Movie and Television Reviews

Besides choice seats at presidential inaugurations, one advantage of being an established star is that you get to make personal but not necessarily commercially viable movies like Gran Torino. I'm glad the old guy had this one in him too, as Gran Torino is a masterpiece: Profound, yet unpretentious, the only movie last year that provoked an emotional reaction in me.*

The main character is Walt Kowalski,** played by Clint Eastwood, and he's a great one. Walt's a man in the old style: Plain spoken far past the point of gruffness, hard-working, integrity-drenched, and loyal. Some have described Kowalski as an "Archie Bunker" for his encyclopedic knowledge and frequent use of racial insults. Yes, racial references are as part of Walt's vocabulary as "hello" and "goodbye, but they're more the result of his tougher upbringing, when decisions about people were made hastily, openly, and weren't subject to legal review, than of an ideological belief in racial superiority. He's definitely not PC. He's not a hater, either.

Why else would he prefer the Hmong teenager next door, Thao (Bee Vang), to his own, same-aged, sacrilegious grand daughters? To his own sons? Because Walt sees in the boy the above-mentioned, honor-based qualities that his money-grubbing, insincere, and opportunistic American progeny lack.

Why would he insult and belittle the "ofay" white kid who does a embarrassingly poor job of escorting the much tougher Hmong girl-next-door, Sue (Ahney Her)? Because Walt hates cowards of any race.

Why does Walt hang out with veterans and blue-collar types instead of the local priest? Because he's suspicious of men without practical knowledge.

The beginning introduces the Kowalski family. Like most good movies, GT makes its points about the family with fine pen instead of jumbo Sharpie. I'm sure that everybody watching the first scenes will recognize members of their own family in the Kowalskis, comfortable yet in some ways degenerate Americans who are a generation past the toughness that made them loved, admired, hated and feared across the world.

The hardiness and sense of purpose that Walt's Hmong neighbors have in spades.

We then see Thao harassed by Latino cholos and rescued from them by gangsters of his own Hmong ethnicity (Such urban tribalism, fifty years earlier, was probably what influenced Walt's vocabulary.). It's not clear whether Thao is mentally challenged or suffering from some other emotional issue at this point in the movie.

Thao resists the pressure to join the gang, but eventually participates in the gang's initiation rite, an attempt to steal Walt's Gran Torino. Walt catches Thao. Thao's family makes Thao work for Walt as a personal penance which reminds Walt of the honor-driven values that permeated Walt's America and, as a result, befriends Thao. Walt grows to love Thao and Thao's family. Playing an an old, cussing, Polish Po to Thao's Hmong Grasshopper, Walt schools Thao in the manly arts. First up is the barber shop to teach Thao how men who respect each other, insult each other (Contrast this concept to the perpetually "offended" modern American.). Pithy romantic advice follows: "Don't be a pussy."

Kung Fu - The Complete Series Collection

They proceed to Walt's "Mick" contractor friend to get Thao a job. From there, a hardware store. Eastwood wants us to notice that Walt encourages Thao to pursue a blue collar trade and not to join a debate club, play chess, or act in the school play, three activities that Hollywood generally esteems more than the one that built their favorite restaurant.

Throughout, Walt displays admirable bravery in confronting the thugs that his white neighbors dealt with by moving away.

It's a brilliant forty five minutes, the best calm-before-the-storm section of a movie in recent memory.

Walt summons his courage for what may be the last time to deal with the Hmong gangsters on behalf of his friend.

At the end of Gran Torino, you will have felt that the movie was greater than its spare, but elegant story, lack of special effects and computer graphics, and understated acting had let on.

Politics/Message:

What makes Gran Torino twenty times more profound than Crash is that it penetrates the banal subject of race relations to reach core human motivations, not that the story of a neighborhood in demographic transition isn't interesting in itself.*** Normally in a movie of this type, we'd have a racist confront his racism by discovering the virtues of the group he had hated- getting beaten in a game or something. Sometimes, this realization comes with a loathing for one's own culture like in Dances with Wolves.

Kowalski realizes that the Hmong are good people, but he does so without guilt and on his own terms, for they've shown the qualities that he, and all such men, universally respect.**** In fact, Thao learns more from Walt, the American, than Walt does from the Hmong. When's the last time that happened?

It's significant that Thao's service to Walt is personal and not "community-" neighbor to neighbor and without government interference.

