Gran Torino review

Walt Kowaltski (Clint Eastwood) is a grumpy old man whose life isn't going so well. Walt is not exactly a family man, he doesn't understand his two sons and their demanding wives and kids, he is probably repulsed in general with the idea of a family. A Korean War vet, Walt lives in a neighborhood that went from being a cozy white community to a buzzing nest of asian invaders with their strange traditions and comic street gangs. Walt gets to meet one of them, a troubled adolescent who tries to steal Walt's prized Gran Torino, and is clearly in need of some guidance. But Walt doesn't care - he as openly despises his sons as he does his neighbors, the kid, his barber, and Father Janovich - the new minister. The heavily racist and culturally derogatory language adds another dimension of conflict to the film. And then something happens that changes all of this...

Clint Eastwood delivers another good western, different, but a western nevertheless. Just as with the spaghetti westerns, there is a play of masks - all of the characters are hyper real as if etched on paper in cartoons on wanted stickers... these are archetypes we are so used to: vagabond, wandering nomad, criminal, intruder, law enforcer, love interest, the good guy vs. bad guy, etc. Clint Eastwood's is the most interesting mask - changing under light and shadow, sculpted from mountains and granite, both revealing and blank. All of the elements of the genre are there: honor, gunfight, "confiscation of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier", justice. And as with all good westerns we are presented at the end with the final stand down battle... See it!

8/10