Gran Torino, Movie Review Example

Introduction

Torino is the name for Turin, which is the Detroit of Italy. Gran Torino is the name of a popular 2008 motion picture. The car in the movie was a Sport (SportsRoof) variety, an immensely popular model for Ford; but, this was not the first time a Gran Torino had received Hollywood status. The 1974 version of this make and model figured prominently in the movie, Starsky & Hutch (2004). The name of the car and the name of the movie, Gran Torino, conjure images of muscle, toughness, dual exhaust-V-8 power, and manly coolness.  So does Clint Eastwood, who starred in and directed the film.

Significance

The significance of the film lies, in part, in the changes that come over its protagonist, Walt Kowalski, as he learns to live near and to associate with Asian immigrants. Walt is a racist, and his prized possession, his Gran Torino, housed ever so lovingly in his garage, is a “race-ist” too.

Eastwood’s character is a retired autoworker in Detroit. The movie opens with the funeral of Kowalski’s wife. Following her death, he drinks a lot of beer and talks to his Labrador Retriever. That is about all he wants to do. A Hmong teen that lives next door, Thao, tries to steal Walt’s vintage Ford as part of a gang initiation rite of passage. This sets the story in motion. The boy’s sister, Sue, insists that Thao work for Walt to make amends for his improper encroachment into Walt’s life and the near loss of his car. This is not fun for wither the boy of the man. Walt has to confront a lifetime of racial prejudice, resentment, and hatred. He is not interested in Thao’s need for compensation. Walt just wants to be left alone.

It is hard to look at Eastwood without seeing the characters he has played in previous films and on television. Remember Rowdy Yates, Dirty Harry, or the numerous cowboy, tough-guy spaghetti western characters that made him iconic. As a director and as an actor, he knows himself, and he knows what he does well. Eastwood knows how to cast an American hero. Every time the camera goes to shots of Detroit, the viewer sees the economic hardship of the city. The empty buildings are telling of a city that struggles because of sharp declines in the automotive industry, its long-time success.

Kowalski is a veteran of the Korean War. The last Asians he was up close and personal with were the ones he was trying to kill many years before. Once living in a White neighborhood, Walt now gets to know what it feels like to be the minority, as his block has changed drastically, as has his city. Walt slowly becomes the protector of the two teens who live next door.

He has a strained relationship with his two adult sons. In the telling of the story, he discovers that he is quite ill. We see him coughing up blood. Although the exact nature of his illness it is never fully revealed, we assume that it is terminal –a cancer of some sort. Walt picks up the phone to call is superficial children and backs out of telling them about his prognosis. It is through this that we begin to see his mind spinning in the direction of deciding his own fate on his own terms. This is totally in keeping with the way that Eastwood characters operate.

By the end of the film, Eastwood has reasoned that if he is to die anyway, that his death will help his new teen friends next door. He decides that the local gangs, who by this time have burned Thao’s face, scarring him for life, and raped Sue, scarring her for life, that he will orchestrate the demise of the Asian gangbangers once and for all. He is willing to lay down his life for the sake of his unlikely Asian friends, whom he has come to love.

Stylistic Conventions

The movie reinforces many of the racial stereotypes that linger in American society. Kowalski is typical of many White Americans, particularly ones, who, have never lived near, worked with, or socialized with people other than White Anglos like themselves. The movie shatters the feeling that, once we are old, our life patterns are not capable of change. We cringe when we see and hear all of the nonsensical ideas that bounce around in Walt’s head, but we come to know that his heart is opening just as his life is coming to an abrupt end.

We feel the reinforcement of the convention of marriage. We get the idea that Walt’s life is over when his wife dies. We get the feeling that, while he embraced her, he did not embrace her religion (he was pretty tough on her Priest) nor did he buy in to sustaining any friendships that they might have accumulated over their years together.

Scene Exemplifying Overall Style

The scenes that I have chosen to analyze are ones that most other students might overlook. They are not the scenes that portray Eastwood in his usual, make my day persona. They are the ones that place him in his character’s local barbershop. In a sense, the barbershop scenes are not what the overall movie is about, but they do give a sense of Eastwood’s overall style. His approach to creating humor is in keeping with his character. He gets a laugh by being tough, grunting, and making derogatory comments to others. He exploits the naiveté of the boy in order to make a funny scene in an otherwise tragic tale of crime, violence, and revenge.

Detailed Analysis of Selected Scene

Acting in the barbershop involves only three males –the boy, the barber, and Walt. The boy and the man park Walt’s truck on the street outside of the barbershop and walk in. The barber is just sitting there reading a magazine. Without flinching, the barber fires at Walt with every negative thing he can think of to say about Polish people and Asians. The moment Walt hears this he begins to hurl ethnic insults at the barber’s Italian heritage.

