Movie Review: Gran Torino (2009)

So I had a wonderful evening at the cinema tonight with my sister. We watched Gran Torino, the new Clint Eastwood film. He produces, directs, and stars in, what I would consider to be, a very Oscar worthy film. It's the story of an old, recently widdowed Korean War vet who witnesses his once pleasant 1950's suburban neighborhood turned into a haven of, according to him, "gooks" and gangs. The homes around him are falling apart and his neighbors resemble the very people he was trained to kill nearly fifty years ago. Walt (Eastwood) goes about his day sitting on his front porch drinking beer while his dog, Daisy, keeps him company. One day the neighbor boy Tao, is caught trying to steal, as a part of a gang initiation, Walt's prized possesion...his mint-condition 1972 Gran Torino. Walt, with combat rifle in hand, catches Tao in the act and chases him away. However, Tao truly isn't interested in joining the gang and decided not to be a part of it. This leads to Tao doing work for Walt, as a punishment for trying to steal the Grand Tarino. This leads Walt and Tao to become friends and causes a stubborn, racist, Korean War vet to begin to understand the world he is truly living in: one where Tao and his family will never be truly safe while gangs still rule the neighborhood. This leads Walt to lead the charge in trying to protect Tao's family and the rest of the neighborhood he once despised from the rule of the Hmong gangs. The premise may seem like just another hero/gang movie, but there is something deeper in Gran Torino that makes it such a great piece of film. Walt is the hero, yet he truly is a jackass. He represents a group of people who are confused and angered by what has happened to their culture and their world they fought desperately to preserve. Walt constantly laments about how he worked in the Ford plant for thirty years and now his son is selling foreign cars. He is angry at the disrespect that the kids in the neighborhood show toward their superiors. He makes racist statements throughout the film about Asians, Jews, and blacks, and never seems uncomfortable about it. What Gran Torino shows us is that sometimes the Hero isn't the nice guy who lives next door. Sometimes it's the guy who isn't worried about what's truly going on, but instead the guy who only cares that it's happening "on his lawn." Walt is the hero who, despite his personal failings, is sometimes the one we need the most: the hero who doesn't want to be one.