Review: Gran Torino
by John NolteClint Eastwood’s hinted that Gran Torino might be his last turn in front of the camera. If that’s true, he could not have chose for himself a more fitting farewell. Without a hint of the self-referential, Torino touches on the many iconic moments of both his best genre pictures and more serious fare. Most of all, he’s masterfully blended both into a hard-hitting, supremely satisfying story that carries big themes with a deft gentleness.
Working from a superb script by relative newcomer Nick Schenk, Gran Torino opens in just the kind of Catholic church you expect to see in an old Detroit suburb. Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is there to bury his beloved wife and to disapprove of the rest of his family. Having toughed his way through as a soldier in Korea and decades on the Ford assembly line, the strongest emotion he can summon for his spoiled kin is sarcastic disapproval with a side order of contempt. And they deserve it.
Walt growls. Not figuratively, literally. He growls at the belly-pierced granddaughter who queries him on what he’ll leave her in his will, he growls at his son (Brian Haley) who thinks he’s outgrown the old, simple man who is his father, and he growls at Father Janovich (Christopher Carley), a baby-faced Priest who refuses to go away because he promised a dying wife he’d get Walt to agree to take confession.
At 78 (Eastwood plays his real age), Walt can live with this. He may not have made peace with his demons, but he is used to them and keeps life’s pleasures simple. Retired with a big old yellow dog for company, all Walt wants from life is his morning coffee, afternoon Pabst Blue Ribbon, a pack of filterless smokes and a quiet porch to enjoy them on.
Walt’s neighborhood, at least the one outside the time capsule Walt calls home, is changing. The area’s poorer, the street gangs cruise by and Hmong immigrants and refugees — or as Walt casually refers to them: gooks, fish heads, chinks – are moving in, including a large extended family right next door — so many that Walt wonders how all the ”zipperheads” fit. The only relationship Walt wants with his new neighbors is the one where he growls epithet’s under his breath and they in turn cuss him out in their native tongue. “She hates me,” Walt says to himself with genuine dismay as the old grandmother lashes out in more of a fury than usual.
It’s a merciless Asian gang that changes Walt’s comfortable neighbor-dynmic. For a gang initiation, Thao — the quiet teenage boy who lives next door — attempts to steal Walt’s prized possession: a cherry, 1972 Gran Torino. Thao isn’t interested or cut out for ganglife, but he is easily bullied and soon Walt grudgingly becomes both his and his family’s protector, mentor, and friend. But the gang’s not just going to go away and so they’re always there, a presence undermining the harmony – circling, waiting, willing to take this as far as they must to get what they want.
Many have compared Torino to Dirty Harry (1971), but The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) is more like it. Like Josey, Walt is a widower driven to violence, determined to remain alone, but in the end saddled with a ragtag family that humanizes him as he protects them. Better yet, like Josey, Walt likes to spit a little tobacco before letting things get “real f***ing ugly.” Torino’s themes of faith, mentoring, and an everyday man coming to terms with the winter of his years, however, are straight out of Million Dollar Baby (2004), and handled with the same beautiful and touching precision.
Most of the middle of Torino is taken up with Walt getting to know his Hmong neighbors and the taking of Thao under his wing. The pace is leisurely and pure Eastwood, but the script and Eastwood’s performance are so good that this is just as much fun as the tough stuff. Thankfully the film avoids political correctness like a plague. Certainly Walt changes, but not in a moment of false enlightenment after some heavy-handed lecture, but through the normal, human process of getting to know another. Walt’s words never change but the meaning behind them change completely.
Eastwood’s nothing short of marvelous playing this deceptively complicated and deep character. As an actor, he takes real chances with Walt’s growls and assorted tics. The characterization is performed on a knife edge. One degree this way or that and Eastwood’s making a fool of himself. But it never happens. Clint holds the line like a pro and creates a rarity on film anymore: a convincing, human character who’s larger-than-life.
Great films bring everything together in a final moment. When done right, the story, subplots and themes stay true for the climax but still surprise. This is where Torino most shines. After two hours your investment in the characters is complete, and in keeping with both the pulpier aspects of the genre and the story’s bigger ideas, Eastwood the performer and filmmaker brings together a perfect final moment that lingers for days and might even be the summation of a career made up of both genre grit and thoughtful, thematically-driven drama.
The moment is distilled Eastwood — the blend of hero, anti-hero and explorer of the dark human condition just within the grasp of salvation. For those of us who have never known life without the promise of another Clint Eastwood film, Gran Torino makes for a suitably tough and touching farewell.
