Gran Torino

To start this post credit must be given to my sister for sending me a text message after she had seen this movie in theaters which put the movie on my radar...she's never one to let me down.

The movie I am writing about for this post is Gran Torino not to be confused with Tarantino. Gran Torino = car; Tarantino = director. I mistakenly called this movie Gran Tarantino at first but now the difference is clear! Gran Torino stars Clint Eastwood (who also directed the film) and introduces Bee Vang who plays Eastwood's next door neighbor and draws another personal connection as Vang attended high school about 15-20 minutes away from where I grew up!

I guess the first thing that I'll say about this film is that it was very real. I found myself at first feeling a little disconnected from the script and initially thought that it was poorly written...but as I kept watching it, I realized that this film wasn't meant to have epic well crafted monologues in it, or powerful moving sections of dialogue...and if it did I think it would have hurt the film and what Eastwood was trying to do with it.

I think the "realness" of this movie was one of that parts that kept me hooked and wanting to watch more. The Kowalski family was quite dysfunctional and far from perfect as Walt's "family" was always looking out for themselves and what they could gain from Walt and just trying to shove him off into a retirement community so they didn't have to care for him anymore. They just wanted his stuff.

The film was also real in the racial tensions and reactions and it was very interesting to see a film surrounding the Hmong community (especially being from the midwest which does have a very strong Hmong population) and the film provides a starting knowledge of Hmong culture and even defines Hmong as Walt askes the question: So where is Ha-mong anyway?

To me the above example of Walt's ignorance points to our own ignorance of people groups who aren't our own. How we can know nothing of the people who live in our neighborhoods and cities. Walt mispronounces names or gives nicknames that show he isn't really trying to connect with these people, but Walt comes to find how his Hmong neighbors are more of a family to him than his own family.

I also came to appreciate the young priest "fresh out of seminary" to contrast the old curmudgeon of a man who is Walt...and how they both end up learning something about themselves through each other. And I liked that Walt was the main character in this because he was the reluctant hero of the story...he was just a man who wanted to be left alone and he kept fighting it until the persistence of his neighbors allowed Walt to let down his guard but he didn't undergo a miracle transformation. Rather, he finally had someone who he could share himself with and who he was and was invested in him.

The movie has a very powerful ending (including some potential symbolism...but I will leave that alone so that I won't give too much away about the ending) but I will say that there are two conversations that are in Hmong that are not translated by anyone in the film one in the beginning and one in the end. Both of these conversations you can get a feel for what is being said through tone and the camera shots but they are also translated if you activate your caption feature on the DVD which can help give the viewer more clarity to the two situations (the rest of the Hmong speaking in the film is simply captioned as "Hmong").

There was a lot that I really enjoyed about this film and it definitely had a strong message...but also challenged you in many ways. This film for me was very similar to Crash in its message, but also in how tastefully it was done. Hopefully, because it drives home a powerful message in a compelling way it can continue to speak to its audience.

I give it 5 stars.

-Dav3