Grand Torino Warner Brothers 2008
Grand Torino is a wonderful faith and family film, notice I did not say it is ?family-friendly.? The R rating is well deserved for strong profane and racist language and gang violence. Some note that this may be Clint Eastwood?s last acting role, he?s 78.
Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a retired Ford autoworker who won the Silver Star for bravery in the Korean War. He lives a deteriorating Detroit neighborhood that is transitioning from all white to almost all Asian and black. His racism flares as he confronts the new ethnic groups on his block and when a Hmong extended family moves in next door. Walt was unaware that the Hmong fought with US forces in Vietnam and had to flee communist persecution after the war.
The movie opens at the funeral of his wife where open conflict with his two sons and their families erupts. Before she dies, Walt?s wife makes a young priest promise her that he will look after her husband and get him to go to confession. This leads to a very persistent priest going up against an equally pigheaded Walt who rejects every attempt to bring him to faith.
Walt is living with demons created by the estrangement from his sons and his wartime experiences. As the movie progresses, viewers wonder if he will exorcise those demons and if so, how?
One Bible verse sums up the movie, but to quote it here would ruin the full impact of the final scenes. I guarantee you that that verse will immediately come to mind at the climax of the movie.
