Synopsis: Korean War vet and retired autoworker Walt Kowalski doesn’t much like how his life or his neighborhood has turned out. He especially doesn’t like the people next door, Hmong immigrants from Southeast Asia. But events force Walt to defend those neighbors against a local gang that feeds on violence and fear. For the first time since Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood works on both sides of the camera, winning the National Board of Review Award as Best Actor for his bone-deep playing of Kowalski, burnished with experience, grace and gravitas into a “prime vintage Eastwood performance” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).
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Gran Torino 8.0

Clint Eastwood growls really well. I jest, but this ‘skill’ of his is tapped into perfectly as he embodies a prejudiced widower who watches his world change around him – as new Americans replace the old ones that he was accustomed to for so long.

While he struggles with a reality that he no longer feels a part of, the man realizes that he has more in common with some of his new neighbours than his own flesh and blood. From that point onward, we start to witness his journey from immovable wall to a stepping stone that will ultimately give some footing to a few of the new members of his community.

It’s not a bold film, in that it is a bit quick in transforming a embittered man who has never sought any kind of change in seven decades of existence; in fact, it sometimes feels a bit too easy, as though it’s catering to a mass audience who don’t really want to struggle with their own feelings and pre-conceived notions – who would much rather be entertained with Hallmark taglines than real emotions.

But it still works, mostly due to Clint Eastwood’s ease with the material. I can’t think of another star who could have pulled it off with this much class. Gene Hackman? Maybe. Morgan Freeman? Perhaps. But neither would have done it quite as credibly as Clint did.