Gran Torino DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

There are many traditions when it comes to award season, particularly Oscar season. First is the ridiculously early announcements (5:30 AM here in L.A.), and shortly thereafter, is the punditry of guessing why what actor or what film or what script or whatever was nominated and, almost as importantly, what wasn't. Last year one of the big-time snubs in my book was Gran Torino, a film I was truly blown away by when I caught it in the theaters last December. I thought it was a lock for countless awards, and even thought Clint might even give Mickey Rourke a run for his money, since I thought he was an absolute lock to win for his towering performance in The Wrestler... and we all know how that went. However, Oscar snobbery aside, Gran Torino still remains an absolutely incredible film that will surely stand the test of time and cement Clint Eastwood's legacy as a true cinematic icon, both in front of and behind the camera.

There was a lot that surprised me about this movie. First, I was surprised that I, like most people, had never heard a damn thing about this movie until a trailer found its way to the internet and it seemed to me to have that Million Dollar Baby feel all over again. That film was even lesser-known than this and when it was released in December of 2004, it took the Oscar season by storm on its way to a Best Picture win. I guess lightning like that doesn't strike twice, but after I saw the film in the theater, I really thought it was possible... but, alas, I could argue Oscar politics all day and night, so let's just talk about this amazing flick.

Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean war veteran and retired Ford auto plant worker in Detroit, who we see at the beginning of the film, had just lost his wife. Walt is just one of those guys who just doesn't keep his opinions to himself, and he's just an old curmudgeon who doesn't want any help and wants to be left alone. He doesn't get along with his two sons and grandchildren, practically disapproving everything about them and now he's alone in a neighborhood that's all Hmong's with him the only white man on the block, and his trusty dog. The only thing that really seems to give him any sort of pleasure or comfort in life is his immaculate 1972 Gran Torino, which he put the steering column in himself and, when the car becomes the object of desire by a local Hmong gang, who try to recruit Walt's shy Hmong neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) to steal the Gran Torino and be a part of his gang, Walt finds himself becoming involved in ways he never wanted. After "saving" Thao from the gang - where we hear the sure-to-be-classic line, "Get off my lawn." - Thao's family insists on Thao working off the shame of trying to steal the car, by working for Walt around his house and, in doing so, Walt starts to bond with Thao and his sister Sue (Aheny Her)... and starts to fight back against the gang that's tormenting them in a way that only Walt can.

To be honest, that only just scratches the surface of what all goes on in this film. Screenwriter Nick Schenk would also fall into the Oscar snubbing category for his brilliant script that adds so much amazing complexity to a rather simple story. I was actually quite shocked that this was Schenk's first feature after writing for shows like Let's Bowl and BoDog Fight. Then again, 2008 was quite a year for writers like that, since The Wrestler's Robert Siegel was a former editor of The Onion fictional newspaper and the only other feature he had written was The Onion Movie. Amazing. What also makes Schenk's script so amazing is one of the other surprises of the movie: how amazingly funny this movie was... and how you almost feel guilty at laughing. We find out early on that Walt doesn't hold his tongue at all and practically every other word out of his mouth is some sort of a racial slur like "gook" or "zipperhead" and, while, of course, these sorts of words are still looked down upon, Walt doesn't seem to say these words with pure malicious intent, but more out of annoyance and Nick Schenk's script is ingeniously crafted in a way that actually makes these exchanges pretty damn hilarious... even though you kind of want to feel guilty for laughing at such a racist prick. Actually, it doesn't even really seem like he's racist, meaning he doesn't want to do harm to their race, but he's just vehemently pro-American and just wants his old American neighborhood back. You just can't help but laugh at the countless ways he's annoyed by practically everything in life, with the exceptions of a few friends, his dog and the Gran Torino.

The only thing that bugged me about the movie, didn't even bug me enough to not give this five stars, and that's the annoying nature of Bee Vang's Thao character. It's one of those things where, yeah, it might be the character he's trying to portray, but some of it just looks like really bad acting and Vang's performance throughout the movie dances along this line throughout the film. We do get a few nice supporting turns from Aheny Her as Thao's sister, who first gets Walt to kind of come out of his hardened shell and introduces him to Hmong culture, Christopher Carley as Father Janovich, an over-eager young priest who was close with Walt's wife and wants him to come to confession, John Carroll Lynch as the barber Martin who Walt has an unusual relationship with and Brian Haley and Brian Howe as Walt's two sons, Mitch and Steve. That being said, even with all these fine supporting turns, this is really a one-man show and that one man is truly something else.

