Slope.Gook.Wop.Mick.Chink.Polak.What's in a name?

Rating: 10/10 (3 May 2010)

Walt Kowalski is the grumpy old man's grumpy old man.Just widowed,he lives with his dog in an immaculate clapboard house in a blue collar neighbourhood in Michigan having worked for over 30 years on the assembly line at Ford's.His pride and joy is his Gran Torino which he helped build and has owned since 1972.The demographic of his 'hood has changed and "White Flight" has meant that it has become largely Asian. A large family of Vietnamese refugees has moved in next door,loud,chaotic and close - knit,a complete contrast to his distant sons and their cold - eyed acquisitive offspring. Korean war vet Kowalski sees them with a jaundiced eye and rebuffs their attempts to befriend him. Under pressure from a street gang their youngest son tries to steal Kowalski's car and is nearly shot for his trouble.Slowly and grudgingly in an almost Fordian way,Kowalski teaches the boy to become a man. Nobody but Ford,you might think,could get away with such sentiment,but Mr Eastwood proves yet again that he has inherited the master's mantle. Influenced also by his mentor Mr D.Seigel's "The Shootist",Mr Eastwood has his main character commit suicide by gangbanger,redeeming himself and saving the neighbourhood at the same time. Half a century of guilt over an incident during the Korean War has turned Kowalski into a miserable misanthrope with a bad word for everybody.Whilst hardly Mary Poppins at the death,he has gone to his grave "justified",much as Mr R.Scott and Mr J.McRea in "Ride the high country". His total and joyful lack of 21st century political correctness has offended many but actions speak louder than words and a brave and brutally honest man chooses to end his life in a way that will benefit his Asian neighbours.Not,I submit,the act of an unregenerate nazi. Those who thought "Unforgiven" was Mr Eastwood's swansong will have to think again as his theme changes from unremitting bleakness to a rather tentative glimpse of optimism about the human condition.