Somewhere near the middle of the second act there’s a brief shot of Walt on his porch lighting a cigarette. Anyone who’s seen A Fistful of Dollars – the film that started it all and made Eastwood an international superstar in 1964 – will recognize Eastwood’s pose.
45-years just isn’t enough.
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This film is also the first major release from Double Nickel Entertainment, whose commander in chief is my dear friend Jenette Kahn. She’s the one who insisted on having my series Fables picked up by DC Comics, when she was still there, and was instrumental in the first big attempt to get Fables made as a feature film (in partnership with Lisa Henson at Jim Henson Pictures). But then Warner TV snatched Fables away from Warner Features and the rest is… mystery.
Butsothenanyway, I’m quite biased in rooting for this film, and happy as can be that it is indeed as terrific as I’d hoped. How cool is it that a scrappy new studio’s first major offering is not only a Clint Eastwood film, but also a great Clint Eastwood film? It almost mitigates the sad news that this may be his final one.
From what I’ve read about this film, it might actually cause me to drag myself to the theater to see it.
Saw it in a theater in Orange, California, with audience about 2/3 Asian-Americans. Atmosphere was initially uneasy, with Eastwood’s first few slur-bombs, but soon enough crowd was laughing heartily at them.
At the end, big applause.
I thought the beginning and end were great, but the middle was a little boring, still a great movie..
I’m really looking forward to seeing “Gran Torino.” Eastwood is old-time Hollywood at its best — a real treasure.
I was surprised and delighted to read that former DC Comics circa 1976 — shortly after she took over the helm at DC — while I was an order filler at Chas. Levy Circulating Company (CLCC) — then Chicago’s only major periodical distributor. She and her entourage were touring the main warehouse on Goose Island, and since I was the resident comic book geek, my boss saw fit to bring her by my modest little re-order section. Ms. Kahn, was gracious, dynamic and quite friendly, and went on to a long and successful career with DC. I wish her, Eastwood, and everyone else involved with this film geat success.
Ok John ya got me. So did Clint. Awesome. After a few fumbles the man is back. I believe I will have to do a double feature of this one and Valkyrie…
Saw this on New Year’s Eve with friends and loved every minute of it. If the Academy could give John Wayne a “farewell” Oscar for “True Grit,” they should do the same for Clint and “Gran Torino.”
I saw the film last night in a large, crowded Cincinnati theater. I liked it a lot. Everyone else seemed to as well.
I really enjoyed the movie but I felt several scenes were a bit too sitcom-y, like when he takes Thao to the barber to learn to talk like a man. Very fake and detracts from an otherwise great film.
Just saw the Wrestler and every so often the hype isn’t overblown PR crap. Rourke is great in this, a nice bookend to Barfly as part of his ‘bleak human lives barely worth living’ series. Can’t wait for part 3!
I saw this yesterday with a PACKED house at 1:30.
The film captivated me — it was everything I love about his films: Deliberate pacing with a firm grasp of the cinematic medium.
While I may have liked Eastwood’s approach to filmmaking, I have rarely liked one of his film — Flags of our Fathers was unforgivable, and I will never see Sands of Iwo Jima.
With Gran Torino, Eastwood has a screenplay — and that combined with his patient, visual style makes this a masterpiece. I loved every second of it.
Eastwood is one of my favorite actors. I have been a fan since my dad took me to see a “Dollars” movie triple feature at the local drive in back when I was a kid.
I remember the day when the critics mocked him, saying he couldn’t act. He’s had the last laugh.
I was looking forward to the Big Hollywood review of this movie. I’ve seen some reviewers who got hung up on the racial epithets and never got past it. I figured maybe you all could provide a fair review unfettered from PC groupthink.
I can’t believe the theme of this film went over your conservative heads. Like many aged conservatives, Eastwood has revealed the dreaded propensity for the aged to grow soft and liberal-thinking in the head. While I won’t go quite that far and say that’s what’s going on with the filmmaker for sure, but Gran Torino is a film about fading American ideals and their loss as a product of greed.
Throughout the film it is clear Eastwood/Schenk are comparing the family traditions of the Hmong with those of tradition Americans. By showing Walt’s family as distant (revealed by the character as not just the blame of the children late in the film), and Toad’s as connected by their traditions, it becomes clear that the Hmong are being shown as future of America, replacing the traditions of our mostly-caucasian founders with their own. Eastwood’s character takes Toad under his wing mostly in an attempt to pass on values that some conservatives consider to be uniquely theirs: Work hard, save, be a considerate part of the neighborhood, take care of yourself and keep your personal business to your self.
