Movie Monday!

Gran Torino

2008 American drama film

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley, Doua Moua, John Carroll Lynch, Brian Haley, Brian Howe, Choua Kuo, Geraldine Hughes, Dreama Walker.

Producer and Director: Clint Eastwood

116 minute

Music: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens

Language: English, Hmong {subtitled}

Screenplay: Nick Schenk; Story: Dave Johannson, Nick Schenk

My Rating: 4 out of 5

Walt Kowalski, a recent widower, is an elderly, polish man.and Korean War veteran living in Highland Park, Michigan with his adorable golden retriever, Daisy. Walt is a cantankerous and grumpy, but ultimately lovable, curmudgeon who has an awkward relationship with his two grown sons. Over the years, Walt's neighborhood has changed from working-class white families to Asian immigrants. A Hmong family he is not friendly with, lives next door to Walt. Sue, the daughter of this family, decides to befriend Walt. Soon racial tensions, gang warfare and other pressures fall at Walt's doorstep alternately enriching and threatening his way of thinking and his life.

Figuring prominently in the movie, almost a character in its own right, is Walt's most precious possession (next to Daisy, of course!), a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, lovingly maintained and cared for by Walt since he first worked on it at his job as a Ford factory worker.

I thought this was a fantastic movie. The acting, particularly Eastwood's, was superb. It's amazing that at 78 he is still going so strong. He embodied his character completely. It was pretty amazing! The story is very interesting and addresses issues quite current in today's society, especially with the economic problems in our country, and well-rounded. It's about relationships, friendship, hate, anger, fear, life and death, apathy, the generation gap, cultural identity and ignorance. This movie has humor, pathos, drama, tension, compassion, understanding, anger and fear . I highly recommend it!

Clint Eastwood won a Best Actor from the National Board of Review
American Film Institute's One of the Ten best films of 2008
Clint Eastwood is nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Assoc. (Critics' Choice Awards)
He is nominated for Best Actor by the Washinton D.C. Area Film Critics Assoc.