Do not go gently into the night

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2009)

Another high quality film from Clint Eastwood. When you look at his track record he is definitely one of the great living Hollywood directors. He has a great eye for a story that will grab people's attention.
Gran Torino is about a lot of things, aging, family relationships, the immigrant experience amongst others. The story is quite simple. Walt (Eastwood),a widower living alone in an area of suburban Detroit now mostly inhabited by Asian immigrants. He dislikes them intensely and doesn't try to hide it word or deed. Due to an incident he (almost despite himself)becomes close to the young Asian boy living next door. He tries to pass on his beliefs on what is right and how a man should behave to the boy and they become friends. However local tensions arise again with tragic consequences and Walt has to make a decision about what is the right thing to do, knowing it will effect him, the boy and the boy's family.
Eastwood is excellent, literally growling through some scenes as Walt expresses his (mostly negative)opinions about the world around him. In more than one scene he plays to good effect with the "Man with NoName" and "Dirty Harry" characters the audience associate with Eastwood. The middle part of the film, as Walt and his neighbour become best buddies is very funny at times, though we know somehow that violence will rear it's ugly head before the end. A moral tale then and one well worth watching.