Admittedly, those same “values” coming out of a known liberal would be considered what everyone these days calls “socialist” (they are in fact communist, a dirty word even in today’s conservative vocabulary…sadly so). Conservatives at times assume, or seem to put across the idea that liberals themselves somehow achieved their accomplishments not as individuals, but as members of some hidden party pogrom.
Eastwood also does show some wisdom by displaying weaknesses in the Hmong community; the gangbangers are the most obvious, but here is then too the kids hanging out in the basement. But then that brings to mind that old adage, kids should be seen, not heard. However, the scene reveals the natural behavior of any society’s youth to establish their own turf.
Still, the good Hmong youths voice only traditional rebellion when talking about the old (“all strict”), while Walt’s grown kids and his grandkids are voiced by greed and arrogance (his grown children at their mother’s funeral make fun of Walt’s age, and his granddaughter openly asks for his prized car when he dies even though she has shown nothing but open contempt for him).
Eastwood takes his open contempt for America even further in perhaps the most revealing scene of the film when a white boy escorting Toad’s sister is confronted and abused by three black youths. It is hard to imagine that a youth from Eastwood’s day (a couple of decades off from my own) would have behaved as the white-boy-acting-hiphop-black did by allowing the girl to be threatened and verbally abused. In a homage to how times have changed, the girl uses a glib tongue to fight the boys (although it takes the hardened ol’ Walt to save her, still).
Perhaps, taking that into consideration, Eastwood’s statement is more about Americans, conservative Americans, that is, standing up for their beliefs rather than giving into to the flux of cultures that wash-up on our shores these days. Maybe the film is not meant to show how it is in human nature for our various cultures to migrate and flux and that “change” is the norm, always an inevitable wheel crushing all in its wake.
I hope so. I hope that Eastwood hasn’t been drinking that Goldwater Kool-Aid. I hope that all the old ticket-buyers that clapped in my theater were clapping for the selfless sacrifice of Walt, and not the fact that the filmmaker left us with the image of a strange Hmong youth driving away in our American car, a representative our American culture.
This is a coherent re-post of my comments above, some of which apparently disappeared between my last proofing and a couple of minor final edits:
“I’m really looking forward to seeing “Gran Torino.” Eastwood is old-time Hollywood at its best — a real treasure.
I was also surprised and delighted to read that former DC Comics president Jenette Kahn was involved with the production of this film. I first met her circa 1976 — shortly after she took over the helm at DC — while I was an order filler at Chas. Levy Circulating Company (CLCC) — then Chicago’s only major periodical distributor. She and her entourage were touring the main warehouse on Goose Island, and since I was the resident comic book geek, my boss saw fit to bring her by my modest little re-order section. Ms. Kahn, was gracious, dynamic and quite friendly, and went on to a long and successful career with DC. I wish her, Eastwood, and everyone else involved with this film geat success.”
I feel like we finally got Clint Eastwood back. Clint went back to his roots – which is why Gran Torino will succeed at the box office. Gran Torino will dwarf the combined box office haul of the those ridiculous Iwo Jima films.
Like I said on the other thread about this, I liked it a lot. Fiercely paleo-con. Epic Eastwood. Still, was let down when Eastwood’s character punted on the subject of the U.S. pull-out of Vietnam.
Hard to say if it’s Oscar-worthy performance, especially when stacked against Frank Langella’s portrayal of Nixon, which is breathtaking.
Just got back from the film, and Clint Eastwood has done a tremendous job. The best film I have seen from 2008, after The Dark Knight and Wall-E. It was great to see a film about the multi-cultural nature of American society without being overwhelmed by namby-pamby liberalism. A leftist filmmaker would have certainly made the gang harassing the Hmong family a group of Neo-Nazi white supremacists, rather than other Asians.
Also, Eastwood deserves credit for bringing up the forgotten genocides in Southeast Asia after the Communist victory in 1975, something the despicable anti-war left in this country never even acknowledges (probably because they openly supported those for years those who committed it). We will miss Eastwood when is gone. There is no one quite like him, either as an actor or director.
Thoughtful piece, a couple quibbles. First, I’m going to assume it’s a matter of taste, but deciding to make your main character speak every single line of subtext — out loud and to himself — seems obvious and after a while, a little tiresome. Second, and I’m surprised you didn’t address this in some fashion, the performances by the two Hmong teenagers were awful. Worse than awful. High school play awful. I get the appeal when it comes to using non-pros, tho’ there’s usually an accompanying arrogance that comes along with it. But in this case, it was a real problem for me. Particularly the boy, who was simply out of his depth, and never more than in his big emotional moment — an embarrassingly bad scene where he could have used a director to protect him, either on the set or in the editing room. But the director didn’t bother (or think it was necessary). Clint sometimes tosses off movies — a friend of mine acted in a previous effort — and this feels like one. The irony is that Eastwood originally thought the movie was headed straight to DVD, which is either a recognition of the acting problems, or just Clint being flinty.