On the way in the door, Walt tells Thao that he is going to teach him how to talk like a man. During the scene, he makes Thao go out of the barbershop and come back in, as if he is rehearsing a scene in a play. Being unaccustomed to swearing and lacking subtle nuances in English, Thao curses the barber in a way that does not quite fit the drift of the conversation.

How This Scene Assists the Story

This scene assists the story y showing Walt’s sensitive side. It is obvious that he has feelings for the boy, although he would never say it. The scene shows what Walt would do with his own grandsons if he had the chance.

The scene also sets up another scene reserved for later on. Prior to Walt’s execution of his grand scheme for revenge against the gang, it is back to the barbershop he goes for a final trim, and this time, a shave. I suppose you could say that the barbershop becomes a metaphor for Walt’s life. In the shop, things are White, things are Catholic, things are the way they used to be. The barbershop is a place where a man can be a man without any apology. The barbershop is a place where Walt can make his peace with himself and the world. This is Walt’s true confessional chamber –not the one at the church. After years of whining about how expensive the barber’s services are, he tips him heavily upon his final exit.

The Context of the Scene

The context of the barber scenes is symbolic. When Walt and Thao first go in there, the day is sunny. Life is looking up for Thao. He is trying to get a job. Because of Walt’s connections, his prospects are good. When Walt goes in for his final visit, the day is dark and foreboding. Walt is in requiem mode.

Themes Within the Scene (Implicit and Explicit)

One implied theme within the barbershop scenes are that immigrants are stupid and in need of Americanization. There is the feeling that immigrants are in need of

Americanization. They need the assistance of White people in order to make it in society.

Direction in Support of Themes

Back at the barbershop, we find Eastwood’s character teaching the Hmong boy how to talk like a man. The direction of the barbershop scene is like watching Eastwood direct –onscreen- the same way he must direct off-screen. He is literally giving Thao, the character, the same cues he would give Thao, the actor, from his director’s chair.

“He has no job, no car, and no girlfriend?” the barber asks Walt in amazement. “I should have shot him while I had the chance,” he adds as a way of saying that such a crime would have been overseen out of a sense of mercy. Eastwood’s Walt is much the same. He is retired (no job). He has a nice car (the Gran Torino), but it is more of a symbol than a means of transportation. He has no girlfriend (dead wife). The barbershop is the place where all of this truth comes out, mostly in the form of humor.

Why This Scene is Filmed This Way

The barbershop scenes were filmed the way they were because Eastwood wanted simplicity in that place. Even though the simplicity came with bigotry and vulgarity, Eastwood desired the barbershop to be the one place where his character could go and be himself without any fear of being misunderstood. The barbershop is a man’s world, where a man can be a man.

How the Scene Makes the Audience React

The audience reacts to Thao, Wally, and the barber by laughing. This scene is hilarious, even though it is condescending to Thao. The audience does not want to laugh but is forced to do so. How the actors kept straight faces is difficult to imagine. In all probability, the scene in the barbershop took several takes to get down the timing and deadpan looks that each of the trio of actors involved in it gave to it.

Director’s Body of Work

Of the 31 films that Eastwood has directed, most are action stories. He has starred in all but eight of the films he has directed. At the age of 78 at the time of the filming of Gran Torino, Eastwood is one of the few people left in Hollywood who came up through its World War II era talent development programs. You get the feeling in Gran Torino that this just might be his final tour-de-force.

Reference to Bordwell’s Text, “Film Art: An Introduction”

The book we use in class, by Bordwell and Thompson, is a good, basic guide for learning about movies. It is neatly arranged and is chock full of valuable information. I dare say, the book is fun to read. The authors offer several films, used as references. These are enjoyable to watch. They treat film as art, hence their title, and they are correct, it is. They teach viewers how to understand plots as they unfold and how to navigate technical aspects of film in order to gain appreciation for the filmmaking art.

Conclusion

In closing, several paradoxes make the film memorable. It was Walt’s lighter, not his gun that he reached for as he coaxed the Asians to shoot him. It was Walt’s action of temporarily incarcerating Thao in his basement that freed Thao from a probable life behind bars. It was Walt’s hatred of people unlike himself that lured him into sending thugs, at gunpoint, away from his home and toward a life of friendship with his neighbors, whose skin color, religion, customs, and food choices he did not share.

In the final moments of the film, we see Thao, with Walt’s dog sitting by his side, riding down the road in the Gran Torino. It is a touching picture of East meets West and East(wood) meeting West(ern) culture.