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Gran Torino-
The story opens in a contemporary Detroit with Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), and aged, bitter, and foul mouthed Korean War vet at the funeral of his wife, where you are introduced to Walt’s family, none of which he shows any emotion for. Throughout the funeral and afterwards you even come to see that he has nothing but contempt for his family, from his lax sons to his scantily dressed granddaughter looking to inherit his car. The area of Detroit he lives in is the family home and seems to have been that way for a very long time. He is the last white person in the area, and his little part of the neighborhood has had a lot of Hmong (pronounced “mong”, a Southeast Asian people) moving in. Things only get worse for him when his neighbor Thao attempts to steal his car. Thao is a reserved boy who is pressured into it by his gang member cousin and his crew. Walt puts a stop to this, which leads to the gang ruffing up Thao on Walt’s lawn, much to his disdain. With his gun raised and the gang scared, he growls out in classic Eastwood fashion,” Get. Off. My. Lawn.” After this key scene and a later saving of Sue, Thao’s sister, from some other gang, Eastwood begins to develop a bond with his new neighbors. He takes on a mentor like role to the shy Thao, and transforms him into the model person with the ideals Walt holds dear. Through all of this his bitter bigotry and hate seem to gradually slip away. Later violence lead to an ending that fits the story to perfection and really shows not only Walt’s heroism, but has some real life implications to the possibility of this being Eastwood’s final film.
Eastwood’s role as Walt was sublime. He reels you in with his tough act such as that of his prior characters like Dirty Harry or William Munny, but shows stellar character development in Walt’s revelation’s about other people, his own painful memories from the war, his family, and the eventual end of his misanthropic ways. The supporting cast was also great. Chris Carley’s portrayal of the green priest intent on getting Walt to come to confession as per his wife’s last wish, all the way to his eventual growing up due to Walt’s stubbornness and Haunting past was Wonderful. Abney her and Bee Vang do a great job as Sue and Thao, respectively, and their chemistry with Eastwood is fantastic. The writing was very good, especially from first timer Nick Schenk. Without spoiling anything, the twist ending to the film was perfect, and secured this movie as a must see. With any luck this will not be the last time Eastwood graces the screen.
I wrote that for school, i dunno, needed to get a little bit of worth out of it.
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