The Angel of Death Becomes the Guardian Angel

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2009)

Clint Eastwood hasn't disappointed since Mystic River. I've seen all the movies he's made since then, excepting Flags of our Fathers, and I always walk out of the cinema in awe at the talent of this man. Simplicity, good writing, a powerful story, and strong performances are the tools he uses to craft unique films.
In Grand Torino Eastwood graces us with one of his performances. I've always considered him an under-appreciated actor, and I don't think he's improved with age: he was great as early as the old Sergio Leone movies of the '60s. In this movie he plays Walter Kowalski, a widower enjoying retirement in a neighborhood which has been occupied by Hmong people. Bitter at life, and feeling abandoned by his family, he can't help throwing racist epithets at them; but this is clearly a defense mechanism to keep people away from him.
Slowly he befriends two siblings living next to him and even starts acting as a father figure to them, including to Thao, a confused teenager who's being courted by gangs. Walter, a Korea War veteran, thinks he can fight violence with violence, and things only escalate from there to an unpredictable conclusion.
If this be Clint Eastwood's final performance, it'll be perfect. He makes a 180 degree turn from his famous tough guy persona. In Unforgiven he played that persona as if on steroids, making William Munny the most vicious angel of death in the West. But Walter Kowalski is an older, wiser man who knows violence leads nowhere. His final solution to Thao's problem is an amazing send up of his man-with-no-name and Dirty Harry characters.
Complementing Eastwood's directing and acting is the usual clever dialog, especially between Walter and his friend Martin (John Carroll Lynch in a lovely role), the melancholy music by Kyle Eastwood, and the tight editing that leaves out everything superfluous. This is a little gem of a movie, which deserves to be cherished by film lovers forever.