Since time began films have been about taking the good with the bad, being thrilled by the good bits in a movie and putting
up with things that are less awe-inspiring because overall the scales tip in the favour of “wow”. It is extremely rare for a film to fit together perfectly on all fronts so that it is difficult to criticise any part of it at all, but maybe once or twice a year we get exactly that kind of film on our screens. This review is about one such film, which is not to be missed.
Gran Torino follows Walt Kowalski, a veteran of the Korean War who has recently lost his wife, who he describes as the most wonderful woman who ever walked the earth. Estranged from his immediate family and living out his final years in a neighbourhood that he cannot recognise since it has become host to an increasingly large immigrant
community, Walt is a man out of time snarling, sometimes literally, at the world around him and the people in it. But although he starts of as a man with many prejudices – indeed it would not be going to far to call him racist – Walt's nature is such that when trouble steps onto his lawn he cannot help but step into the fray, earning him the respect of the Hmung community around him. He is encouraged by Sue, a teenage Hmung who willingly explains to Walt the intricacies of a culture he had never regarded as anything but stupid and superstitious, and becomes a father figure to her brother Thao who is being pressed to join the local gang. Slowly, we see Walt realise that he has more in common with his “immigrant” neighbours than he had ever imagined possible and that he would do anything to give Sue and Thao a chance of a brighter future.
Walt's journey is enough to warm even the most cold of hearts. His growth from a prejudiced old man with much unresolved guilt from his deeds as a soldier to a central pillar of the community is perfectly conceived and executed. The end will come as a surprise to most I think, and I know some will expect a more “guns blazing” approach, but I'm so glad the film-makers had the courage to be true to the plot and the characters and let it end the way it did; a morally acceptable way. I don't want to say any more except that my cinema-buddy felt the end should have been slightly different, but also named this his film of the year.
There is nothing magical or flashy or particularly new about this film, in fact to be honest it is back to the old school of film-making, and Clint Eastwood ably proves that there is no school like the old school. His performance as Walt Kowalski, superbly joined by newcomers Bee Vang and Ahney Her as Thao and Sue respectively, is one of the most profound and gripping I have seen in the last couple of years, probably ever in fact. I have heard that it may well be the last acting role Clint Eastwood ever takes and if that is the case then what a swan song it would be. There are no special effects, limited action and an undercurrent of soundtrack that never interferes with the unfolding plot. The detail of the cultures that Walt is thrown into is clearly defined without become too overbearing for those in the audience, like me, who are not well travelled enough to have heard of Hmung culture prior to its release.
Ultimately, this is a film about the distance we put between ourselves and others. The most obvious manifestation of this is clearly Walt and his Hmung neighbours, but can also be seen in the generation gap between Walt and his children/grandchildren, the religious and the non-religious, and even between Thao and the gang-banger cousins he is so desperate to avoid joining. The most touching scenes in the film all centre on Walt's journey from bitter racist to community hero and moreover the peace that he finds once he has stopped hating everything he sees and embraces the aliens outside his front porch. Because of course the film is not just about the distances between Us and Them, it's about what kinship and peace we can discover when we take the time to cross that distance.
It is hard to find words to describe how brilliant Gran Torino really is. It is not gentle, showing many harsh and uncomfortable truths about the worldwide society we live in, but it is honest. It is very easy to hate a race of people you know nothing about and who have no face to you. Gran Torino's moral feels more profound than the age old “why can't we be friends motiff” because ultimately we see a man who really has no life at all before he breaks some of his own walls down. It asks the question whether the people we are hurt with such hatred and suspicion are simply ourselves. Don't hesitate to watch this film if you get a chance, no matter what your background or taste in films, because this is an unbelievable offering from one of the oldest superstars of the film industry.