A surprisingly sensitive film about racism and anger (Gran Torino (DVD))

Member Name: dee778

Product:	Gran Torino (DVD)
Date:	08/09/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some excellent performances by Eastwood and Ahney Her

Disadvantages: Nobody told me the Gran Torino was a car!

I watched Gran Torino with no preconceptions: I had not seen a trailer, I had not read a review - all I knew was that Clint Eastwood was both director and lead. If I had thought about it, I would have looked back to Eastwood's violent acting history - Dirty Harry, A Fistful of Dollars, The Gauntlet - and assumed that this was a story of anger and killing. The CD case encouraged me in this: "contains swearing and strong violence" - I thought I knew what I was going to see.

As the film started, I was surprised to find a great deal of humour in the first scene. Walt Kowaski (played by Eastwood) is standing by the altar at his wife's funeral, disgruntled antipathy oozing out of every pore as he looks at his uncaring, texting granddaughter, his brash and selfish sons, and his twittering daughter in law. His rigid jaw and his low growl as he gives them an iron stare are hilarious, and this sets the tone for the next hour and a half. The story of the embittered, racist widower and the gradual mellowing into a humane defender of the oppressed minority could have been a dull tale, but the comic touches that occur throughout the film turn this into something quite different.

The plot concentrates on the relationship between Walt and his two young neighbours, Thao (played by Bee Vang) and Sue (played by Ahney Her), who are part of the Hmong community. The story gradually portrays the softening of Walt's inherent racism and his gradual acceptance of their culture and their friendship. Walt is a hard man, and when his new friends are threatened by Hmong teenage gangs he responds in the only way he know how - with the violence that he learnt during his army years fighting in Korea. His methods of dealing with the situation have shocking repercussions - especially to Walt himself, and he realises that he can no longer handle dangerous situations in the way that he always has - society has moved on and changed beyond recognition.

I found this film both moving and impressive. Although Eastwood plays Walt in the same unemotional way that he plays almost any of his film characters, somehow he makes the growling, inexpressive personality one that the viewer can really empathise with. His racism never really shocks, partly because of his age, and partly because it soon mellows into something softer. It is a valuable insight into a section of society that we rarely see. Ahney Her plays Sue with enormous vivacity, completely winning over the viewer and making the changes that take place in Walt totally believable. Unfortunately the performance from Bee Vang does not match up to Her's inspired role, and his hangdog sullenness is sometimes difficult to interpret.

This film held so much for me: an analysis of the changing manners and conventions of American society; a look at the unfamiliar multicultural melting pot of race that older people have to find ways of dealing with; and a muted discussion about violence. The decision to cast Eastwood in the role of a war weary veteran who automatically uses violence as a solution was an excellent one, as the viewer cannot help but remember the violent solutions that ended so many of his previous films. The evolutionary nature of Walt's racism is matched by a change in his attitude to violence, and by the end of the film he has realised that old fashioned revenge is no longer the way to win a war.

I very much enjoyed this film. I loved the little scenes of everyday suburban life - the old Hmong grandmother, glaring and spitting on the porch, the white youths mocking the old lady who had dropped her shopping - all making a comment on modern society in a beautifully understated way. I also loved the humour - some of the scenes were laugh-aloud funny. All in all, this film was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.
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(Also posted on Helium)

Summary: One not to miss