Gran Torino (Film)

GRAN TORINO
Dir: Clint Eastwood
USA, 2009
(24/03/09)

Clint Eastwood’s latest film (and rumoured to be his last lead acting role) sees him doing what he does best; deconstructing the American Psyche as well as the machismo that he spent the first part of his career playing. This time he’s yet again reinterpreting a genre role that made him famous, as he did with the western as William ‘Bill’ Munny in Unforgiven (Eastwood, USA, 1992), by playing a character in the mould of ’Dirty’ Harry Calahan and other such types in his urban thrillers, albeit a lot older and domesticated. But unlike the rogue super-cop in those films, Eastwood’s character, Walt Kowalski, is more of an everyman set in his traditional ways; he considers fixing cars, DIY, and drinking beer the manly things to do and gardening women’s work. He buys American and berates those who buy Japanese cars, and he loves his dog. Also, he embodies many of the feelings in America today that come to the fore less often under the presidency of Barack Obama, but are none the less still there, such as racism, tied in particularly with the disintegration of community. Kowalski voices his politically incorrect opinions of the neighboring Hmongs (Gooks or Zipperheads as he likes to call them) that have now moved into all the houses around him, but a masterstroke of Eastwood's direction and performance is he manages to make these moments funny without loosing their impact, indeed much of it is played for comedy, but we are never made to feel guilty for seeing it as such (unlike many directors who would try to make the audience complicit) mainly because Eastwood manages not to laugh directly at a different culture, but to poke a little fun at the differences and misinterpretations when two different ones collide.

The film opens at a church for the funeral of Kowalski's wife. Eastwood stands next to the coffin, playing to type by growling at the wrongs in the world, only this time it isn't ruthless killers or cold hearted thugs, it's his granddaughter coming to the funeral in casual clothes, piercings bared, and texting on her phone. The film doesn't just start with this tragedy in order to build sympathy for Eastwood's character (it is later said he is better at dealing with death then with life), but more as a turning point as there is little doubt that the upcoming route the film takes would have been different if Kowalski had his wife, as loneliness and desire for a role ("I fix things...I once fixed a door that wasn't even broke yet") leads him places even he can't really grasp, such as a Hmong party. It is even said by one of sons "Don't you think the old man will get in trouble in the old neighborhood by himself?"*, but neither of them have any time for him. Trouble does soon arrive when a gang trying to recruit young Thao (Bee Vang) into their ranks spills onto Kowalski's lawn; "I used to stack fucks like you five feet high in Korea, use you for sandbags." he says, shotgun aloft. The gang-bangers leave. But from then on he is a hero to his neighbors and an enemy to the gangs and there is no going back.

The films central relationship is between Kowalski and the clever, but shy, Thao as he forced to pay back Kowalski for an attempt to steal his Gran Torino and eventually bonds with the old man whilst doing a selection of neighborhood DIY jobs and getting 'manned up', which leads to more comedy. The implication that all Thao needs is a father figure to avoid a life in gangs is possibly true for that character, but maybe a bit simplistic when applied to other gang members, one of which tells Thao he used to shy and bullied until he was in a gang, but he obviously lacks Thao's intelligence and good nature. But Eastwood is a good surrogate, and it helps his character grow just as much as he feels somewhat haunted by his failed relationship with his sons and is given a chance to do things right. Of course this relationship with his Hmong neighbors begins to flirt with sentimentality, but Eastwood cleverly veers away as it would of spoiled the feeling of this particular film and it's themes.
The other main character in Kowalski's life is the local priest, Father Janovich (Christopher Carley), who continuously forces himself upon Kowalski in order to fulfill a promise to his dead wife and get him to confess his sins. It's a subplot that could easily feel contrived, but is well played, and the priest gets somewhat involved in the central plot in a believable way. His character is really there as someone to open Kowalski's shell and give us an insight into his dark soul, as he isn't going to open up to Thao, or his sister Sue (an excellent performance by Ahney Her, as the one who conducts Kowalksi into the community), as they are both children, yet the only Hmongs that speak English. Eastwood does eventually open up somewhat, but it doesn't get weepy. A moment when he admits his guilt for killing a young man in Korea presents the possibility that all his racism is simply an attempt to undermine his guilt by demeaning the foreigners as less then human.

Obviously the conflict with the gangs crosses a line and Kowalski's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Again Eastwood flirts with another cliche, the gung-ho shootout (which leads to another 'please don't' moment), but this is just toying with expectations ala Dirty Harry, and in the end he goes with the more suitable adult approach that does once and for all with the genre stereotypes and circles back around to Kowalski's relationship with life an death. The ending also leads to the passing of a community from the hands of one ethnicity to another. Although Kowalski is an American born and bred, with a name like Kowalski he his obviously not a native and his parents probably moved into a polish neighborhood before he was born. But Kowalski is an American. He was born there, fought for his country and worked in the Ford factory. But it's time for the cycle to come around and now the Hmongs are doing exactly what the poles did before them. The adults may be foreign but the children are American, and Kowalski gets Thao a job on an American building site, not dissimilar in theme to the job at his old Ford factory. The end shot is Thao driving down the road in Kowalski's sacred Gran Torino, the message seeming to be that America is people of different ethnicities working together to create a distinctive culture, all of which Eastwood presents, thankfully, without being preachy. One such moment that seemingly pokes fun at the American tendency for self-masturbation is after Sue describes her father and Walt asks what's different about himself. She answers "You're different, you're American." Walt asks what that means. "I don't know." She says.*

An interesting switch towards the end is how Kowalski still calls the Hmongs by the stereotypical names such as gook etc. (and, seemingly on purpose, mispronouncing names such as turning Youa into yum-yum), but these cease to have racist connotations and instead become nicknames used with fondness, a sensibility that is perhaps too mature for modern society. It is interesting how this film comes not long after Eastwood was criticized by Spike Lee for having no black actors in his Iwo Jima double bill. Eastwood has now done a grand study of white middle-America equal with any of Lee's studies of the black counterpart, and has presented some interesting ideas into circulation whilst at it, not bad for someone who is eighty this year.

The performances are excellent as can be expected from any Eastwood picture, with Clint himself especially shining. Much has been said that he missed out on an Oscar nomination due to the familiarity of his role, but this is to misunderstand the character. Yes he's a war veteran, but more then that he's a lonely old curmudgeon nostalgic for the past who learns to accept the present, and it is well gauged, especially with the comic elements (it is far funnier then any recent comedy coming out of America) juggled well with the seriousness, which gives the film a coating of reality and in the end leads to a great final result.

*I did not take notes in the film so whilst these quotes may be inaccurate, the are correct in essence.