Gran Torino

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. Hilarity ensues when his neighbor Thao (Bee Vang), a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.

Trivia: Open casting calls for Hmong actors were held in Hmong communities in Detroit, Michigan; Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Fresno, California. None of the Hmong actors in the cast had acted in a film before except Doua Moua. Clint Eastwood encouraged the Hmong actors to ad-lib in the Hmong language. A Gran Torino was also the car used in the 70s cop show Starsky & Hutch.

This is a typical Eastwood movie if you compare it with his last several movies in which he appears as well as directs. And by that I mean 1) it is pretty good, 2) Eastwood plays a sour old guy set in his ways that changes a little through the story but still comes out as a sour old man, and 3) We are bound to see Eastwood glare into the camera with his trademark scowl. I am not sure good a message it is though. Kowalski teaches Thao some things and you think he is grooming him to take care of himself but when it actually comes time for the confrontation at the end of the movie, Kowalski leaves Thao behind. I know that is the only way to come to the conclusion the film does come to but still it feels like a betrayal. Still its a good movie.