Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood's new movie is stunning. Gran Torino starts off at the funeral of a retired auto worker's wife's funeral. In this movie Clint's character does not seem to fit in. He does not relate well to his two sons or to their families. He does not relate well to his neighbors who are Hmong. He is gruff to an extreme. But he brings a set of values that are often clouded by his use of epithets. Eventually, you see through the exterior to a man who has a very deep civic conscience. The movie is rated R for, according to one reviewer "Constant very strong language, including very ugly racist, sexist and homophobic insults, drinking, smoking, gang violence." Clearly, the character is not politically correct and this might well turn off some fans (although initial box office results suggest that audiences will see through the politically correct scolding).

In one account Eastwood's describes his political philosophy as "Everyone leaves everyone else alone." Yet, clearly this movie suggests a broader social responsibility. Eastwood's character begins with some notions of how the world should work but those notions change over the movie to include his new environment.

There are a couple of themes in this movie that are interesting and well developed. Kowolski's relationship with his biological family - he regrets that he cannot relate well to his two sons and their wives and children. One grand-daughter comes to his wife's funeral with dress which he thinks in inappropriate. One son tries clumsily to encourage this independent minded person to think about moving out of his neighborhood and into a senior home. But the tension with those people is unresolved throughout. The second theme relates to religion. In several of Eastwood's recent movies, he deals with Catholic tension. In Million Dollar Baby, the main character goes to mass each day and struggles with the decision of what to do when his fighter is paralyzed. In this movie, he is confronted with a young priest who tries to carry out Kowolski's wife's last wishes that he go to confession. The interaction between the priest and Kowolski is an interesting theme.

Eastwood has been successful in recent years in a couple of remarkable ways. First, he has produced a number of interesting movies. Some like Pink Cadillac, Absolute Power, In the Line of Power, and Million Dollar Baby include him as a character. Others like Bird, the Changling and Mystic River) show his directing talent alone. Second, in several he has directly addressed the issues of aging. His transition from the cowboy of the early era, to the tough cop Harry Callahan, through a series of new characters has been unique. In each stage he takes a part of what must be his real personality and mixes it with acting talent. You can see a part of Kowolski in A Fist Full of Dollars but you also see tremendous breadth in talent. As I have said many times before, the best movies involve a compelling story and interesting characters in an entertaining format. Gran Torino involves them all.