Gran Torino

I like Clint Eastwood movies, I'm not one of those people who has an issue with the heavy handedness or melodrama. I like how he paints with broad, bold strokes.

Gran Torino is an almost great movie. I'll leave out how everything that is so good gets undone in the final minutes for now though, and discuss what I thought did work.

Clint plays Walt, a grumpy, racist, old man (grumpy enough to make Walter Mathau look cheerful, racist enough to make that weird uncle of yours seem culturally diverse and old enough to make you think he's going to drop dead any moment).

He's the last whitey in the neighborhood, every home around is occupied by a variety of asian, black, and Latino immigrants. Gangs roam the streets and everything is in some state of disrepair. Walt doesn't start the movie off turning that signature scowl towards the melting pot of impoverished cultures around him though. The film opens with him standing by his wife's casket frowning with disapproval as his two yuppie sons and their disrespectful families make too much noise from snickering or texting. This opening scene really does give you a clue as to how over-the-top and unsubtle this film will be. One kid wears a top that exposes her midriff, another a football jersey (already you're having trouble suspending belief, who has ever seen a sports jersey or a belly button at a funeral?).

So, obviously this balances things a little. Walt doesn't just have a problem with non-whites. He's got a problem with his family, his barber (who may be a Italian, but looks just as white as Walt), his neighbors, his doctor in another not so subtle move, it becomes clear that Walt has enough problems to suggest that he's got a bigger one, maybe?

Of course the formula for this movie is ancient, an old dog learns some new tricks, while teaching the young pup what he learned on the path to becoming such a freakin' old dog.

The comedic aspects of the film are one of it's strong points, if you can laugh at a 70+ year old man telling a young asian girl "let's go get some of that nice gook food you've been jabbering about" or using every racial epithet in the book (except the n-word, oddly enough, they leave that one out, though he does make up for it by using six equally offensive alternatives in one conversation).

The movie has numerous weak points throughout (almost all of the supporting cast is borderline awful to passable), but right up until the final moments the good outweighed the bad. Until, after an unexpected twist, in the closing scene Clint Eastwood's voice starts singing this ridiculous song, which runs into the credits.

The song completely takes you out of the movie. As soon as it started, I was laughing, because of how absurd it was. The lyrics were terrible, and come on, Eastwood can barely utter his lines much less sing.

Really, if you fix the soundtrack, supporting cast, and the final twist you've got a potentially great movie. Or at least one that would have gotten a response similar to that of Million Dollar Baby.

I'm still waiting to see if there is anything out there capable of topping The Dark Knight. I've still got to see The Wrestler, Doubt, and Let the Right One In.

I'm kinda hoping Let The Right One In lives up to it's hype. It'll probably kick Quarantine off the top ten list as the best horror movie I saw from last year. Even if I didn't get around to seeing it until this year.