Gran Torino (Gran Torino (DVD))

Member Name: ChrisJHoward

Product:	Gran Torino (DVD)
Date:	28/07/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Eastwood Starring and Directing

Disadvantages: The possiblility of it being his last film on camera

Gran Torino is an all out American triumph. With the recent renaissance of contemporary western style productions such as 3:10 to Yuma and There Will Be Blood, it is outstanding to see an aging legend of the genre approach something entirely different and deliver on so many levels.

With Clint Eastwood starring in, as well as directing, it honestly promises no more than what it actually is which is beautifully moving. With a career as wide ranging and colourful as Eastwood has amassed (Actor, Composer, Director, Producer and Politician) he is clearly well situated to tackle the role of Walt Kowalski.

Eastwood's performance is pungent with the overwhelming masculinity he has become so well known for. Undeniably hardened by too many winters, the loss of his wife and being a veteran of Korea - Kowalski chocks this film with American Patriotic grit.
In a changing modern time this aging man is facing a future alone in a world he no longer feels a part of. With themes of racism, respect and a contrasting generational divide confronting him at every turn, even the idea(s?) of his own family begin to disgust him.
However Walt Kowalski sees the young father as a mere boy and will not be turned from from his own beliefs so easily. When the neighboring family come under threat of (from) gangland hoodlums, Eastwood(s?) character steps in and becomes the classic anti-hero, as he so often has in the past. It is perhaps redemption he seeks in taking the young Hmong boy from the family next door under his wing. Or perhaps his need to keep order in things and protect is the core focus. Underlying all this is solemn duty not for his country man but for his fellow man.

Whatever we can take from this film as (either?) symbolic, polemic, philosophical or otherwise, it exudes the calm and brooding style of the director's previous works that have become so distinctly his.

Kowalski's irritable and cantakerous temperament are further intensified by Father Janovich's (Christopher Carley) relentless attempts at getting the old man to come to confession.

Summary: Well worth a watch