One of the other things that pissed me off on Oscar time was that Clint wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for is absolutely riveting performance as Walt Kowalski. Yes, I know it was a pretty competitive year and all, but, of all the Oscars Clint has (4 to be exact; two for producing and directing Unforgiven and another two for producing and directing Million Dollar Baby, both Best Picture winners), this screen icon doesn't have an Oscar for acting and I thought that, given the Academy's history of bestowing Oscar's to make up for shunning in the past... they'd at least friggin nominate Clint, especially since this is probably his best performance since Unforgiven... at least. While Clint surely did shine in Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino proved that still at the age of 78, he could carry an entire movie on his shoulders with his performance and intense direction. You don't see (m)any roles like this with an older actor in the lead with so much weight of the movie relying on that performance, and I can't think of anyone else who could've played Walt Kowalski other than Clint Eastwood. What's the most intriguing about this character is you continue to love him, despite him giving you plenty of reasons to hate him with his racist attitudes and stand-off-ish ways, but through Schenk's script and Eastwood's performance and direction, they've captured a very rare kind of character who you can (and often do... at least I did) laugh at, despite racial epitaphs flying around constantly and you connect with the character more from the little things he does rather than the big front he always puts up. Eastwood's performance is truly something to marvel at and, I don't know if this will be his final performance in front of the camera (this was his first role in front of the camera since Million Dollar Baby in 2004), but if it is, this is one hell of a triumphant swan song. His direction is nearly flawless as well, (despite my issues with Bee Vang and even some of the Hmong gangbangers) and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next with Invictus coming out this holiday season, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandella.

Clint Eastwood, you old crabby bastard, you have truly done it again. Despite the lack of accolades, Gran Torino might truly go down as one of Eastwood's best films ever, which is a feat among itself.

I'm not too surprised that there isn't a ton of special features on here, but I'm a little surprised at what kinds of features we do have here, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We only get two featurettes here, and both of them explore the connection between the American male and his car. Manning the Wheel is first and we first hear from director/star Clint Eastwood, actor Bee Vang, screenwriter Nick Schenk, producer Robert Lorenz talking about Walt Kowalski's connection to his Gran Torino and then it moves into a more general thing about the American male and his car, with Eastwood and other cast and crew members talking about their first cars or cars their dad's had, etc. and just the rite of passage to young guys. We even have a bunch of the actors and crew members tell us what their dream car's are. We also get some cool stuff about how they found the actual Gran Torino they used in the movie and we actually get quite a lot of good stuff from just a nine-minute featurette that's a very cool little extra to watch.

Gran Torino: More Than a Car is the other featurette here and this takes us to a popular event in Detroit called the Woodward Dream Cruise, an annual event that brings classic car owners from all over the country to this one main drag in Detroit to just cruise and show off your ride. We hear from a lot of the people that go to this event talking about their relationship with their cars and this featurette, while only just under four minutes long, is swiftly edited as well and we get a lot of good stuff here from a lot of different people talking about their cars.

That's all we get here and while I'm definitely and pleasantly surprised about what we got here, I guess I would've liked to see more about the actual movie itself, but there is some nice extra material here.

The film is presented in the widescreen format, and it says that it preserves the "scope aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition"... although they don't say what that aspect ratio is. Oh well.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound format.

Subtle and stylish... I like it! The front is set wonderfully in black with a shot of Clint looking, well, Clint-ish and holding his gun, with that awesome green Gran Torino in the background. Some nice shadowing work here. The back has a few smaller images, a larger image of Eastwood aiming that gun, with a critic quote, a nice synopsis, brief special features listing along with a very large billing block and tech specs. Solid packaging all around.

Gran Torino was hands down one of the best and most overlooked films of 2008. It's a surprisingly hilarious, deftly poignant and has one simply incredible acting swan song from the legendary Clint Eastwood. An instant classic, and then some!