Anyway, there’s much to enjoy in it. But I think it’s also the most overrated movie of the season. (And not, please Lord, for political reasons of any kind. I haven’t the slightest problem with anything in the movie for that reason.)
I mostly enjoyed the film, and I will forever see Clint’s work, but I couldn’t quite get past the terrible acting of the young leads. I also didn’t buy the ending. I thought Sean Penn had Oscar sewn up after “Milk,” then saw Langella. Then saw Mickey’s magnificent carcass in “The Wrestler.” Best actor will be ineresting this year, and I’m sure Clint will be in the running.
All I can say is, I REALLY need to see this film. Everything about this looks like a classic in the waiting. I gotta get around to planning a time for it.
This was the best movie I’ve seen at the theater in years. Been waiting for it for ages. It managed to do and be so many things at once, and speak to so many issues about our culture, all while maintaining a riveting drama and a subtle hand. Masterful and cathartic.
I just saw Gran Torino with my almost 17 year old grandaughter. We both loved it, laughed heartily, cried copiously, cheered mightily – and sat all the way through the closing credits. We applauded with everyone else in the theater when “Directed by Clint Eastwood” appeared at the end. Jamie Collom’s music was wonderful.
great movie. vintage eastwood.
not what you expect it to be…
Cant wait to see it- the last few Eastwood movies haven’t even piqued my interest but this one seems very cool. I guess the threat of it being his last as a star is part of the appeal- cinema history in the making.
I just saw it — and couldn’t help blubbering like a baby near the end.
Terrific work, Clint and company!
Saw this movie with my husband – who could have written the dialog. (He has even been known to growl at times and he’s 20 years younger than Walt)
It was refreshing not to be beaten about the head and shoulders with a PC stick and instead to see a film where the characters actually do speak the way that people speak without the filter of modern propriety.
Walt in many ways reminds me of the blue collar people I grew up with – rough around the edges, not afraid to say what they’re thinking, but would give someone the shirt off their back if they needed it. Mr. Eastwood captured them in Walt. Walt wasn’t pretty, he wasn’t easy to listen to and he doesn’t embody what is acceptable these days. But his actions spoke louder than words – he sat down with his neighbors, he stepped in to help the daughter and teenage son and he took actions to make the neighborhood better – all without waiting for a government program or some foundation-funded study.
I’d much rather watch a movie such as this – even with the uneven performances by some of the cast – than to watch the drivel that passes for movies where every performance is Oscar worthy. My hat’s off to Mr. Eastwood both as an actor and as a director (and as a song-writer!).
Spend the money – go see this movie.
I saw Gran Torino earlier today and I didn’t expect too much but as I left the theatre I truly thought this was one of Clint Eastwood’s best movies. I hope there are more movies like this coming out that do not have all the political correctness or insane views on man made global warming.
Thank God for Harley’s comment, at least I’m not the only one here who has serious problems with this movie. What you say about the performances of the two Hmong teenagers is right on the money – “high school play awful” sums it up perfectly. During the boy’s big emotional moment toward the end, someone started laughing behind me and I couldn’t blame him (he got shooshed right away by people busy taking the movie way too seriously); it’s an embarrassing moment of bad acting.
I also didn’t like the constant bullying dialogue – not so much the racial aspect of it, though that seemed mostly phony, but just the sheer obnoxious unpleasantness of it. Does anyone really talk that way?
When I said in the other thread that key moments were predictable, I wasn’t referring to the climax, which is fine and unpredictable, but other moments, such as the cliched bit where the boy is walking alone in the alley and you just know trouble is coming, or the very predictable bit toward the end about who Eastwood is going to leave his prized Gran Torino to, his spoiled obnoxious granddaughter or his honorable young Hmong friend.
I went into the theater hoping to see a good Dirty Harry type movie from Clint. This may not be exactly the same thing as the Dirty Harry films, but it is just as good. It was almost more of a comedy than it was an action film, but Clint still has his gritty toughness. Great movie.
Green Mamba wrote: “What you say about the performances of the two Hmong teenagers is right on the money – “high school play awful” sums it up perfectly”
As an avid, life-long filmgoer, I’ve probably seen in the range of 10,000 films in the past 50 years. And you know what? Thousands of those films varied from poor to outrageously bad, despite the fact that virtually all of them featured professional actors who were no doubt seasoned, card-carrying SAG members.
