Gran Torino Review

[Brando]

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written by: Nick Schenk (screenplay), Dave Johannson (story)
Runtime: 116 mins
Rated: R
Release Date: June 9, 2009

Movie:

I’m a bit new to Clint. I grew up when the baddest of the good guys included Gibson’s Mad Max or Arnie’s ‘Dutch’ and Terminator. Dirty Harry was long off the radar when I watched my first flicks during the awful eighties.

And yet, Eastwood the actor, director, and producer has become something of a movie-making titan in the last decade or so, working on some of the most dramatic and best-received films over that time. Few North Americans, and few members of the Academy for that matter, will easily forget the dark and foreboding Mystic River, or the bittersweet Million Dollar Baby. From time to time Eastwood often enters the ring himself, offering various gradations on his tough-as-nails Harry in a modern-day setting.

Eastwood’s titanium-tough detective, in one way or another, is back in Gran Torino, the story of a 70-something Korean War veteran struggling to keep his sanity as the neighborhood – and by extension, the country – he once fought for is ‘invaded’ by Vietnamese, Laotian, and Chinese ‘Hmong’ immigrants. At heart, Gran Torino is a story of fear, change, and adaptation. It is a good movie, but perhaps not as action-oriented as Clint’s old fans may have come to expect. Hey, the guy is 79 years old.

Gran Torino is set in Detroit, arguably North America’s most economically troubled city. In 2008, Forbes magazine rated it “The Most Miserable City in America,” because of its toxic air and water pollution, an astronomical unemployment rate, and its rather dubious title as the U.S.’ most violent city. In other words, you don’t want to live there (and as someone who spent several years across the river in Windsor, I can attest to that).

Detroit is also, arguably, America’s most racially segregated city. Since the Second World War, when African Americans fled the South for better jobs in the North’s industrial belt, there has been a palpable tension between the city’s native whites and its newer residents. The latter group, restricted from taking the best jobs in Detroit’s automotive factories, took up residence in the inner city while white workers and management abandoned homes along Woodward Avenue and Gratiot for the ‘burbs of Farmington Hills and Bloomfield Hills. The anger caused by the “White Flight” led to some of the most heated racial violence in modern American history, culminating in the riots of 1967, where thousands of businesses and residences were set aflame. Those who live there or near there today recognize that the tensions – and prejudices -- have only slightly subsided.

Gran Torino is not the story of whites and blacks, however – although these anxieties are visible. Instead, the film is primarily about one Detroit neighborhood slowly being taken over by South Asian immigrants. One of the last white holdouts is Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), a late-seventies Korean War veteran, widow, and ex-Ford worker with a serious chip on his shoulder. There are a number of reasons for Walt’s curmudgeonly character: not only has he recently lost his beloved wife, but over the last decade or so (we assume) he has watched as the old neighborhood has decayed, no longer resembling the white picket fence community it once was. Eaves troughs droop, fall to the ground; roofs sag; paint chips and falls away, revealing the rotting core underneath. There is deep symbolism here for Detroit, American manufacturing, and the country’s attitudes towards immigration and isolation, all of which have experienced intense and difficult re-adjustments in recent years.

The plot goes something like this: a new, Vietnamese Hmong (it’s the name of a South Asian community) family moves next door to Walt and quite naturally engage in housewarming activities that reveal their rather unique, perhaps even “un-American” culture. Walt sneers. The new family includes two teenagers, one of each sex, and like so many white and black kids in Detroit face immense challenges in trying to get out of high school alive. Tao, the teenaged boy, is being actively recruited – against his will – by his cousin’s gang, known as “The Spiders.” Knowing that his recruitment could lead to death or, at best, jail time and a life of misery, Tao (whom Walt calls “Toad”) resists the recruiting process, and for that decision faces the fists, knives, and Uzis of the Spiders.

Watching from his front porch with Pabst in hand, Walt soon recognizes that Tao is a decent kid. He realizes that without help Tao will indeed wind up behind bars or face down in an alleyway. Much to his immediate discomfort, Walt begins to adapt to his neighbours and to Tao in an attempt to keep the boy from a life of crime and general hopelessness.

This is an intelligent film, even if it isn’t quite subtle. The language and the imagery is often quite shocking and most of it comes straight from Walt’s mouth. I learned many, many new racist barbs while watching this film, and if that’s unlikely to make you uncomfortable, it’s best to stay far, far away. Some might argue that the movie’s message is that racism is, and always will be, a part of American culture.

However, if the topic of racism intrigues rather than offends you, Gran Torino is a movie worth watching. Although Eastwood’s tough-guy snarl isn’t for everyone, the story of redemption (both of Tao and then Walt) is uplifting. Like so many of Eastwood’s other films of late, its ending is also shocking and bittersweet, but it adds rather than detracts from the movie’s overall quality.

I watched this film on DVD and was surprised at the dearth of special features. You’ll find just two, both focusing on the car, a 1972 Gran Torino. Neither taps into the movie’s more troubling themes, including inner city violence and racism, but they do highlight Detroit’s glory days and its one lasting ritual from that era: the Woodward Dream Cruise. Car fans will enjoy the special features, but I’m not sure they represent the majority of the people renting this film. I rented it to see a 79-year-old Clint kick butt in a city with which I am familiar, not to watch close-ups of an olive-green roadster.

Special Features:

Given the setting, Gran Torino is probably not worth a Blu-ray rental unless you want to see Detroit’s forgotten neighborhoods, complete with tattered siding and patchy lawns, in high-def. The audio is unique; Eastwood alone is responsible for the score and it suits the film well.

Audio/Video:

Overall, this is a worthwhile rental that captures the mood of many Americans during this incredibly challenging time in U.S. history. It should, and very well could, act as a sort-of time capsule for audiences in two or three decades trying to understand the more difficult issues during the millennium’s first major recession.

Movie:

[Wayde]

Is that an M1 Garand Eastwood is packing?

I loved this movie. Being from the Detroit area I recognize the city and know of a lot of Hmong people too. Detroit area has a lot of Thai restaurants and according to some of the local Hmong families they're all run by Hmongs. Such happy people... a little anecdote if you don't mind:

There was a Bangkok Express restaurant in downriver area for a short time. I loved it cause I love that hot spicy food. It was called Sammy's Bangkok Express.

So that place had long closed down and I'm up in Ferndale (Nine Mile and Woodward to be exact!) and I find another Bangkok Express but it's not called Sammy's, just Bangkok Express.

So I tell the guy that I had been Sammy's Bangkok Express while I'm getting my food. It's a standup and get the food yourself kinda place, cafeteria style, but it's amazing stuff!

There might have been a slight language barrier issue, I don't know. So they guy I was talking to is all happy: "You know Sammy!" And I'm like... "Sammy's Bangkok Express, yes."

So, he goes and tells almost all the other employees that I know Sammy, each one of the gets this wide -smile at me knowing Sammy.

Needless to say I got good service, the food is great anyway. I go there any chance I get. I don't talk about Sammy anymore, I heard he died years ago. I don't know that I've ever met him or know what he looks like, but I ate at his place a few times.

Every year there's a big Hmong cultural festival at the Lighguard Armory in Detroit.

[Richard W. Haines]

Good review Brando. It was an interesting film. Kind of like watching what "Dirty Harry"
might have been like in retirement.

If you want to have some fun, look up old reviews of Eastwood's movies in the sixties.
The critics were really brutal to his low key style of performance. Now the critics like
him and he's an industry icon.

What did you mean by 'awful eighties'? I thought cinema in that decade was pretty good.
Much better than the nineties.