CLINT EASTWOOD
IN GRAN TORINO:
WHO KNEW HE COULD ACT?
LIKE JOHN WAYNE IN TRUE GRIT
IT MAY LEAD TO AN OSCAR
Clint Eastwood is an American icon, having been a major movie star
since the sixties. His films have made millions and millions of dollars
for his company and the studios that have produced them. As a director,
he surprised us, first with the quirky Breezy, starring William Holden in 1973, and through the years with epic and meaningful dramas.
But as an actor he was not distinguished. His fame and fortune
rested on magnificent good looks and a no-nonsense personality that
rode him through the westerns and Dirty Harry movies. Other
than his tall stature and a handsome face, his rather monotonous and
spiritless speaking style didn't lend much and thus limited his range,
save for a few poignant moments in films like Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, where the force of the movies, which won him Oscars for directing and producing, landed him two acting nominations.
However, in Gran Torino, which I saw at the Directors Guild
theatre last night, it all came together and he was gifted with a role
that fit perfectly with his persona. Because of it, and perhaps in
spite of his limitations, what emerged was a lovely portrayal -- not
always easy to watch -- of a man faced with a transition that comes
just in time at the tail end of his life.
It's a simple story, which Eastwood produced and directed as well,
about a curmudgeonly old man, who has just lost his wife. He doesn't
get along with his kids and grandchildren and seems to have a humorless
and insensitive attitude towards life.
Added to that, he is enormously prejudiced. A bigot that would make
Archie Bunker appear almost liberal. His Michigan neighborhood has been
overrun with Southeast Asians, mostly Hmong from Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia, and to say he is not welcoming would be an understatement.
He has neither empathy or interest in them and resents their
intrusion into his way of life. He doesn't hesitate to pepper his
initially brief and hostile conversations with them calling them every
known racial epithet under the sun.
A momentary action changes this when a gang harasses the family next
door and they intrude upon his modest lawn. He comes forth with an old
army issued rifle he has kept since the Korean war, more intent on
getting everyone off his property than aiding his beleaguered neighbors.
However, they and everyone in the vicinity treat him like a hero,
bringing him food and flowers, the latter of which he immediately
tosses into the trash. Without giving up any of the plot further, he is
forced into a relationship with Thao, the studious teenage boy next
door, who is being pressured to join an Asian gang, played in a
wonderful tormented fashion by Bee Vang, and also unexpectedly forges a
bond with the boy's sister, Sue, imbued with terrific spirit by Ahney
Her.
Eastwood's voice is not suddenly full of fire. It is equipped with
an old man's crackle and doesn't often shift no matter the emotion of
the moment. But in this story by Dave Johansson and Nick Schenk and
with the spare and pointed dialogue in Nick Schenk's screenplay, and
with those ever haunting eyes that always made you believe Eastwood
would kill you as Dirty Harry, it all comes together and works.
Perhaps only for this film in this wonderful manner, but no matter because it's a superb achievement.
There are wonderful actors who never become stars and a few who did
like Laurence Olivier, Dustin Hoffman and the younger generation's
Leonardo DiCaprio. And there are stars like Eastwood, who like John
Wayne, managed to wow audiences via the sheer scope of their
personality.
John Wayne found True Grit towards the end of his career and now Clint Eastwood has done the same with an unforgettable performance in Gran Torino, a film that is so simple in its telling that it almost slips by how powerful it really is.
Contact Us