So I think you’re just missing the point about the Hmong actors in this film, who I thought did just fine — or at least well enough that their acting did not detract from the flow of the story.
The guy above who claimed that a liberals values include “keep your personal business to yourself” is laughable. In this age when a simple phrase or opinion can be considered a hate crime, when disputing gay marriage or even your voting choice is met by actual cries of “Hatred! Racist!” it’s ridiculous to even think that liberals respect others opinions that differ from their own. We live in an insane time when “not thinking” like the liberals is considered crazed or outdated and not in step with “progressives”.
TMZ recently showed a clip of Seth Macfarland (sp?) the “Family Guy” creator spouting obscenities at anyone who voted against the gay marriage proposal”Go *#@* yourself! It’s 2009, get with the *&$#@ing program!” or something along those lines. The woman on TMZ went on to say “He’s such a nice guy.” She was completely serious. Is that another example of keeping your personal business to yourself in Hollywood?
Last year we payed to see ONE movie in a theatre. Maybe Gran Torino will be the single movie worth seeing this year.
Walt in many ways reminds me of the blue collar people I grew up with – rough around the edges, not afraid to say what they’re thinking, but would give someone the shirt off their back if they needed it.
———————————————————————-
These are the people I grew up with as well. The people that in a lot of today’s films are portrayed as ignorant, hateful rednecks. But in reality, these are the people who, in times of need, are out there helping. These are the people who fill the sandbags and get out in their SUVs to help those who need it. They are film’s forgotten men.
John,
I was here browsing around on Jan 5th and your review of “The Wrestler” was posted, but since the big launch, it’s disappeared (no longer at the URL, either). Is it going to be reposted at a later date?
From Rowdy to Walt over half a century.
What a character arc!
When I was 8, I saw The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I knew nothing about movies, still don’t, really, but at that moment I fell in love. I have been Clint crazy for 34 yrs now.Even though I haven’t liked a lot of his movies, I will always love Clint. He was then,and now, what I thought a real man looked like. Is he really? Probably nowhere near what I would like, but I have my fantasies, everyone else has theirs. Can’t wait to go see this, hope it is half as good as you say.
Oh, and let’s not forget — tho’ it would be best to make some small attempt — Clint ’singing’ the title song at the end. If Sean Penn had done such a thing at the end of a movie he directed? The ridicule from Nolte and others would be overflowing. As it should.
Clint’s a wonder and a treasure. But his work, like all movies, is best viewed without adoring blinders.
Harley,
I panned The Changeling and both of Eastwood’s Iwo Jima films. I also gave Milk a good review and consider Penn’s The Pledge to be one of the best films of the last ten years.
Here’s a real twister for you: Penn and Eastwood worked together in Mystic River and I panned that, as well.
But maybe you really have cracked my code.
Cam:
I’m keeping an eye on when The Wrestler goes wide.
I’ll re-post it then.
Great review John. There is so much to admire about this movie. For starters, it wears its ambitions on its sleeve by naming Clint’s character “Walt Kowalski,” the last name shared with A Streetcar Named Desire’s Stanley, legendarily personified by the young Marlon Brando. So here in Gran Torino we have a rookie screenwriter who names his own emotionally inchoate brute “Kowalski,” then gets a Brando-sized legend to play the part. Ballsy, and it worked.
HANDSOME SMITTY…
You’ve completely misread this film:
—–”While I won’t go quite that far and say that’s what’s going on with the filmmaker for sure, but Gran Torino is a film about fading American ideals and their loss as a product of greed.”—–
Fading American ideals, yes. Loss “as a product of greed”, no. Materialism is one thing and is certainly castigated in the film, but materialism and greed are not the same things, nor are they presented as such here.
—–”Throughout the film it is clear Eastwood/Schenk are comparing the family traditions of the Hmong with those of tradition Americans. By showing Walt’s family as distant (revealed by the character as not just the blame of the children late in the film), and Toad’s as connected by their traditions, it becomes clear that the Hmong are being shown as future of America, replacing the traditions of our mostly-caucasian founders with their own.”—–
This is just wrong. The point was not Hmong culture versus traditional America, with the Hmong being “the future”. The point was that, in EITHER culture, traditional values of honor, dignity and respect are superior to the new, disrespectful and purely consumerist and empty modern “values” of the youth at large.
Both Hmong youth, who are almost all portrayed as gangbangers (“the girls go to college and the boys go to jail”), and the American youth, who are portrayed as shallow, disrespectful and hopelessly materialistic and empty, are portrayed in a negative light, while traditional values such as those held by Kowalski and his traditional Hmong neighbors(“we are a very traditional family”) are seen as clearly positive. That’s why Kowalksi finds that, despite the culture, he’s more at home with the comparably strange Hmong’s than he is with his own family, because though “strange’, they practice traditional values that are much more in line with his own than the younger generation.
