Gran Torino is good, really good. For a long time,
I’ve heard writers and film directors talk about the importance
of showing people something instead of telling them. The
best films are those that set a scene which demonstrates a
fundamental truth about people’s lives instead of having some
character give a dramatic speech spilling out an entire
philosophy of HOW IT IS and HOW IT OUGHT TO BE. Gran
Torino succeeds on that score. Eastwood as the
director working from a masterful script rolls out scene after
scene revealing truths about our lives to us.
Is this a film, which the trailer portrays, in which we get to
see Eastwood doing his Dirty Harry thing? There is some of
that. No question. That’s what I went to see.
But Gran Torino rewarded me with a deep reflection on
America, on faith, on family, on immigration, on aging, and on
heroism. Who are we as Americans? We’re
immigrants. To some degree we’re nationalistic,
chauvinistic, racist, aggressive. But there’s something
else about us, too. We tend to come out of the right side
of things. We love justice more than anything else.
Gran Torino shows us all of that.
Nothing preachy here. Just solid, solid storytelling.
Everything works. I can’t imagine anyone seeing this movie
and feeling disappointed, as I did with the much splashier and
showier Quantum of Solace, which left me empty and
relatively unthrilled.
