Gran Torino Review

Year: 2008

Gran Torino is a story following Walt Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood. He’s an elderly Korean Vet who’s wife recently passed away. His family and him aren’t on best terms, and it may or may not be partly due to him being kind of an irritable guy. But soon Walt meets the neighbors, and their son Thao, who’s cousin is kind of forcing him into a gang life when he’s more of a quiet do your chores and say nothing kind of guy. Thao’s initiation is to steal Walt’s Gran Torino, and our story goes from there. First off, I would like to give a slow, then eventually up roaring clap for Client Eastwood. Five out of five performance, and Oscar worthy. And all the acting in this movie is good,  nobody really fucks up. And that may be in part due to the characters. Walt I’ll do a character review on, but for now just know he really leads the movie through the whole thing. His relationship with Thao is possibly the best part of the movie, he contrasts pretty much every character, and you just love him talking and being a total dick, but an otherwise good guy. As for Thao, you really feel his rise to being a man and standing up for himself something unique. Not many movies have an old guy for a main character, and has an Asian friend who he is turning into a man. So that right there it is unique. And as far as the story goes, it works. Not every scene is super attention grabbing, a lot don’t really hold much purpose. It’s a simple movie with simple story, but really starts to shake up right around the end. That being said, this is one of those movies with lots of dialogue, and lots of those scenes that just add a little flavor for a character but otherwise don’t do anything. Not that’s bad, the execution is great, but it’s not like the Shawshank Redemption where even though it’s a lot of dialogue, each scene grabs you and holds a lot of information. With Gran Torino it’s not entirely like that, it’s kind of slow, and you do have to sit down at watch it. And not every scene grabs you. But I still love the movie, it’s still fantastic. The Gran Torino itself it tells Walt’s personality, and it’s basically his pride. And the little town they make in this movie I like. I love how Walt is telling really racist jokes in a town where he’s the minority. The movie has a lot of these little variables, and ultimately they all feel complete in the end. And this is the kind of movie I’ll pick up every couple of years, and each time I put it in, it’ll almost feel brand new again, and feel fresh in my mind. I don’t think it’ll get the long-lasting badge because I’d get sick of this movie if I had to watch it twice in one week, but over a span of time, it’s still has longevity, just not enough for that badge. And the first time I saw this was in theaters, and it was a really cool experience. It leaves a really good memory. And I said how this movie had a lot of little variables, and I will say each variable felt like it was really worked on. Each personality, each sentence of dialogue, the closure, it all felt like each knew where it wanted it to be. And is this a great movie? Hell yeah it is. Movies are suppose to be this. They are suppose to show personalities and worlds, and they reflect meaning and or are just a good time. This falls under more of the first category, but still a movie I don’t really know anyone who has a problem with, even people who only watch funny movies. It’s a great movie, hits everywhere it needs, and is worth having in any collection. And remember, get off Walt’s lawn.

Gran Torino gets a 4/5

Spoilers: In the end Walt made a big choice, and went into a gang fight without a gun… and won. And as time went on Thao got his Gran Torino, and that little bitch of granddaughter didn’t get shit. But since I think the car kind of represent is pride, and kind of a part of him, I think it was fitting to give Thao it.

Badges

Gran Torino gets THE CHARACTER BADGE

Gran Torino gets THE "CREATIVITY" BADGE