But far from being “the future”, as I mentioned before, the Hmong youth, with the EXCEPTIONS of the children of the “very traditional family” are generally portrayed as just as hopeless as the American youth. They are, afterall, the bad guys, and the dialogue indicates it’s most of the Hmong youth in that area who are bad, and not just these individuals. So the film certainly doesn’t favor Hmong culture over American culture, it favors traditionalism over the emptiness of modern youthful culture in general.
—–”Eastwood’s character takes Toad under his wing mostly in an attempt to pass on values that some conservatives consider to be uniquely theirs: Work hard, save, be a considerate part of the neighborhood, take care of yourself and keep your personal business to your self.
Admittedly, those same “values” coming out of a known liberal would be considered what everyone these days calls “socialist” (they are in fact communist, a dirty word even in today’s conservative vocabulary…sadly so).”—–
This is just bizarre. The values you describe in that sentence are purely and squarely those of traditional and conservative America, and would never be considered “socialist” under any circumstances, for the simple reason that they are NOT socialist at all. Nor are they, as you say, “actually communist”, either…
Work hard? Why “work hard” in a socialist/communist state when the government will just take care of you if you don’t? Save? Why save when the government is there to take care of you after retirement? That’s their job in a socialist/communist state. Cradle to the grave care for its slaves/citizens. Be a considerate par tof the neighborhood? There’s nothing uniquely socialist/communist about being a considerate part of the neighborhood. That’s an ancient Judeo/Christian tenet – the Golden Rule and the Greatest Commandment. Take care of yourself??? Not even remotely socialist/communist, where EVERYBODY is charged with taking care of you, whether they want to or not, and whether you deserve it or not. Keep your personal business to yourself? Not possible in a socialist/communist “collective” society, where the very definition of these systems is antithetical to individualism. How can you whine for state benefits if you “keep your personal business to yourself”? How can you keep your “personal business” to yourself when the state needs to know so much about you so they can know how much they need to take from you to be “fair”?
—–”…while Walt’s grown kids and his grandkids are voiced by greed and arrogance (his grown children at their mother’s funeral make fun of Walt’s age, and his granddaughter openly asks for his prized car when he dies even though she has shown nothing but open contempt for him).”—–
Again, this is Eastwood showing disdain for modern values, not a preference of Hmong over the Americans. Afterall, the Hmong youth in the film that share the modern value system do far, far worse than just be “arrogant” or ask for a car. They shoot up households, rape, torture and murder. I think if you’re going to say Eastwood “picked a side” here, it’s decidedly not the Hmong youth who get the better of it over the Americans. But again, the point is traditionalism versus modernism, not one culture over another. Both Kowalski’s culture and the traditional Hmong family’s cultures are portrayed as good, though different, while the non-traditional youth culture on all sides is portrayed as bad.
—–”Eastwood takes his open contempt for America even further in perhaps the most revealing scene of the film when a white boy escorting Toad’s sister is confronted and abused by three black youths. It is hard to imagine that a youth from Eastwood’s day (a couple of decades off from my own) would have behaved as the white-boy-acting-hiphop-black did by allowing the girl to be threatened and verbally abused.”—–
Eastwood has no contempt for America. The film clearly loves traditional American values(Eastwood and all his older buddies in the film are portrayed as good guys, and they all have American flags, support the troops signs, etc.). Eastwood has contempt for modern “youth” values – both American and not American, as portrayed repeatedly in the film. The scene you mention is not an indictment of America, it’s an indictment of youth culture all around, from the disrespect and hostility of the aggressors to the trying to act like something you’re not and pussiness of the should-be boy defender.
—–”(although it takes the hardened ol’ Walt to save her, still).”—–
Yup, and he does it by using his good old, very AMERICAN “Right to Bear Arms”.
—–”Perhaps, taking that into consideration, Eastwood’s statement is more about Americans, conservative Americans, that is, standing up for their beliefs rather than giving into to the flux of cultures that wash-up on our shores these days.”—–
It’s not anti-immigrant at all. Or about “giving in” to cultures that “wash up on our shores” versus “not giving in”. The traditional Hmongs are portrayed as good and Kowalski is comfortable with them and likes them. Cultural differences are nothing as long as traditional values of respect and honor are part of those cultures. The youth, however, have abandoned those things largely, and that is what is not good.
