Film and DVD Review: A cover of Gran Torino

Dirty Harry's back! Gran Torino, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, is about a cruel S-O-B. He is a Korean War veteran who spends his days sitting with a rifle by his side on the front porch, chugging down beer and watching over with disgust and hatred, his troubled neighborhood.

He stares out at the ethnic lay-a-bouts which he thinks have invaded his turf, "chinks" and "gooks" (as he calls them), all of them. He has evil and blatant fantasies of wiping them all out. The drama of the film is waiting to find out if he will or won't do it!

Written by Nick Schenk, and set in contemporary Detroit. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a moody old bastard who screams with anger at the injustices that impinge his solemn retirement. He hates the way his neighbourhood is plagued and plundered with immigrants. He hates the armed gangs of Asian, Latino and Afro-American teenagers that hang about on his lawn. He hates his two fat sons, their wives who sponge off them and their fucked up kids. He hates the pimply Catholic priest who keeps knocking at his door since the death of his wife.

Most of all Walt hates the loud and intrusive Hmong family from Asia who have moved in next door. He hates them that much that he’s taken to carrying a loaded shotgun around the house, ever since their idiot son, Thao (Bee Vang), tried to nick his mint-condition Ford Gran Torino car; as an initiation test for the local gang.

It’s a great comic turn by Eastwood’s miserable racist. The film, of course, is about the hard man softening as he starts to embrace diversity. But I doubt there’s another actor who could sneak this much non politically correct xenophobia into a thriller and make it look like the ravings of an old fuddy duddy.

This is an enjoyably big, over the top, manly melodrama, saved from the brink by Eastwood's great performance. It is almost certainly Clint Eastwood's final acting appearance: a must-see on that account if nothing else.

For me, Gran Torino works perfectly as an melancholic final performance for Eastwood, who, like John Wayne, always managed to maintain a great screen presence without ever convincing you he was a great actor. Eastwood goes out with, literally, a blast, looking as much like the wrong guy to mess with as he ever did.

But perhaps you disagree. What were your thoughts on Gran Torino, if you watch it? Was Eastwood's final flourish worth stepping out for? And why do you think it barely registered with Academy Awards voters?

You should get this film and I highly recommend it.