Thank you, just thank you

Rating: 9/10 (6 March 2009)

I have the main song of the film, "Gran Torino", stuck in my head. It goes: "Engines humm and bitter dreams grow/heart locked in a Gran Torino/it beats a lonely rhythm all night long". Clint Eastwood has always been a man to fear, even more as years go by because, as my friend Urdinez says, he's like wine; and gets better with time. What does Eastwood, the genius filmmaker feels? What does he think about life? In "Gran Torino", probably his last effort as an actor/producer/director, we see a man completely exposed, and the movie may contain the answer.
It's not that what Clint has inside is important, but his Walt Kowalski is one of his typical characters; one of those men who will do everything by themselves and don't even accept the help of their own family. His performance is so hearfelt, so perfect, that's it's hard not to imagine Mr. Eastwood keeping a Gran Torino in the darkness of a garage.
Clint works hard to establish the personality of his war veteran from the first scene in which, during the funeral of his wife, he grumbles at the sight of a piercing his granddaughter has in her belly. This scene also presents, by making a fool of him, Father Janovich (Christopher Carley), another of the film's crucial players as he preaches a ridiculous sermon about life and death. With his wife dead, Walt will now be almost the only American (with a flag hanging on his porch, of course) in a quiet neighborhood inhabited by Chinese immigrants; and when a kid next door named Thao (Bee Vang) tries to steal his Gran Torino, we know peace can't last too long.
Walk Kowalski doesn't like priests nor Chinese or African American people, not even Irish or Italians; or maybe he does, but he certainly doesn't show it. The narrative mastery Eastwood has achieved at this point of his career lets him present two or three scenes in which some Latinos, blacks or Chinese gang bangers molest Thao and her sister (a fantastic Ahnie Her; watch the scene in which she's molested and you'll find an mild but nice social and even cinematographic commentary). When things are about to get ugly, Walt always appears, with a rifle on his waist, to save the kids who start-along with their family that leaves him all kinds of gifts on his porch-viewing him as a hero. But Walt doesn't want to be one; such as Frank didn't want to train Maggie in "Million Dollar Baby".
As it occurs with most of Clint's recent films, there seems to be a lot unsaid between scenes, mostly in the scenes Walt speaks to the young priest. Boxes that are hardly opened, secrets from the past that haunt Walk Kowalski. And "Gran Torino" is not about an old man trying to be better; it's about an old man doing what he always did and finding some friends because of it. These are definitely not the friends he would have chosen but the ones who chose him.
In between there's a lot of beer to be drunk, a lot of food to be eaten, a lot of culture to be learnt and even some life lessons. The miracle is that everything is natural and shot with a careful eye in the light of day and in two or three main scenarios. When the night comes and the movie gets darker, Clint is very close from letting the movie slip away but never does. One shot of him sitting in an old couch, with the light on one side of his face and complete obscurity in the other one, is the highest point of his collaboration with director of photography Tom Stern and probably the movie's most painful moment.
It occurs with almost no music, and the music (written by Clint's son and probably himself) is another of the pilars of this masterpiece that brings every production element together. A lot of war drums in moments of tension, an almost muted bass playing the melody of the theme song in moments of quietness. And the script, almost flawless and inevitably funny as Walt insults every person he encounters on the street, whether they have good or bad intentions; but unnecessarily clarifying after the last encounter the old man has with the priest.
I wanted to express this final thought. When a man who has received orders all his life, doesn't do what he's told, there's always the chance that something goes wrong. Maybe he can fix it, and we'll listen to phrases that only Clint can say and believe them. Things that are right in the like: "I finish things, that's what I do". "Gran Torino" is a film with class, not only because it has what we call class, but because it is classic; 'old-school' as Urdinez said. The kind of movie that doesn't get made anymore, in which from something ordinary you end up finding things you want to call extraordinary. Thank you Clint.