Gran Torino is a refreshing and original drama film about a cranky and racist Korean vet, Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) who, when a Hmong family move in next door, realises that perhaps immigrants weren't as bad as he thought. The trouble starts however, when relatives of the Hmong family start disturbing the teenage son of the Hmong family, Thao (Bee Vang), things soon escalate causing Walt to intervene.
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| Theatrical Release Poster |
Gran Torino is an enjoyable, very watchable and, on occasion, a moving film. However it does have several problems. The first is I am not sure how one dimensional the racist and bigoted character of Walt is. He is at first a grumpy old man who hates his Hmong neighbors but eventually (and predictably) he realises that the Hmong aren't actually too bad after all. Now this isn't too one dimensional and at least Walt has a character arc. The only problem is you can basically see this arc from the first 10 minutes of the film. Now whether or not this is a problem or not is up to the viewer and their expectations of the film. If you are simply looking for a feel good drama then this is fine and indeed preferable. However, if you are looking for something more intelligent and darker, as the dark and brooding lighting of the film and poster portend, then the predictability of Walt's character arc may frustrate. It does feel rather Hollywood. This normally wouldn't be a problem and as I said in a classic Hollywood film it would be fine. But the film pertains to be something more by its dark lighting and religious imagery and message. Therefore I would say that Walt's character arc does let the film down somewhat.
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| Thao getting mugged by the baddie Hmong gang |
I also feel that the film suffers more generally from cliched Hollywood drama writing. Even though the film is showing up white-supremacy attitudes, it does take the elderly and white Clint Eastwood to save the day. In the end many of the Hmong characters are either annoying, underdeveloped or played off for laughs. Sue Lor (Ahney Her), Thao's older sister, is obviously meant to be a real and strong woman. And at first she is, with her verbal sparring with Walt being entertaining and the kick starting his realisation that perhaps the Hmong aren't quite as inferior as he first thought. However, about halfway through the film she disappears for about 20 minutes. Then, when she reappears and makes the same jokes, she seems slightly annoying and irrelevant which means the dramatic moment (SPOILERS) when she gets raped is not quite as hard hitting as it might have been because we don't care for the character as much as we should do. I like the character of Thao/Toad, he feels real, but the mother and Toad's girlfriend Yamyam (I have no idea if that's how you spell it or not, apologies) are both underwritten and Toad's grandmother is played off for cliched and not very funny moments of comic relief. Therefore, in a film that purports to be supporting the Hmong and raising awareness of their culture, there is only one convincing and real Hmong character...and even he is badly acted! That is another point, the actor who played Thao, so the second biggest role in the film, was very shaky and there were times where I was not convinced by his acting.
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| Clint Eastwood, director, producer and star |
Now onto the good bits. Well whatever doubts I have about the character of Walt I have nothing but praise for Clint Eastwood. Eastwood has an amazing screen presence and, to put it bluntly, when he is not on screen the film sucks. The entire film is carried on the back of Eastwood's performance in a role he truly owns. He makes an impressive action hero considering he was in his 70s at the time. The thing I liked most about this film was the way that Eastwood was almost satirising his earlier roles such as Dirty Harry and The Man with No Name. He still kept the masculine power and authority of these characters but at the same time, with his coughing up blood and not being able to move his dishwasher, he is also weak and old. The ending of the film, my favourite part, nails this on the head even more so spoilers until the end of this paragraph. SPOILER ALERT. At the end of the film Eastwood and the gang harassing Thao have a stand off (much like the one at the end of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). Eastwood uses his hand as an imaginary gun and pretends to shoot every gang member in turn. He then goes in his pocket to, we presume, pull out a real gun (he did the finger-gun thing earlier in the film and on that occasion he pulled out a real gun straight afterwards hence our expectations this time). He is then shot by the gang but it is revealed he was, in fact, reaching for his lighter- he didn't even have a gun on him. This first of all shows how stupid and unrealistic the whole hero vs a gang situation is. The other theme is that the childish act of using the hand as a gun shows how childlike and just stupid this kind of suburban violence is, or even violence in general perhaps. It is also the final step in the character arc. Walt has come to terms with his age and weakness- he knows he can't win by fighting. This is in contrast to the still young and naive Thao who wants to rashly fight the gang. It's amazing how one simple thing can mean so much in a film.
In conclusion, this film has flaws, but it is has a star in Eastwood and its well paced drama and heartfelt emotion means it is well worth a watch despite some dodgy acting and cliched character arcs.
Ratings: Entertainment: 8 Technical: 4 Intelligence: 3= 15/20 ****
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