Movie Review – Gran Torino

You’re saying: “Why did he review this?”

Smart assed Answer: It stars and is directed by Clint Eastwood. While that is the only reason that I need, there is more. Clint plays an aging Korean War veteran, Walt Kowalski, who is surrounded by people, family and otherwise, who fail to understand and appreciate him and his experiences. Ultimately, he reveals how his combat experiences have affected his life.

Walt is a crusty and unhappy curmudgeon who can’t get along with his yuppie sons or their materialistic families. He is thoroughly disgusted by the crassness and incivility of a society which seems to value nothing. His main comforts come from an old blonde Labrador retriever named ‘Daisy’, and his pristine 1972 Ford Gran Torino. Eventually, things change for him when a family of Hmung people (refugees from Southeast Asia) move in next door and become his friends despite his best efforts to the contrary.

If Clint doesn’t get an Oscar for this movie, it will be a crime. His characterization of Walt is a marvel. While he says whatever he wants to, and that is usually something to offend (and often amuse) almost everybody, he is still a good and honest man who wins the admiration of all, on and off the screen. This is not ‘the man with no name.’ He is three-dimensional and his name is Walt.