Thursday, June 4, 2009

Gran Torino DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Eastwood’s Motor City Melodrama Makes Its Way to DVD

Recently-widowed Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) has a big set of gonads for the last white guy still living in a Detroit neighborhood now overrun with Asians, Latinos and blacks. After all, the grizzled geezer is in mourning and emotionally-estranged from his sons, Mitch (Brian Haley) and Steve (Brian Howe), who would like to relocate their dad to a retirement community.
Nonetheless, Walt wants to remain in the increasingly-lawless community. But rather than make the acquaintance of any of his neighbors, the gun-toting Korean War vet would rather roam around town like a geriatric Dirty Harry, daring troublemaking knuckleheads to make his day.
He proves to be particularly imaginative when it comes to epithets for the Asian family who moved in next-door, referring to them as everything from “gooks” to “zipperheads” to “rice niggers” to “chinks” to “nips” to “eggrolls” to “barbarians” to “fish heads” to “swamp rats” to “slope heads.” Needless to say, Walt is utterly unlikable, at least until the fateful day that a juvenile delinquent (Bee Vang) tries to steal his classic muscle car as part of a gang initiation. Instead of shooting the thief when he catches him in the act, Walt decides to take pity on the kid in dire need of intervention.
Unfortunately, the transition he subsequently makes from racist misanthrope into an altruistic father figure is simply unconvincing. That’s not good news for this maudlin Motor City melodrama, which is recommended only if you want to see Clint Eastwood uttering a profusion of offensive and profane language, like a senile old coot suffering from adult onset Tourette’s Syndrome.

Fair (1 star)
Rated R for pervasive profanity, ethnic slurs and violence.
Running time: 117 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Extras: Two featurettes: “Manning the Wheel” and “Gran Torino: More Than a Car.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I disagree that this movie deserves one star. I understand that the movie is full of racial slurs to not only Asians and Blacks, but also toward Walt being called "Cracker" and "Honky". The racial slurs may offend you and others, but the film is designed to send a message about racial tensions, cultural differences and the breakdown of prejudice and one man's fight to restore order and justice to his neighborhood despite overwhelming odds. It is also about the fact that many youth don't appreciate the freedoms they have been given by veterans like Walt who went off to war to keep our country safe from communism and dictator rulership (do people like Hitler, Stalin and others ring a bell?). Even though Walt fought in the Korean war, he is a man who had a home and car and a neighborhood he could be proud of after he came home from duty. He worked hard for 50 years in a factory and now he sees his neighborhood overrun by gang violence, injustice toward women, lack of respect and a disregard for keeping the neighborhood looking decent through basic upkeep. Put yourself in the shoes of an old man like him who sees his neighborhood go to hell after having put so much time and effort into it. Sure, he's racist and a bigot, but he is right about a lot of things.