Day #80 - Gran Torino

IMDB Link

Gran Torino is a film directed by, produced by, and starring Clint Eastwood. So I had a couple of assumptions going in - one, it was going to be slow, and two, Clint was going to be monotonous. Luckily for me, I LOVE Clint Eastwood. I didn't use to - but I didn't really know much. I had a bitter taste in my mouth after Million Dollar Baby came out because of how much I didn't like the movie and how much attention Clint got for it. That being said, earlier in this challenge I watched Unforgiven. Unforgiven changed my opinion of Clint forever. I just see him as this total badass and no, he's not the greatest actor there ever was, but I really don't care! I think he has great screen presence and he scared the daylights out of me in Unforgiven so that's that. I desperately want to meet him and hang out - he's gotta be super cool :)

Clint plays Walt Kowalksi - he's an old Korean War vet who lives in the same neighborhood he did decades ago, even though over the years he slowly became the only white man around. Walt is grumpy, extremely prejudiced and lonely...his wife just passed away and he has a terrible relationship with his two sons. A Hmong family live in the house next door but they seem to really hate him and vice versa - he sees the youth around his neighborhood as disrespectful and the people as having no pride in their properties. One night Walt catches Thao, the Hmong teenage boy who lives next door, trying to steal his prize possession - his 1972 Gran Torino. Despite this incident, Walt saves Thao and his sister Sue on two separate occasions when they are being harassed by the Hmong gang they are trying to avoid. People start to respect Walt for this, and Thao is sent to work for him to pay off his shame for trying to steal his car. With no real role model in his life, Thao becomes close to Walt as Walt teaches him how to be a man. Though their relationship helps them both greatly, it creates a lot of problems as Walt continues to put himself in between Thao, Sue and the Hmong gang.

I thought the story was pretty good - I think it could have delved deeper but that may have been a bit of Clint's acting too. I liked the ending a lot - I really wasn't expecting it and that is refreshing! Did anyone else see it? :)

A few snippets from Roger Ebert's review...

"I would like to grow up to be like Clint Eastwood. Eastwood the director, Eastwood the actor, Eastwood the invincible, Eastwood the old man. What other figure in the history of the cinema has been an actor for 53 years, a director for 37, won two Oscars for direction, two more for best picture, plus the Thalberg Award, and at 78 can direct himself in his own film and look meaner than hell? None, that's how many."

"Among actors of Eastwood's generation, James Garner might have been able to play this role, but my guess is, he'd be too nice in it. Eastwood doesn't play nice. Walt makes no apologies for who he is, and that's why, when he begins to decide he likes his neighbors better than his own family, it means something. "