Shawn's Gran Torino Review

2008 Movie #146 - Gran Torino

I’m going to have to go the exact opposite route of my fellow 2008 movie reviewer on this one because I really enjoyed this movie. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about it and came out very pleasantly surprised by it. But then I would call myself a Clint Eastwood fan, which is pretty important when it comes to the enjoyment of this movie.

The plot is pretty simple. It’s basically about a racist Korean war vet who ends up befriending the foreign family next door. I did find it a bit strange how often he casually threw out racial slurs around them without them seeming to mind, but whatever I guess I can look past that. That’s probably not how it would go down in the real world but again, let’s forget about that. Overall, it’s a simple story that’s more about the characters than anything.

Thankfully the characters we follow are very interesting. Eastwood takes a character who should be pretty unlikable, and manages to make him both compelling and oddly sympathetic. The young boy he befriends is also good and you do get quite caught up in the story and what is going to happen. I was pretty close to the edge of my seat during the final act because I really wanted to know how it was all going to turn out. That’s pretty rare so hats off to you Gran Torino.

Something else I liked about this movie (maybe liked isn’t the right word, respected maybe) is that they do a really good job of making the viewer hate the villains. Usually the villain is either more interesting than the hero (Dark Knight), or just there for plot sake with no real emotional attachment to the viewer on any level (most every other action movie). It’s not often a movie comes along where you just want the bad guys to be fucking murdered. This is one of those times.

I guess I don’t really have anymore to say. It’s a really good movie with great acting, characters and a well told story. I don’t know if it will be a huge Oscar player but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it got at least a few nominations. I think it deserves them.

****/5