Gran Torino lauds the strong man. Thao gets a date by being more aggressive (not cowardly-violent or bullying like the gangsters), not more understanding. The only reason that bad men like gangsters run the neighborhood is a lack of equally strong good men like Walt.

Some have commented that Eastwood has an obsession with the Catholic Church. It's a positive force here. Had Eastwood wanted to portray the Church as evil, he would have made the priest into a sexual deviant or hypocrite. Instead Eastwood thinks of the priest as some would a graduate student of sociology: Well-intentioned, idealistic, silly, naive, and useless. The priest is sincere and non-arrogantly accepts his lack of gritty experience in the ultimate things.

*I've known men like Walt. I had a WWII veteran neighbor as my mentor who, in many ways, was Walt. My father is Walt. During the Thao-penance scene, I thought about how my grandfather made my father apologize to a store owner for stealing some candy. My grandfather was Walt.

**You war movie and Stargate fans probably know that almost every war movie has a character named Kowalski. I wonder if that's why Eastwood chose the name.

***I also grew up in a neighborhood that went through a demographic shift. White to brown, in the case of Pico Rivera.

****This basic misunderstanding hampers leftist thought on Middle East affairs as they don't understand what men from that area respond to.

Dances with Wolves - Extended Cut (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

All in the Family - The Complete First Season

Crash (Widescreen Edition)

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Directed by
Clint Eastwood

Writing credits
(WGA)
Nick Schenk (screenplay)

Dave Johannson (story) &
Nick Schenk (story)

Cast (in credits order)

Clint Eastwood ... Walt Kowalski

Christopher Carley ... Father Janovich
Bee Vang ... Thao Vang Lor
Ahney Her ... Sue Lor

Brian Haley ... Mitch Kowalski

Geraldine Hughes ... Karen Kowalski

Dreama Walker ... Ashley Kowalski

Brian Howe ... Steve Kowalski

John Carroll Lynch ... Barber Martin

William Hill ... Tim Kennedy
Brooke Chia Thao ... Vu
Chee Thao ... Grandma
Choua Kue ... Youa

Scott Eastwood ... Trey
Xia Soua Chang ... Kor Khue
Sonny Vue ... Smokie

Doua Moua ... Spider
Greg Trzaskoma ... Bartender
John Johns ... Al

Davis Gloff ... Darrell
Thomas D. Mahard ... Mel (as Tom Mahard)
Cory Hardrict ... Duke
Nana Gbewonyo ... Monk

Arthur Cartwright ... Prez

Austin Douglas Smith ... Daniel Kowalski
Conor Liam Callaghan ... David Kowalski

Michael E. Kurowski ... Josh Kowalski
Julia Ho ... Dr. Chang
Maykao K. Lytongpao ... Gee
Carlos Guadarrama ... Head Latino
Andrew Tamez-Hull ... Latino Gangbanger #1

Ramon Camacho ... Latino Gangbanger #2
Antonio Mireles ... Latino Gangbanger #3
Ia Vue Yang ... Hmong Flower Woman #1
Zoua Kue ... Hmong Flower Woman #2
Elvis Thao ... Hmong Gangbanger #1
Jerry Lee ... Hmong Gangbanger #2

Lee Mong Vang ... Hmong Gangbanger #3
Tru Hang ... Hmong Grandfather
Alice Lor ... Hmong Granddaughter
Tong Pao Kue ... Hmong Husband
Douacha Ly ... Hmong Man
Parng D. Yarng ... Hmong Neighbor
Nelly Yang Sao Yia ... Hmong Wife
Marty Bufalini ... Lawyer

My-Ishia Cason-Brown ... Muslim Receptionist

Clint Ward ... Officer
Stephen Kue ... Officer Chang
Rochelle Winter ... Waitress
Claudia Rodgers ... White Woman Neighbor
Vincent Bonasso ... Tailor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

William C. Fox ... Family Friend (uncredited)

Tony Stef'Ano ... Man on Street (uncredited)
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Produced by
Clint Eastwood .... producer
Bill Gerber .... producer
Jenette Kahn .... executive producer
Robert Lorenz .... producer
Tim Moore .... executive producer
Adam Richman .... executive producer

Original Music by
Kyle Eastwood
Michael Stevens

Cinematography by
Tom Stern (director of photography)

Film Editing by
Joel Cox
Gary Roach (as Gary D. Roach)