Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino
Hands down, Gran Torino is absolutely the best movie of 2008. In fact, it is the best movie of the decade. Directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski, a pissed off ex-Korean war vet, who can’t let go of his painful past and carries his prejudices into the present, this true masterpiece in filmmaking begins at a funeral.
Looking more bitter and angrier than ever, Walt begrudgingly greets his family and friends (people he can’t stand), who are there to mourn their mother…friend and I’m guessing, Walt’s “better half.” Leaving her tormented husband of many years behind, she asked her young and ambitious preacher, Father Janovich (played by Christopher Carley) to watch over Walt after she passes away. Staying true to his word, Father Janovich desperately tries to fulfill a nearly impossible request.
He knocks on Walt’s front door only to have it slammed in his face after being called a 27-year old virgin 
among among many other things (that I can’t write in a review). Still, Father Janovich keeps coming back for more as do other people who hover over Walt’s isolated existence. Living in a Midwestern neighborhood that once belonged to white folks but is now occupied primarily by Koreans, Walt refuses to leave the home where he resided for most of his life yet he is disgusted by what has “happened to the neighborhood.”
Still…despite Walt’s blunt, racially incorrect dialogue, we can’t help but fall in love with him. I know, I know…it sounds impossible. But, it’s something only Clint Eastwood and maybe Jack Nicholson (in a different sort of way) can pull off. When you see past the bad and ugly stereotypical racial slurs, a good man is discovered. When Walt sees injustice, he fights! And he fights like Eastwood’s old-school cowboy characters fought. Basically, he takes the law into his own hands. It becomes obvious that he doesn’t just dislike Koreans, or blacks, Mexicans, purple people…he hates his own race, as well. He pretty much hates everyone.
And speaking of which, although Walt doesn’t get along with his own children and has no one left in the world due to his…shall we say…character defects, when a group of Korean “gangstas” begin harassing their little cousin/Walt’s neighbor, probing him to join their gun-toting way of life, Walt enters the scene (in the middle of the night) with a shotgun and a look that could kill.
Facing a man with some serious baggage and no more good reasons to live, the thugs back off, realizing the obvious…old man Walt is “crazy.”
“Get off my lawn,” he says, hoping they stay so he can pull the trigger.
He goes on to inform them, point blank (no pun intended), that he hasn’t got any problem blowing their faces off and then kissing his dog, Daisy, goodnight and sleeping like a baby. Yes, his dog’s name is Daisy, of all things! In his coldest of cold stares, the thugs see Walt’s fire within and the “bad asses” of the neighborhood realize that maybe there is someone even more bad-ass just looking for a reason to explode. Threatened, they slowly back off and walk away.
Naturally, this is where the story begins. Without wanting to reveal any more, I will say this: despite Walt’s 
loose tongue, which, by the way, he never really loses throughout the film, he does learn how to love and it is from the same “type of people” whom he fought in a bloody battle in Korea. Thus, his past does meet up with his present, as mentioned, but this time around, he gets a second chance.
Never before have I witnessed a film where a ferociously fearless old-timer takes on a bunch of gang-bangers and wins. And he wins, alright. Even when he loses, it really is a big win! Poetically beautiful and moving, Gran Torino will have you laughing out loud. The story will also dredge up some tears.
After I left the screening held over at Warner Bros., I was so incredibly touched by this movie. I felt the same way I felt after viewing some of Eastwood’s other directorials such as Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima. Calling Clint Eastwood a one-of-a-kind artist seems to do the brilliantly talented creator injustice. Basically, everything he works on is heartfelt and told in such a special way. His work makes me crave something more. I am left emotionally charged and ready to embrace life.
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Gran Torino is a movie that shouldn’t be missed. It hits theatres, nationwide, January 9th!
