Gran Torino - MUST SEE !!!

Among the not-so-many things I did over my vacation was catch a couple movies.

And while I didn’t enjoy Will Smith’s Seven Pounds (let’s just say my eyes rolled as I typed that), I loved Gran Torino.

Clint Eastwood has a magic touch, a way of telling a story that seems, well, different.

The incredible detail he uses from the opening scene is amazing, something I didn’t pay as close attention to until watching it a second time (I know! I told you its good).

It starts at a funeral, Eastwood (playing disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski) at the front of the church. While we don’t yet know who’s funeral it is, you can see the scowl on Eastwood’ face as he watches grandchildren enter, none of whom are dressed accordingly, acting properly, or even know the correct way to give the sign of the cross when entering the pew.

The next shot shows Clint’s grown sons, complaining that they cannot please him, yet just totally ignoring the notion that perhaps their own children should take off the Lions jersey and put on something a little more funeral appropriate-or at least stop texting during the service.

As the story goes on, we learn the funeral was for Eastwood’s wife, a deeply religious woman, showing why he took these gestures as so disrespectful-not necessarily to himself, but to the woman he loved that has passed on.

All this leads up to one major plotline – Clint Eastwood is F-ing old school in this movie. He worked in a Ford plant, he sits on his front stoop and PBRs with his dog Daisy, American flag waving over a neighborhood he was once proud of, but is now surrounded by minorities. He is cynical, hard headed – old school.

But there is one old-school characteristic of Eastwood that isn’t as charming – he’s racist. I mean, he was dropping racist terms that made some of my friends look at me and ask if it was really a racially charged word or not.

I mean, when is the last time you heard the term zipper-head?

And Eastwood nails this racist role – starting from when he tells the neighborhood Hmong kid that he doesn’t have any jumper cables, and the very next scene he’s giving one of his guests a jump.

This shows a part of America we think, or hope, doesn’t exist anymore – but it does.

I won’t spoil the plot, because nothing I have talked about happens more than 10-15 minutes into the movie, but through some circumstances the young boy next door, Thao (who Eastwood has nicknamed Toad) begins working for Eastwood, and through the hard work he puts in with Clint, he eventually begins to stop seeing people in color, and start seeing people in terms of their values. At one point, he actually acknowledges he has more in common with the Hmong neighbors than he does with his own sons.

Well, that is all I will ramble on about this movie. Go see it. And if you are not convinced yet, know this – Clint Eastwood is a bad ass in this movie. I believe the best line was somewhere in the middle of the flick, when staring down a gang of three kids that is mistreating a young neighborhood girl, Eastwood steps out of the car.

“Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me.”

If that doesn’t convince you to see this flick, then nothing will.