Gran Torino 4.0**** When Clint Eastwood makes a film about bigotry, he hits hard. Gran Torino pulls no punches in terms of language, prejudiced attitudes and violence. Fortunately, director Eastwood tempers all this with humor. And actor Eastwood delivers a stunning performance as an angry old man who slowly begins to question his negative ideas about other ethnic groups, especially his Hmong neighbors( Hmongs are a southeast Asian ethnic group).
Imagine the physical presence of an older “Dirty Harry” with an audible snarl and the attitude of an “Archie Bunker” on steroids for racial slurs, and that’s the character that Clint Eastwood plays in this movie.
Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), a Korean war veteran, finds little joy in life -- other than owning a 1972 Gran Torino. His wife of many years has just died; he’s practically estranged from his adult sons; and the cultural make-up of his neighborhood has changed. He was once surrounded by Polish neighbors but is now living among Hmongs, African-Americans, and Hispanics. One gets the impression that Walt lived in a isolated world with his wife. Now alone, he must confront his neighborhood which has radically changed. Walt sits on his front porch with his faithful old dog, mows his little patch of lawn, gripes about everything, and peppers his conversations with more derogatory racial comments than Archie Bunker at his worst.
Eastwood pulls out all the stops to give us an honest portrait of a basically good man who’s the victim of his age and time. He’s set in his ways, but not immune to human emotion nor to wanting justice and caring about others, regardless of cultural differences --and despite the offensive language he constantly utters. The movie has everything I relish in a movie: It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think, and it kept me entertained.
“Gran Torino” with the marvelous Clint Eastwood was more than able to “make my day”. It’s a memorable film .

Clark