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Gran Torino [DVD] [2008] Directed by Clint Eastwood List Price: £19.99 Price: £6.98 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £5. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 21 new or used available from £5.50 Average customer review:

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Editorial Reviews

Special Features
- Manning the Wheel: The making of manhood as reflected in America car culture
- Gran Torino: More Than a Car: Visit Detroit and the Woodward Dream Cruise, an annual vintage car event where buffs describe the unique bond between men and vehicles

Synopsis
For his fourth directorial feature in the span of two years, Clint Eastwood tells the story of a grizzled Korean War vet's reluctant friendship with a Hmong teenage boy and his immigrant family. Set in contemporary Detroit, GRAN TORINO tackles the shifting cultural and economic landscape of not only the Motor City, but America as well. Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, an unabashed bigot who never heard a racial insult he didn't love. Bitter, haunted, and full of pride, Walt refuses to abandon the neighbourhood he's lived in for decades despite its changing demographics as he clings desperately to a mindset long since out of step with the times. When his Hmong neighbour Thao tries to steal his prized muscle car as part of a gang initiation, Walt is forced to grapple with the world around him.
GRAN TORINO's approach to the complicated issue of race relations is equal parts Archie Bunker and CRASH. That is to say, there is nothing subtle about Walt's bigotry, yet his misanthropy knows no bounds, and Eastwood does a remarkable job of finding the humour in Walt's equal opportunity racism. More than simply a racial morality tale, however, GRAN TORINO is about the unlikely bonds that people form to navigate the subtle complexities of everyday life. Like MILLION DOLLAR BABY, GRAN TORINO explores the challenging yet rich new world that can open up when individuals let down their guard, even if for just a moment. Estranged from his family and his church, and without any sense of personal peace, Walt offers all that he has to Thao and his family, namely wisdom and protection. When tragedy strikes the family, Eastwood allows a little classic Harry Callahan to poke through, but the surprising finale posits a hero that Dirty Harry would never have the guts to be. It's a potent symbolic gesture to Eastwood's own growth as a storyteller.

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Customer Reviews

At least one guy in hollywood is making real movies
What can I say? If I try to describe this film to someone it sounds terrifically dull - but it's wonderful.
Okay, I'm an old softie: I loved "Bridges of Madison" and "Million Dollar Baby" and this is of the same high quality.
Clint takes the time to develop the characters. Why don't other film-makers bother to do that? The film is great because you actually care about the characters - even the ones who hardly speak. They feel fully fleshed out and have real personalities. At times the performances are so spontaneous that they feel improvised.
It doesn't really matter what this film's name is or what the plot is about. This is a "people" film about real life (not mine thankfully) and just when you start to think it might be turning into Dirty Harry, it turns into something else - something which everything about the Clint Eastwood character has been setting up throughout the film.
Five stars. Thank you Mr. Eastwood.

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 for the directing, but for the storytelling, and the emotional journey on which it takes you, the laughter, the feeling of being gripped, and its more surprising moments.

In the opening scenes, we have the exposition of the character. We get to know Walt Kowalski, by how people act around him, and his seemingly hateful attitude towards people. More is conveyed through a scowl, and a snarl than with words. When the mischievous grandchildren go through his stuff in the basement, we see the photographs and the Silver Star he won in Korea. There are three other important symbols in the movie, the lighter, the gun, and the car.

We see a hero with a warrior past, a patriot who fought for a cause greater than himself. Clearly, his bigotry stems from those experiences.

He's not just mean, he's 'get of my lawn' mean. He's Dirty Harry 'Go ahead punk, make my day!,' mean.

His dead wife's priest bugs him to hear his confession, at her request. The priest in a way is his wife's conscience. So begins the theme of redemption.

When he snarls down the barrel of his rifle, at the neighborhood punk: 'I could blow your head off, and sleep like a baby,' you get the sense that he means it.

So, with all that happens, we see the change in his decision making, from someone reluctant to be involved in his neighbor's affairs, and a story can turn on something as random as looking at an empty beer cooler.

For all his faults, Walt has mature masculine character. Even though he is a difficult father, he has taught his children character. So, when he sees the boy next door lacks character, and a strong male role model, he takes him under his wing, and teaches him how to be a man.

The scenes where the boy practises Walt's high octane ball busting banter, are the funniest in the movie. Through knowing Walt, he makes decisions he never would have made by himself. In so doing, Walt finds meaning and purpose, and a chance for redemption, and the boy becomes a man.

The Academy's actor awards tend to go to actors in two types of role:

1. Psychopath- No Country for Old Men, The Usual Suspects, There Will Be Blood, Training Day, Silence of the Lambs.

2. Mentally Disabled, Social or Physical Handicap, overcomes great adversity or discrimination- Shine, As Good as It Gets, A Beautiful Mind, Ray, Scent of a Woman, Capote, Philadelphia, The Pianist, A Beautiful Life.

Every rule has an exception. Russell Crowe in Gladiator played a character with thematic similarities to Walt.

For a 78 year old man to direct and be lead actor in a movie of this caliber is an achievement worthy at the very least of being nominated for the highest award for Acting, Directing or both.

I hope this was helpful.

Swansong For Eastwood?
Is this the final film for Clint Eastwood to star in? I don't know but if it is, it's a excellent swansong for him as this movie is brilliant from the first few minutes to the final breathtaking seconds. Eastwood plays Walt, a man who's lost his wife and is now a bit of a grumpy man. His grandsons hardly want to know him, their own family are evil and only want things when he's dead too. When a family of Hauong people arrive, he sickened by the thought of living with strangers. But when one of them tries to steal his Gran Torino, he soon bonds with the family and becomes a part to them though there is danger from nasty gangs wanting the young boy to be in their group. It's gripping stuff with some laugh-out loud moments along with touching scenes from the cast lead by Eastwood, this is his best pefomance ever without doubt. I highly recommend this to anyone who loved his movies or wanting to see a great movie for near two hours.