Eastwood, Gran Torino misses the mark

by Jacqueline Rogers

The opening scene of Gran Torino shows a wrinkly Clint Eastwood, main character and director of the film, as Walt Kowalski, the gruff and grunting widower, grunting over his children and grandchildren. As is the cliché, they whisper about how old and rigid “dad” is, chew gum and wear belly shirts to their grandmothers funeral, and plot how to get “grandpa” to give over the Gran Torino when he croaks.

Walt is a veteran of the Korean War still scarred both physically and mentally by the destruction and death. His racism is obvious (and apparently explainable by his participation in the war) as he continues his grunting at his next-door neighbors, a Hmong family with plenty of traditional practices for an old man to squawk at. Walt is unhappy and the audience gathers that in the first few scenes.

I could say the plot is confused, old, and slightly racist and leave it, but I won’t because there actually is some credit to be given. Some credit should go to Eastwood for trying to appeal to a group in his generation that has struggled with “change.” Plus, although Eastwood surrounded himself by amateur actors that probably help this create this praise, his performance is surprisingly good for what could have possibly been one of the simpler characters to play in any of his films. Unfortunately for him, this film should not be and cannot be about Eastwood’s appeal. It is unsettling that his racist remarks and violent outbursts are the most charming moments in the movie. In fact, there is a striking lack of complexity that makes the race issues obviously and disturbingly generation baby-boomer and beyond. In a movie about someone needing to change, there is no real pressure on the audience to do so.

If the audience wants to look for something deep and meaningful, they should look outside of this film, at age/generation conflicts in portraying race issues. It might be overstated, but Obama did challenge the public and force some honest conversations. This film makes it feel as if that never happened, or at least, it didn’t mean the same thing to the older folks around. Sure, race is the most obvious catalyst in the film, but you can tell Eastwood did not feel comfortable making a big statement about American racism, the Hmong people, or white intolerance. Physical violence and cruelty are the most serious moments of the film and they are mostly not about race. The jokes are about race. It feels very John McCain, well intentioned but clueless and irresponsible.

What bothers me most is that Eastwood has many relevant meaningful issues to address but none of them amount to anything. Instead, Eastwood and Gran Torino preserves some sort of slightly delusional war hero romanticism that I bet my father and his Midwestern peers will go crazy for. It is a story of the heroic white man that sacrifices himself for the good of the non-white. But to save it from that old imperialist feel, there is a lesson intertwined about mutual understanding and respect, and everyone learns something about friendship and humanity. I suppose we can teach an old dog new tricks as long as the glorified old dog happens to be racist, depressed, angry, violent, and, oh yah, a really good person at heart.