gran torino

Gran Torino (2008)
directed by Clint Eastwood
**3/4

I realize I'm going to make enemies with this review. So it goes.

This is not a good film. But, you insist - lots of people love it! It's currently #76 on imdb's list of the greatest films ever made! It's been iTunes top rental for weeks! Yes, this is all true ... despite the fact that the film is a failure in several respects. Bear with me here.

1. It's an "issue film" ... and not a great one, at that.

I'm not a big fan of so-called "issue films" (aka ("social-issue films"; see this for more on the topic). The reason? Issue films make art the servants of their political stance. Another word for this danger in art is propaganda. Since all art forms contain an element of communication, there's always the danger for it to slip into being dominated by that message on one extreme (aka propaganda) or into avoidance of message on the other extreme (the main everyman criticism of "art films"). 

Now there have been some rather interesting "issue films" over the years, so don't get me wrong. There have even been some great films that have set out to tackle the issue of racism in particular. Some recent good ones include American History X, Crash, Monster's Ball, Snow Falling on Cedars, This is England and even Freedom Writers. These were all good films because, though they wrestled with the issue of racism, there was also something else to the film, a wholeness given by fascinating character study, a compelling plot, incredible artistry in the music/cinematography departments, or even a little of each.

Gran Torino lacks this wholeness.

2. It is as shallow as its main character.

Many of the reviewers who liked Gran Torino celebrated the return of Dirty Harry. Well, I suggest, not exactly. (I admit that I'm not a massive fan of the politics portrayed by Eastwood's corrupt cop from the 70s and 80s, and in fact rejoiced in the far superior film Training Day, where Denzel Washington's version of Dirty Harry gets what's coming to him.) But I would like to point out that Dirty Harry was interesting - and slightly complex - as a character because his 'dirtiness' was fighting against his identity as a cop. Which identity would he be more loyal to? Would his own criminality compromise his ability to deal with the people it was convenient to label 'criminals'?

Walt Kowalski, the Korean War vet, is about as complex as a bag of hammers. To put it briefly, he's a caricature of a stereotype of an actual racist person. He's sort of accidentally stayed around in a neighborhood that's fallen victim to white flight, as if one day he had woken up and realized, 'By golly, I'm the only caucasian for blocks!' He seems to have gotten his views on manliness from an abusive jerk of a father, but never seems to realize it. He actually growls. Can someone actually be this uninteresting and shallow? Yes, submits Gran Torino, for almost two hours, they certainly can be.

Now if the writer had taken any inspiration whatsoever from the solitary well-written character in the film (a new take on the girl next door), this might have been a good movie. What you actually get for your money, though, is a film that is just as shallowly racist as the character it's trying to expose and redeem. Walt is not only racist, in fact, he is an angry person who swears like he's an adolescent boy doing something naughty and who threatens violence whenever possible. Oh, and these aren't things that the film believes he needs to be cured of. They're just who he is. Ah, and also, he loves this particular car, a fairly ugly car from the 70s that can never quite figure out whether it's supposed to be a symbol (it isn't), a metaphor for Walt (it isn't) or a character in the film that will create the crisis or resolution (it doesn't).

3. Its ending doesn't make any sense.

Which brings us to the finale. No, I'm not going to give it away. Yes, I am going to tell you it also contributes to the film's identity crisis. Whether you have sen this film, plan to see it, or have been turned away by my cautionary tale of a review, you should know that the end of this film was evidently written by someone completely different than the rest of the film. It's that disjointed.

That's not to say it's different because it's good, because it's not. It's different because it doesn't connect with anything in the rest of the film - Walt's character, any development or even crisis or redemption of his earlier self (racist, religious, car-loving or otherwise), anything. Walt makes a move in the film's final scene that some people have interpreted as a profound moral act.  In reality, though, his actions are a combination of the same shallow racism that plagues the rest of the film (I'll give the spolier at the * below) and a bizarre act that has absolutely no meaning in the world the film sets up. You want to see a fantastic, redemptive film about a louse who gets redeemed, with a great final scene that takes this one to school? - watch Tsotsi.

So, dear readers, please forgive me for fulfilling one of the duties of the critic. From time to time, the world is taken captive by an artistic version of the Emperor's New Clothes. It is my duty, in the instance of Gran Torino, to point out that I can see this movie's entire epidermis - and it ain't a pretty sight.

* Spoiler: Walt obviously knew, being the shallow racist that he was, living in the shallow racist world of Gran Torino, that the only thing he could accomplish by his death was achieving the arrest of those really bad Asian people who walked on his lawn. He knew, of course, that since they are shallow just like he is, they will be too stupid to leave before the police show up to arrest them. I doubt I have ever seen a more meaningless death on film outside a Michael Bay movie. And Bay even has the sense not to lead an entire film up to one meaningless death.

Comments

[NK]

I'm so glad somebody had the balls to say it. This movie never felt real to me...it always felt like it was a B movie. Every one except Eastwood is unbelievable, over-the-top, and this ends up hurting the already weak script. There was a story here, but the one that came out wasn't the one that set well with me. It was heavy on the melodrama and light on the drama.