Gran Torino

It would be funny if Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski on the cover of the DVD package of Gran Torino actually wore a white collar like a Catholic priest does. It just looks like there is one around his neck. A trick of the mind, perhaps, and I was duped by the shadow. What a priest he would be and it is nothing like Father O’Malley from Going My Way.

There is a battle of wits between a Catholic priest and the character, Walt, which Clint really plays. But I can imagine what kind of priest Clint could make in this screen incarnation. Even though the priest is told, in Walt’s direct way, to leave him alone, he is persistent. Salted with humor, Walt’s manner and cynical attitude towards the priest is amusing at first. However, the Dirty Harry persona becomes contrived after a while.

What is distinctive about the Clint Eastwood films since Mystic River is their character. They are solid, which is a reflection of Clint’s personas on screen: tough, uncompromising and honest yet hiding a raw nerve which gets pricked by what’s happening around him and which he instinctively hides.

Gran Torino gives Clint back his signature style, this time as the grumpy Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who is retired from car manufacturing at Ford. His down-to earth style and knowledge – he has a myriad of tools in the garage, built up during 50 years - gives the character centering and trustworthiness. He lives next door to Hmongs from Asia. Far from reaching out to them, he can’t tolerate them or the Catholic priest that comes around after his wife’s funeral. A boy from the Hmong family next door gets bullied into joining the violent local gang. His task to earn respect is to break into Walt’s grand possession, the 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in the garage. Needless to say, Walt isn’t happy. When he protects a girl from the neighbors they bring him thanksgiving food. Like in Mystic River a man should protect children and not abuse them.  Walt’s burgeoning relationship with the family leads him to getting involved with the boy’s future, his tool collection, and the neighborhood gang problem which is a constant source of tension.

The slower middle shows a more sensitive side to proceedings when Walt mellows. The middle is designed that way for a reason when later on the audience is led into an emotionally packed climatic sequence that relates skillfully to the middle.

It is not that Walt hates Catholicism. The priest and Walt are both given room for growth and they seem to agree: salvation is hard and facing violence harder than cruising Walt’s Gran Torino, a source of escapism. As the saying goes - by God’s grace, go I. The message about divine forgiveness and inner peace that leads to laying someone’s life down for the peace and life of the neighborhood, when the odds are stacked against it, will get you talking.  

Skillfully designed and beautifully filmed, Gran Torino is provocative without easy solutions to the predicament of violence which requires more than conviction – it requires commitment.