Gran Torino

It's not about the car....
Throughout his illustrious acting career, Clint Eastwood has delivered a series of iconic characters, such as The Man with no name, Dirty Harry, Josie Wales, and Will Munny in Unforgiven.

Throughout his illustrious directing career he has delivered outstanding movies such as Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby, for which he has won five Academy Awards, for best Picture, Best Director, and including the Irving Thalberg Life Achievement Award.

The actors who have worked with him have been blessed with Oscar: Gene Hackman for Unforgiven, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn for Mystic River, Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby.

In Gran Torino he both directs and acts, and delivers an acting performance that will be remembered long after the final credits roll, in its unique way, as memorable as any other character he has created.

Gran Torino is the second best movie I have seen this year. Not just for the acting, not just...

A Better Movie about Racism than "Crash"
People react strongly to "Gran Torino," either embracing its depiction of a flawed but heroic racist old coot, or deriding the movie simply because its apparent political incorrectness makes them nervous. But even if the Academy does not bestow one award on what is probably Clint Eastwood's last movie as an actor, remember this: "Gran Torino" is a more intelligent film on the state of race relations today than "Crash" (a multiple Oscar winner) ever pretended to be.

The story is about Walt Kowalski, a grizzled Korean War vet and widower who spends his time drinking, smoking, and polishing his 1972 Ford Gran Torino, a vintage example of Detroit muscle. Because he installed the car's steering column himself, the car represents not only a classically American fixation on the automobile, but also a blue-collar, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps work ethic, one that Eastwood himself would no doubt agree with. (If for some reason you don't believe me, read his "What I've...

There's So Much We Can Learn from Each Other
Can Clint Eastwood go wrong? After striking gold a few months ago with the brilliant "Changeling," he releases "Gran Torino," another one of the year's best films. What a masterful storyteller Eastwood is, so focused on creating that perfect balance between story and character. He doesn't disappoint with "Gran Torino," a nearly flawless film that gives us characters we believe in and a story so compelling that it's virtually impossible to not be absorbed by it. What we have here is a cross-generational, cross-cultural story about people who can learn so much from each other despite being different. It's about regret, sadness, redemption, and growth, which isn't to say that it's conventional or archetypal; Eastwood plays a contemporary version of a Wise Old Man, someone who draws on life experience to teach an undeveloped youth. What's unique is that, regardless of what life has taught him, this Wise Old Man still has a lot to learn.

He has a name, of course: retired Ford...

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