'Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have fu**ed with? That's me.'

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2009)

This is supposedly Clint Eastwood's last performance as an actor, it's a crying shame he didn't get an Oscar nomination for his turn as Walt Kowalski, a Korea-veteran who's just buried his wife and finds himself being a lone wolf in a neighborhood where he utterly hates just about everything that's going on; the local priest, his two sons and their disrespectful children, and the immigrants in which he stamps collectively as "gooks", among them his newly moved in neighbors and the street-wise gangbangers. When Walt speaks he spits the most harsh one-liners in his everyday-talk, and he gives racist-remarks with nicknames only the Third Reich could ever socially accept. His voice breaths of inner demons and when he's coughing blood, it's like we can see some of the rasped, torn and dark soul inside this man. And Eastwood's performance is a goodbye-to-all-that, when slinging a gun out of his belt you can see the Man With No Name in the spaghetti westerns, Dirty Harry making your day and Bill Munny from Unforgiven, speaking of "it's a hell of a thing, killing a man...".
Walt polishes and talks to his 1972 Ford Gran Torino, he sees his ideology in it and when the local "spooks" crosses Walt's line, he grabs his rifle more naturally than calling the police, Walt takes matter in his own hands, this is after all his car, his life, (his lawn), and his fix. The ties he binds with the hill-people Thao (Bee Vang) and Sue (Ahney Her) are educative and life-learning for Walt, enjoying their food, beer and understanding the unrighteousness of the situation they are in.
The film's wry humor, political and social context, and dark soul takes a surprising and remarkable turn in the third part, and Eastwood truly shows that he nails his character for every penny it's worth. GRAN TORINO has got a pretty simple and spare narration, allowing his performance to grow rock hard, and it's full of symbolism and has got a left hook only Clint could produce. Heads up for Clint also singing the title-track at the end, mumbling the words over a beautiful melody it's another sign of an enormously gifted filmmaker who's in a time and place where everything he touches, turns into gold.