Movie Review- Gran Torino.

Hah I guess I'm expandin my horizons a bit now. I'm not that big on movies to be honest, never have been. I'm TERRIBLE at remembering "famous movie lines" and all that good shit...but that's probably because I rarely see the same movie more than twice- the effect for me wears off significantly after the first time. Would you read the same book 20x? I doubt it, seriously; unless it's some philosophical shit which helps to wake you up and part the clouds like some anti-depressant commercial. But enough of the bullshit; I went online and the movie choice of the night: Gran Torino.

Gran Torino centers around Walt (Clint Eastwood); a former Korean War veteran who now lives alone (after his wife died) in a Michigan neighborhood which has now become predominately Asian. You can tell that the effects of war have made this man cold-blooded, as he rarely displays any happiness (towards family and the neighbors)- with the one exception being at the bar. If you love laughing at racial epithets, you'll love this movie because he relentlessly uses terms such as "gook", "zipperheads" and mispronounces Asian shit almost all the time. The subplot centers around his neighbors who are traditional Asians- which creates a culture clash for a period of time. Tao- a young boy who lives in the house is known as a quiet, shy kid who is almost too obedient to his family gets confronted by a Spanish gang- only for an Asian gang lead by his cousin to come "save" him. They ask Tao to join his crew and after a lot of persuasion; he reluctantly follows them for an initiation. The first task- try to steal Walt's precious 1972 Gran Torino car- which fails miserably. When Tao's family gets word of this and forces Tao to apologize; Walt accepts it and basically tells them to fuck off afterwards hah.

As the movie progresses, the Asian gang returns to try and get Tao...in which a huge family fight breaks out which spills onto Walt's lawn. Walt goes to get out his rifle and tells everyone involved to get off his lawn (mainly the Asian gang) which quells the violence. For this deed, the neighbors within the surrounding community view Walt as a hero and shower his front porch with gifts- in which Walt doesn't take kindly of whatsoever. Later on in the movie incidentally- Walt drives around town and witnesses Sue (Tao's sister) being picked on by a group of black dudes who threaten to rape her.
*****INTERMISSION****** Great job stereotyping us by the way making us look like a buncha damn seagulls when fawning over women, that's why parents of other races hate us hah.
He threatens them to hand over the girl to him; and the group doesn't take him seriously until he pulls out a real gun- which in turn they hand the girl over to him and he drops her off home. This is the first part of the movie in which you sort of see a change in Walt's persona- even though of course he's cynical as fuck hah.

As the movie wears on- Walt slowly begins to warm up to his neighbors and Tao returns to help work for him (Tao's family orders for him trying to steal the car). At first Walt doesn't really have anything for him to do but eventually he finds him more work to do and realizes that Tao is a pretty efficient worker. Walt actually grows to forge a bond with Tao and gets him to toughen up; almost looking at him like a son (a lot of tough love) while he even begins mellowing out quite a bit. Walt then gets Tao a job at a construction company and one day while Tao's walking home from work- the Asian gang confronts him and essentially jumps him- stealing his construction tools. Walt doesn't take too kindly to this and extracts revenge on one of the gang members, beating him down a couple of days later and telling him not to fuck with Tao.

The movie goes full-circle when the Asian gang returns and shoots up Tao's house/rapes Sue. While no one is killed, the family is devastated especailly when they come to find out Sue was raped. Walt is even crushed by this and for the first time in the movie, actually shows remorse. In typical gangsta movie fashion, Tao wants to seek immediate retribution and wants to kill those involved...meanwhile Walt contemplates doing the same thing but he finally gets to going to church and seeking confession.

I'll leave yall at that because I don't want to spoil the ending; which is a good one.

Overall- I found the movie to be pretty funny (since I love racial epithets/jokes) and the plot/subplots were interwoven well. The best part about it though was watching the development of both Walt and Tao throughout the movie and seeing how he was able to forge a bond with a boy that he couldn't even do with his own two sons previously...which is what led him to change like this. It has its fair share of action as well; but don't expect a shoot-em-up type movie. I highly recommend this 1 hour and 57 minute movie- Clint Eastwood kills it with his performance. Grade: A-

And so on.