Gran Torino (2008 111min.)[C5 9.00pm &+1]
Drama starring Clint Eastwood. Retired car-assembly worker, widower, Korean veteran and all-round curmudgeon Walt Kowalski is thrown into conflict with his Hmong neighbours after one of the teenage sons tries to steal his prize 1972 Ford Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation rite.
The mature Eastwood's work behind the camera, from Unforgiven (1992) to Changeling (2008) has been uniformly interesting and well executed. The fact that this run also includes Mystic River (2003), The Bridges Of Madison County (1995) and Million Dollar Baby (2004) demonstrates that he's equally comfortable and adept moving across and between different genres, always bringing a quiet and unfussy style to bear on the material and always with a simple grace that makes the film highly watchable.
In "Gran Torino" Nick Schenk's script has Eastwood suddenly alone (his wife has died and his grown-up children have effectively deserted him) in the neighbourhood he's lived in for most of his adult life; the sub-text being that previously he and his wife had been able to live an insular life, ignoring the social changes that were happening around them.
Now he's forced to confront (both physically and emotionally) the changes : most significantly that he's now surrounded by immigrants from South East Asia, with their "alien" customs and practices. As a former conscript in the Korean War he has difficulty recognising that these economic and social refugees are unconnected to the enemy that he was once sent overseas to fight.
Kowalski's racism isn't born of prejudice or fear : it's a conditioned response taught to him by his time in the army. It becomes apparent that it was necessary for him to dehumanise those that he was fighting in order for him to survive his tour of duty and that, previously, he's never had reason to question this indoctrination.
As the film progresses he is forced to adapt and accept his new neighbours, mainly through the continued efforts of his new next door neighbour Sue Lor (Ahney Her) who refuses to accept his initial bluffness and perseveres with him, eventually entrusting her wayward brother Thao (Bee Vang) into his care as a sort of apprentice American.
Kowalski and Thao have a symbiotic relationship : the older man teaching his young protegee about the American way of life while himself learning lessons about acceptance and tolerance.
Eastwood's acting is superbly judged - the growl that signifies displeasure one of the greatest inventions in recent cinema- he beautifully portrays the initial isolation and distrust and then the subsequent mellowing before returning to a steely-eyed determination as the film reaches its (inevitable) climax.
The two young Hmong actors are both excellent and some of the minor characters are superbly realised ( Kowalski's barber and construction gang boss friend, for example).
There are moments of comedy, of quiet poignancy, of genuine pathos and of real tension.
A hugely watchable film that still manages to make it's philosophical points without lecturing, a worthy addition to Eastwood's canon as both actor and director.
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