with his sons. The neighborhood is terrorized by gangs and when one of them threatens Thao and his family, Walt steps in, without ever meaning to. Being tough and menacing seems to come so naturally to Eastwood and we are soon cheering him along with the rest of the community. Even as things begin to look up, one has a sense of unease - we know and expect something to give. When the hammer falls, it is abrupt and shocking and the tension is built up in subtly before it is released in appropriate fashion. Too late you realize that it is a masterful game of poker and that you have been had. Eastwood who directed and co-wrote the movie puts his unmistakable stamp on the movie.

Serious as most of the movie is, there is some unexpected humor thrown in - in the repartee between Walt and his long time barber, in Walt's grudging acceptance of the food that he receives as gifts, in the 'education' of Thao.

The Gran Torino of the title is a Ford model from the early 70's that Walt (who worked on the Ford assembly line most of his life) maintains in mint condition. It has a recurring presence in the movie and what happens to it is a thinly veiled metaphor for the progress of Walt's character.

It is an enjoyable movie, but I am not entirely sure that it rises above all the cliches and stereotypes it incorporates. Perhaps all of that is a deliberate artifice - this is a commercial movie after all - and it does achieve a certain lyricism at times. Highly recommended.