Song Saturday~Gran Torino

Last night I took a look at Gran Torino and was greatly impressed, as I am with most of Clint Eastwood's projects. This particular movie however was so touching as it brought together both two different cultures and two different generations in one very old, grumpy, set in his ways man's story. Walter Kowalski, a crotchety old Pollack ( which made me warm and fuzzy immediately having a crotchety old Pollack in my own family) is almost magically touched by the Hmong family living next door and pulled into the idea that race does not have to be a barrier to humanity, decency and human kindness. This does not mean that Walter leaves behind all his prejudices, it seems he acts charitable in spite of them. Walter is also a deeply flawed man, which he readily acknowledges. He has baggage, and as a man of his era, being a Korean war vet, this is something he feels is natural to do. In his own words to do anything else would be acting like a "pussy". And perhaps he's right. Perhaps to wallow in our own grief and not push on through life is leading to the pussification of America. His strong ideas about manliness and right and wrong don't stop him from doing good in his small realm of influence. They don't stop him from noticing strength and potential in others even the "gooks" next door (his words, not mine) They don't stop him from becoming a positive male roll model to the young man who is sitting on the edge of being good and falling into the path of a gang. A particularly touching scene in the movie in my opinion is when he took the Hmong youth to the barber shop, the bastion of manliness to teach him how to "talk like a man" in America. I won't give too much away.
Many Critics have compared this movie to Eastwood's earlier films like The Unforgiven and The Man With No Name, I would add High Plains Drifter to that list. It has seemingly been a theme throughout Eastwood's career to point out that flawed people still have an opportunity to do good, and indeed they should.
Another point that I took away from this movie was the powerfulness of the older people in our midst. Young people seem to either see them as invisible or un-threatening. Eastwood in this movie tore that idea apart while acknowledging that it was his very "invisibleness" that provided an element of surprise to the "bad guys". We would do well to treat our experienced elders better and look to them for the wisdom they have. Their lives have not been sedate ones no matter their current circumstance. To ignore them is to both miss out on gems and to underestimate their ultimate influence.
All in all a very good movie, I highly recommend if you have not yet seen it. And with that I leave you with a song which Eastwood himself penned to go with the movie:Gran Torino