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Friday, January 9, 2009
Gran Torino: Behind those narrow eyes
Just before I saw Gran Torino, I told a friend, “Time for me to go watch Clint Eastwood growl at people.”
I was being silly at the time, but after I saw the movie, I realized that what I said had a ring of truth to it. More than any film he’s made since Unforgiven, Gran Torino tries to turn Eastwood’s take-no-guff persona on its head - and for the most part, it works.
When I first saw the trailer for the film, I didn’t know what to make of it. The movie looked like a weird Afterschool Special starring an Archie Bunker type who actually kicks people to the curb. The combination seemed jarring and it looked like a step backward for our best actor turned director.
As usual, though, Eastwood knew exactly what he was doing when he chose to star in and direct the film. He knows that people enjoy watching him give people their comeuppance - and in Gran Torino, he spins it a little differently than he has in the past, not only by having his character wear racism on his sleeve - but by having someone call him on it.
Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, who buries his wife at the beginning of the film. At the funeral, he notices his granddaughter wearing a navel ring-baring top. Walt glowers and growls at the girl so intently, I almost thought he was going to kick the snot out of her right there.
Still, Walt is not merely a crusty old codger - he has a way of looking out for the underdog, even when he doesn’t care for the victim. One day, he saves his Hmong neighbor, Tao (Bee Vang) from a group of gangbangers, even after Tao tried to steal Walt’s prized Gran Torino. As repayment, Tao agrees to work for Walt, but the gang is out for revenge.
Watching this movie with an audience was telling. When Walt accosts a group of black men who are threatening Tao’s sister Sue (Ahney Her) he calls them “spooks.” No other actor alive except Eastwood could have gotten away with that - indeed, the audience I saw the film with laughed loudly at the scene, and several others in which Walt hurls epithets.
Did they find such moments genuinely funny? Or was the laughter uncomfortable? Maybe it was a bit of both. In any case, Eastwood is consciously playing with people’s expectations of him. In one way, he’s very much preaching to the “get, em Clint” crowd, but he’s also usurping those expectations by showing what lurks underneath that glare. Walt isn’t a bad man so much as an insensitive one who hasn’t learned to deal with his bitterness, and Eastwood reveals the humanity in him movingly, if not always gracefully.
Eastwood and writer Nick Schenck tend to lean on the name-calling a little too often until it becomes an excuse for cheap and easy laughs. Some have said that Gran Torino should be taken as a “fable,” but that’s letting it off the hook too easily - some of the storytelling is simply clumsy.
The flaws stand out, because when Gran Torino works, it works very well. The story focuses on the relationship between Walt and Tao, but the much more interesting friendship is the one with Sue, who’s not afraid to call Walt as she sees him, even to the point of saying “booga booga” to him. That’s the real heart of the story, played very well by the actors. The film would have been even better if it had focused on Walt and Sue, dropping the ham-handed Gran Torino subplot altogether.
Gran Torino shouldn’t be mistaken for one of Eastwood’s great movies, but as a tale of redemption, it’s much more affecting than, say Seven Pounds. By the time the credits rolled, Walt’s heart had softened - and so had mine.
GRADE: B+
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