Gran Torino

Last night I watched Clint Eastwood's 2008 film "Gran Tornio" (which he both starred in and directed). I have to say that, despite my initial misgivings (mainly Eastwood playing the same character he's played in a thousand other films), the movie was pleasantly surprising.

Although the previews portrayed the movie as a simple movie about an old man griping about changes in the demographics of his Detroit neighborhood, the previews fail to even hint at the complexities and depth of the characters.

Yes, Eastwood does play an old man - Walt Kowalski - griping about the changes in demographics of his Detroit neighborhood, but that premise is over with after the first thirty minutes of the movie. From there it moves to developing his relationship with his new neighbors, especially the two young adults - Thau and Sue. Thau gets into a little gang trouble with his no-good gangbanger cousin, but Walt, being a righteous, hard-working, and old-fashioned American, tries to steer Thau into a more traditional adulthood. The two sides violently clash (literally and figuratively), and, without spoiling anything, Walt reveals a side of himself nobody believed existed.

My only real problem with this movie, until the last few scenes, was that I had felt I had seen the entire thing before, except in the old west instead of Detroit and titled "Unforgiven" instead of "Gran Torino." The major differences in the end make up for the striking similarities, though.

Of course, the highlight of the movie is Clint Eastwood in his gritty, growling, snarling, insult-hurling best, especially now that he's almost eighty. One of my favorite moments is when Walt happens upon a couple of gang members harassing his neighbor, Sue. He steps out of his car, confronts the assailants by saying, in a gravely voice, "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have fucked with? [At this points Walt spits on the ground and stares coldly before continuing] That's me."

Rumor is that Eastwood has proclaimed that "Gran Torino" was to be his final acting performance. If so, he certainly went out on the top of his game doing exactly what he did best. But I hope that the rumor isn't true, because it would be very hard for me to believe that the man who portrayed Walt Kowalski - as well as "the Man with No Name" and Dirty Harry - could ever just quit and walk away, or ever stay down for very long.