—–” hope so. I hope that Eastwood hasn’t been drinking that Goldwater Kool-Aid. I hope that all the old ticket-buyers that clapped in my theater were clapping for the selfless sacrifice of Walt, and not the fact that the filmmaker left us with the image of a strange Hmong youth driving away in our American car, a representative our American culture.”—–
Can’t you clap for both? For the sacrifice, and for the fact that a kid learned some good lessons from an older man and will probably avoid the pitfalls so common with the rest of his generation? That traditional values and manliness can still be passed down and preserved, even in these times? That while Eastwood wasn’t able to impart these values to his own family, he redeemed himself and saved a Hmong kid by imparting them to him?
Or can’t they Just clap because it was an all around damn good movie and everybody had a great time?
I’m sorry, Smitty, but you just did not “get” the lessons from this movie that the filmmakers were obviously trying to get across.
David,
I saw the movie last night and have found myself thinking about it all day today. I completely agree with you. It was a movie about traditional values vs. current values, and I think the lack of courage was a big theme in the movie. Walt was constantly trying to get others to stand up and show some spunk or courage throughout the movie. My take on the movie was that it was more about how the lack of traditional values is the basis for our social problems. Wasn’t the traditional value of honor exhibited by the kids mother who insisted the boy work for Walt in recompense for his dishonorable act? Her values had obviously influenced her son as he was not really wanting to join the gang.
I was especially moved by Walt’s love for the Hmong family through his getting to know them, yet another example of how living his traditional values translated into being truly tolerant and accepting of diversity, in spite of his politically incorrect speech.
I loved this movie-a refreshing story from the same old Hollywood mantra.
Yes, I did appreciate the fact that Hmong kid drove off in an American car given to him by an elder citizen who had come to know and love him through traditional values.
John, I’d never try to put you in a box when it comes to reviews, and I think you’re Milk review was spot-on. (And I thought Mystic River was wildly overrated, in part due to the mangled adaptation.) I just think Eastwood is getting a pass here, I’m not sure why. But I would be curious to know what you think about the amateurish performances. And c’mon, that song?
By the way, a quick note about Eastwood as a director. He never scouts his locations. The first time he sees them is when he shows up to shoot. He doesn’t worry about where to put the camera. That’s someone else’s job. He isn’t overly worried about performances. No Fincher-like mania when it comes to takes. Basically, it’s get the lights right and move on. You work on one of his later movies? You’re gonna be home for dinner. Long days will not be a problem.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. And it’s the results that matter, not the method. But I’d still suggest that he is far more valuable as an actor and an icon than in the director’s chair.
It comes as no surprise that his performance is the thing that holds Gran Torino together. The man is amazing. I just wish he worked with a more attentive director on this particular project.
When you reject your forefathers your inheritance, if it is preserved at all, will pass to foreigners.
Surely there are Old Testament passages on this theme.
One big gap in the story is if Eastwood’s character could make a man out of Toad, why did his own sons become ingrates and incompetent fathers?
If you have not seen it, go see it! It will make your day.
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HARLEY: I found the performances lacking, but only in spots. Even so there was a charming natural, awkwardness to them which I prefer over the affectations of Maryl Streep or Pacino. I also thing the Hmong actors were ten times better than Tim Robbins mumbling through Mystic River.
The film is bigger than the story. It’s the summation of a career that straddles six decades. In that respect the song was fitting.
John, okay, fair enuf. I just couldn’t get past it, tho’ I get your point about career summations. Maybe I’m reacting to the weird embrace of the movie by the hipster poseur set in town. For them, Gran Torino is the new black — but there’s a weird condescension in the praise that sorta raises my hackles. Inside baseball, but all sorts of things impact the way one views a movie.
David, phenomenal rebuttal. To it I would only add that a whiny kid who is already counting up her inheritance in the will is about as liberal as you can get – the sense of entitlement to other people’s money is central to their worldview.
Like maatkare, I didn’t buy the ending … and frankly thought the whole ending sequence was a surrender to PC, maybe to counterbalance the delightfully relentless anti-PC of the rest of an otherwise wonderful movie.
My God. I don’t think I have ever seen so much (um) ethnic humor in any above ground movie ever. Lay the groundwork for so much that was so appealing at so many levels. And the barber shop & construction site scenes were just plain gems of celebration of being a “real man”.
But what really made this movie for me was Eastwood’s Walk Kowalski. This grizzled, growling, scowling, but aging, “real man” was truly the whole point of the movie. This was the kind of character Clint Eastwood was born to bring to the silver screen.
And by the way … for some reason I was really struck by Kowalksi’s period garb: “putter pants,” belted way high up, the way that no one but no one wears pants these days.
But Kowalski did. So what? If you’ve got a problem with that you’re probably just a pussy.
