Gran Torino

One of the greatest stars of all times, Clint Eastwood is truly a one trick pony when it comes to acting. His latest Gran Torino confirms the same without a shred of doubt. While the film has Eastwood playing Walt Kowalski, a disillusioned Korean War vet, he is actually the same man without a name or ‘Dirty’ Harry Callhan or Frankie Dunn. The only thing different here is that Eastwood growls every time he has to convey contempt scorn. Yes. He actually growls.

Kowalski’s wife dies at the beginning of the film and we see the estrangement he has with his two sons and their families. If the strained relationship is a sign of the changed times then the multi-ethnic neighborhood with an Asian kids fighting the Mexicans completes the sorry picture for the hard as nails old world Kowalski. Kowalski is a man whose time is surely up. It’s quite evident from the way he conducts himself. He might not like the Hmong family staying next door and spits every time he sees anyone of them across the fence but he is a principled man. When a couple of African American kids try to get fresh with Sue, the Hmong girl, he walks up to them and fires an imaginary gun. That is enough to scare the kids off and enough to make Sue realize that Walt isn’t as nuts as he claims to be. She invites him over for a family gathering and even though Walt is trying to be amicable you can make out that he sticks out like a sore thumb. The only thing that gives his life some sort of emotional connect it’s the 1972 vintage Gran Tornio, which not only possess a place of pride in his garage but his existence. Sue’s brother Thao tries to steal the car in order to make his bones as a gang member but Kowalski thwarts the plan. As a penance Sue’s mother insists that Thao work for Kowalski for some time.

Soon a friendship brews between the odd couple and some how Kowalski realizes that times are a changing. Thao gets a grip on his life as Kowalski ordains him into the ‘real’ world. He gets him a job, he lends him his tools, he allows him to drive his Gran Torino to a date that he fixes up so much so that he even takes the kid to his barber and shows him how ‘men’ used to talk in the good ole days! Things take an ugly turn when Thao is beaten up by the Hmong gang members who can’t take Thao trying to live a regular ‘American’ job. Kowalski looses it and bashes up the tormentor. The gang retorts by brutally raping Sue. Realizing that things will never change until some thing drastic happens, Kowalski prepares himself for a suicide mission.

The climax might be some sort of a let down but in the true sense of the word plays out like the high point of the tragedy that Kowalski’s life turns out to be. This would perhaps be the weakest of recent Eastwood films as far as the screenplay goes. Always one to take up simple tales and lace them with heightened acting and screenplay, Eastwood fails with Gran Torino. The film is a throwback at the character driven fare from the 1970’s but the problem is that the kind of violence that Kowalski is subjected to has been done to death on film a million times. The vigilante super hero of a common man is Charles Bronson area and we all know how people laughed him out with each passing film. What makes Eastwood tread on such territory?

This film has been the highest grossing film of his career and this is also the last film that he will ever act in. It’s a nice send off as far as the commercial success of the film goes but some where the first frame of Kowalski makes you want to time travel and pop the Dirty Harry DVD.