Eastwood-style justice offered up in ‘Gran Torino’
‘Gran Torino’ starring Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang and Ahney
Her
”
Gran Torino
”
is not for the easily offended. The movie is filled with racial
ephitets, curse words and sexual innuendos. But it is a movie worth
watching just the same as it delves into issues of racism, religion
and justice.
Eastwood-style justice offered up in ‘Gran Torino’
‘Gran Torino’ starring Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang and Ahney Her
“Gran Torino” is not for the easily offended. The movie is filled with racial ephitets, curse words and sexual innuendos. But it is a movie worth watching just the same as it delves into issues of racism, religion and justice.
Eastwood, who directed the film, stars as Walt Kowalski, a Polish-American Korean war vet who is left to live alone in a changing Michigan neighborhood when his wife dies.
Walt keeps his bitter edge even at his wife’s funeral and the reception afterwards. His sons wonder about his ability to get by without his wife in what they refer to as the “old neighborhood.” But it’s clear neither of them wants to invite their father to live with them. Walt has no nice words for his sons and their children. He is especially rude to a Catholic priest who promised Walt’s wife that he would try to get Walt to go to confession before he dies. Walt wants nothing to do with the priest, and he makes it known that the only reason he attended services was for his wife.
It soon becomes clear why Mitch (Brian Haley) and Steve (Brian Howe) are concerned about their father’s living arrangments. Though he is sharp as a tack and physically strong for his age, he doesn’t really get along with the neighbors. Most of the people in the neighborhood are Asian, including a Hmong family that lives next door. Kowalski is of the old-school, the kind of man who is always aware of race, and his time during the Korean war left him with a special dislike of Asians.
Nevertheless, Walt finds himself drawn into the lives of the teenagers next door. Thao (Bee Vang) is a quiet boy who is supposed to be the man of the house since his father abandoned the family. Instead, he occupies himself with what his relatives consider “women’s work,” things such as gardening and washing the dishes. His sister Sue (Ahney Her) is an outspoken girl who tries her best to keep an older cousin away from Thao. The cousin is in a gang, and he and his friends are intent on getting Thao to join up with them.
Much of the movie, written by Dave Johannson and Nick Schenk, pivots on a Gran Torino. The car is Walt’s prized possession – it is a symbol of an America that has been lost to him as much as it is a reminder of the hard work he did on a Ford assemblyline for 40 years. The car is in mint condition, and Walt leaves it in his detached garage most of the time. The car is the real thing that connects Walt with Thao – Thao’s cousin enlists the boy to steal the car as an initiation into the gang. He is unsuccessful when Walt hears him in the middle of the night, and pulls a rifle on him.
Days later when the cousin and the other gangbangers return to punish Thao for his failure, Walt again pulls a gun and tells the teens to get off his lawn. Soon the Hmong residents who live in the neighborhood are making offerings of thanks to Walt, flowers and food.
Eventually Walt is able to connect with Sue and Thao in a way he has never connected with his own children, or grandchildren. Sue is not intimidated by his blustery attitude and she even tries to teach him about the Hmong culture. As she says, the Hmong are a people, not a place – they are an ethnic group that comes from Laos, Thailand and parts of China.
Eastwood is perfect in the role of Kowalski. He is rough and crude, but viewers can see his age around the edges as he wears his pants up a little too high and his back curves in an old-man slouch. The movie really belongs to Eastwood, who as always, goes out in a blaze of glory in this film. But newcomers Vang and Her as the Hmong neighbors make the movie that much better. Some bits of the movie are unbelievable, but in the end the movie offers up a very clear sense of justice.