I really really really hope that this isn’t the last of Clint Eastwood on screen. I first saw him as the laconic Rowdy Yates in the old Rawhide series. And I’ve just been delighted to see him in everything but everything since then. What a legacy. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking but I really hope the legacy-building isn’t over yet.
I saw this movie last night. I have been a fan of Clint Eastwood’s ever since I saw him in the Dirty Harry and Play Misty For Me movies. If you want to see a movie that will grab your heart and not let loose, go see Gran Torino, NOW!!!!!
Again Clint Eastwood has scored a touchdown! I loved that I could see those beautiful blue eyes again on the screen big as the moon! I love you Clint!
Eastwood is brilliant, again! This film lays bare the wounds of Korea, stereotypes, bigotry and the generation gap leaving the audience squirming in their seats. Regardless of your history and your sociopolitical views, Torino takes you on an bitter-sweet ride through the tides and torrents of real life in a multicultural American neighborhood and makes you question yourself and your values. Fresh, touching and very timely, Torino is an instant Eastwood Classic.
I definitely enjoyed this movie while watching it; it was funny, profane, and very moving —- but one important part started to bother me once I started thinking about it.
*****Major Spoilers Ahead!!!*****
Two of Clint Eastwood’s recent successful films both ended with assisted suicide. In “Million Dollar Baby”, the Eastwood character euthanized the Hillary Swank character (which she won an Oscar for.) In “Gran Torino”, Eastwood’s character knows he is dying and he decides to sacrifice himself to save his new friends. We’re all familiar with the phrase “suicide by cop” whereby a criminal (or a disturbed person) acts aggressively toward police officers, causing them to shoot him. In this film, it’s “suicide by gang members.” His action is presented as noble, and he ends up on the ground in a crucifixion pose.
The film begins and ends in a Catholic church, and a young priest is a main character. It’s also noted that the Eastwood character’s deceased wife was very religious. So my main qualm with this film is that the morality of his suicide is not questioned. He obviously had good intentions, but suicide is not condoned by the Catholic Church and this should have been noted by someone in the film (maybe the priest?) In this religion, I don’t think a confession prior to a suicide provides absolution
I have thought about this movie all day, too, and would like to contribute a couple of other thoughts to this thread:
1. The Gran Torino, made in 1972, is a lusciously beautiful product of American industry and art. It is the prize, won finally by Toad, who is carrying Walt’s ideals forward into his own life.
2. The Kowalski sons and grandsons are useless. The Hmong families also lack adult men who can and will work hard for their own families. As the young lady says, “the girls go to college, the boys go to jail.” Walt Kowalski is the lone MAN in the neighbourhood, and he is old, very old, and dying. The other MAN is the young priest, who, like young Toad, learns some valuable lessons from America’s past greatness.
3. As courageous and intelligent as the young Hmong girl is, she needs a MAN to protect her.
I saw gran torino the other ngiht and it was so touching to me, of course the language throughout the film was shocking to come from him, but it was an eye opener, thats what lie today is like which isnt very nice but we all learn to deal with it, he made a new family and cared soo much about those he had hated once before. He gave up his life for those kids and knew that what he was doing for them was for their future. seeing that stuff like the girl comming home after the hsoue being shot up was horrific, but it is not a bad thing to be shown it happens and everyone should know that this goes on everyday. what a great movie i love it and i think its the best movie ive ever seen, first movie i had a tear in my eye.
When times life is making a drama on people. Like we has to live with or even to come on bed with person we never would love. Time is making a fool at us. Yesterday I saw this wonderful movie called Possession (2009) it is the perfect story for some one he thinks deep In life. I feel very sorry about the lady. Because she is suffered from loosing her husband and also in the matter of time having to live with his brother who dislikes her much early. Saw it on http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com I think many wife stunt to see this movie.
Just loved this movie saw it last weekend couldnt believe that it was still selling out showed up at 6:45 for a 7:05 showing and found out it was sold out, bought tickets for the 9:30 show and they were packing them into the theater. Also, my girlfriend wasnt sure about going to see the movie but walked out loving it too.
Could it be that he lacked the wisdom and experience to do so when both he and his children were far younger? I cannot say, as I have never been a father, but it's something to consider.
i liked this movie, however, as a legal scholar, it is legally inaccurate. in the final scene, when clint is reaching for his lighter and shot, the gang members that shot him could establish a claim of self defense because only a reasonable belief that the victim had a gun was necessary. this could easily be established considering the prior threats with a gun made by clint and the threatening purpose of the visit. also, the song at the end of the film sang by clint was awkward. thanks for listening.
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