Director Clint Eastwood

Starring Clint Eastwood | Bee Vang | Christopher Carley | Ahney Her

GRUMPY OLD MEN Clint Eastwood may be geriatric, but he still opens cans of whoop ass. With his teeth.

This is reportedly Clint Eastwood’s last film, and many critics are saying Gran Torino is a good, but minor note in the 78 year-old actor/director’s long career. Those critics are dead wrong.

Gran Torino is a profound work that only looks like a small, predictable film. As with Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood turns audience expectations on their ear by delivering more substance than the premise usually demands.

We expect Eastwood, playing Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski, to kick ass in Gran Torino, and he does, but not in a clichéd Hollywood way, and not even in the way that many Clint fans might expect.

Starting with the crotchety old Kowalksi (Eastwood) at his wife’s funeral, we see the steely-eyed widower standing in judgment of everyone entering the church, especially the families of his two sons.

Eastwood says a lot with his gaze and his growls in Gran Torino, first with the sight of his improperly dressed grandkids, then back at his house, where his Hmong (Southeast Asian) neighbors are celebrating a birth.

Further growling is reserved for his eldest son, who wants Kowalski to enter a senior’s home, as well as Kowalski’s persistent young parish priest (Christopher Carley), who wants to fulfill the late Mrs. Kowalski’s wish of having Walt go to confession.

As a retired autoworker and the last white man living on his declining suburban Detroit street, Kowalski flies the American flag from his front porch, hates to see import cars, and blindly loathes his Hmong neighbors (the Lor family), calling them everything from “zipperheads,” to “slopes” to “gooks.”

Judging from neighbor Grandma Lor (Chee Thao), the racial loathing is mutual. Kowalski avoids all contact with them, until their lives spill over onto his carefully kept lawn.

Thao Lor (well-played by young Bee Vang) is being (physically) pressured into joining a Hmong gang when Kowalski intervenes with an M-1 assault rifle, giving new weight to the ubiquitous suburban command, “Get off my lawn.”

Despite himself, Kowalski’s actions make him the hero of the neighborhood and the new friend of Thao’s sister Sue (Ahney Her), who talks him into coming next door to visit.

Now their friend and protector, Kowalski gets the naïve Sue out of trouble and begins to mentor awkward young Thao, who tried to steal his immaculate 1972 Gran Torino as a gang initiation.

We know trouble’s coming for the gang, and it isn’t long before one of them is staring into the barrel of Kowalski’s gun.

“I could blow a hole in your face,” Kowalski growls. “And sleep like a baby.”

Gran Torino is a coming of age parable for the Thao character, but the theme can be extended to Eastwood himself, whose talent evolved on celluloid.

From Fistful of Dollars (1964) to Unforgiven (1992), Eastwood started with guns blazing in stories that equated violence with justice, and ended with films that reveal the shades of gray and the true cost of taking a life. Kowalski is a character who might’ve been “Dirty” Harry Callahan in his younger years, before the lessons of war.

“It’s too late for me,” says Kowalski, but he knows it’s not too late for young Thao, who might yet be prevented from making tragic mistakes.

Eastwood’s acting talent is solid as ever, both intimidating and sympathetic while playing a character no one should like. Though he’s racist on the surface, we know he’s a good-hearted man who knows sacrifice and values life.

“Live the legend,” is painted inside the lid of Kowalski’s (ammo crate) memory chest, and that’s exactly what screen legend Clint Eastwood has done.

Dramatic, funny, touching, and encompassing the best of human values, Gran Torino is a fine farewell from a consummate actor and accomplished director. I hope his retirement is only temporary, but I doubt it. Eastwood seems like a man of his word.

Favorite Clint Quotes:

“A man’s got to know his limitations.” – Magnum Force

“You’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?” – Dirty Harry

“Get three coffins ready.” – A Fistful Of Dollars

“Make my day.” – Sudden Impact

“Shut your face, hippie.” – Heartbreak Ridge

“I’ve never seen so many men wasted so badly.” The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

“We’ve all got it coming, kid.” – Unforgiven

“I’m who I want to be.” – Bronco Billy