IMDb plot summary: Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino.
Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, and Christopher Carley.
While, as always, I appreciate that Clint Eastwood's take on vigilante justice is quite a bit more thoughtful than most, I had a really tough time with his character in this movie. Besides not buying the motivation for his character change, his anger and racism are never really addressed or called out in any way -- it just gets sidestepped in favor of "But you're a good man" when, really, there's been no indication of that so far. It's especially uncomfortable in an era when hate speech gets downplayed so much, and that feels like the case here too -- like the racial slurs aren't seen as harmful and degrading as much as just "tough guy with a heart of gold" flavor dialogue. It's tough to listen to and really gets in the way of the rest of the story for me. It means I'm not convinced he confronted his prejudices at all, I think he just thinks he found "the good ones." Plus Clint Eastwood is unintentionally hilarious when he angrily growls at people. A good ending, rough rest of the movie.
2.5 stars.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Gran Torino < Sunday in the Park with George
Gran Torino > How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Gran Torino > The Amazing Spider-Man
Gran Torino > SpaceCamp
Gran Torino > Chaos Theory
Gran Torino > Teacher of the Year
Gran Torino < V/H/S
Gran Torino < Dunkirk
Gran Torino > Cinderella (1950)
Gran Torino > Memphis Belle
Gran Torino < Anna and the King
Final spot: #1486 out of 2900.
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