“Gran Torino” is the second film this year from director/actor/producer Clint Eastwood. Earlier this year Eastwood helmed "The Changeling."  Both films show his growth as a producer and director.  Each is a strong personal story with rich appealing characters, capturing the period and environment in which their stories take place with great specificity.  You feel as if you are in the story, watching from the next room.  Though set in different time periods, both films exemplify the human struggle to live with change and loss.

I enjoyed “The Changeling,” a depression era saga of a working mother and her search for her young kidnapped son.  Despite the depressing subject, it was engrossing.  My affection for that film made me even more anxious to see his latest film and I was not disappointed. “Gran Torino” features Eastwood at his best, as an actor, producer and director.  He even throws in a Hogey Carmichael vocal performance over the credits.

Much of Eastwood’s work as a director is done before he even shoots a frame of film. His casting of amateur actors with seasoned, yet less familiar professionals, gives the viewer a heightened sense of reality.  The audience isn't distracted by the memory of the actor's previous roles.  If only reality television felt this real.  The seamless way he casts means less "acting" by everyone.  He can shoot more quickly, with fewer takes, because he's intentionally casting actors, professional or amateur, that are close in real life to his vision of the characters they play. In “Gran Torino,” as usual, his vision is right on.

Eastwood continues to evolve and improve as an actor.  Like great fine wine, the older he gets the better his performance.  His portrayal of retired and recently widowed autoworker, Walt Kowalski, shows a range of character development that was often missing from his younger iconic performances in roles as an archetypical leading man. The film is well worth seeing, but Eastwood’s performance makes it one of his best and the year’s best.

The title of the film is taken from Walt's attachment to a car he personally assembled and still maintains in his garage, a Ford Gran Torino.  Hardly a classic, it is consistent with the character of the man who built it.  If a car could represent the precision and quality of Eastwood’s work, it would more likely be a 1958 Gull Wing Mercedes Benz.

Eastwood, the director, is now among the best there ever was.  No doubt, he has become a master of his craft.  His body of work now puts him in the company of American greats like John Ford and John Huston.

Kowalski is an angry and guilt ridden Korean War Veteran living out the end of his life in the immaculately maintained house in which he raised his family.  His sons and their families have all moved on to white-collar careers and homes in the suburbs.  After his wife's death he is left alone in what's left of a rundown neighborhood, hearing languages he doesn't understand and seeing family values that are at best unfamiliar.

“Gran Torino” may disconnect with a younger audience because their politically correct upbringing will make it difficult to accept or relate to Eastwood’s colorful protagonist.  Younger viewers are more likely to reject Walt's prejudice and the antipathy he feels for the change he sees in his country's society and culture.  Middle-aged and older movie patrons hopefully will be more forgiving of Walt's failings, reluctantly accepting a life experience that more closely parallels their own.

Walt's war experience in the Korean civil car is juxtaposed against his neighbors' experience, whose families fought alongside the U.S. in the Vietnam civil war.  Walt's salty banter with his friend and barber Martin (John Carroll Lynch) doesn't excuse or absolve him of the anger and vitriol he directs at his Hmong neighbors.  Judging bad behavior by skin color or country of origin is repugnant to most.  In the context of the character's evolution and redemption it becomes, if not acceptable, understandable.

Nick Schenk and Dave Johannson have done a wonderful job with the story and the screenplay.  It is unusual that so much talent comes from such short experience.  This is a poignant story about real characters that are easy to care about.  It is a great compliment to Eastwood, the producer, that he consistently finds material of the highest quality on which to devote his impressive directorial talent.

“Gran Torino,” initially in limited release last month, is now in broad multiplex distribution. 

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