Reel To Reel: Gran Torino

Go ahead, make me care about your racist tush.

How It Rates: ****
Starring: Clint Eastwood
Rated: R
Red Flags: Graphic Gang Language and Profanities, Strong Violence

Gran Torino is not a Dirty Harry movie, yet it answers the question of what happened when Dirty Harry retired. Perhaps he became a bitter old man like Walter Kowalski, Clint Eastwood's snarling bigot carrying the baggage of his Korean War service while surrounded by Asian neighbors in a run-down Detroit neighborhood.

Mr. Kowalski -- don't call him "Walt" -- has just lost his wife, leaving him with little to do except guzzle beer, mow the lawn, and wash his prized Ford Gran Torino -- yes, the same model of car from Starsky & Hutch. Walter used to build them when he worked at Ford. Now he complains about his son owning a "rice burner" and his granddaughter wanting to get her mitts on the car. Any attempts to rescue him from his lone-wolf lifestyle are dismissed with a caustically profane retort that could have come from Dirty Harry's mouth. But even Harry didn't have a mouth as dirty as Walter, who casually drops every ethnic slur I've ever heard except the n-word.

Somewhere in that grizzled body, though, lies a heart. He ends up defending Thao (Bee Vang) and Sue (Ahney Her), Hmong teenagers living next store who are struggling with the neighborhood gangbangers. At first, Walter's concerned for his yardwork. But when he is invited next door during a family get-together, he finds common threads.

Thao is an introverted, laconic boy who isn't manning up like his family wishes. The gangbangers entice him into stealing the old man's hot ride, but he blows it, and Thao's family forces him to work for Walter to make amends. Walter decides to mentor Thao and help him get a job. Here's where the film takes off as a gritty variant on the father-son relationship fable, as Walter's foul-mouthed life lessons take root. We watch as Thao learns to talk like a bigot to fit in with Detroit's politically incorrect white folks. It's a priceless bit of black comedy.

The gangbangers don't give up easily. They keep coming back to torment both Walter and his Thao's family, leading to the inevitable showdown where the old man must also confront his past.

This is Clint Eastwood's best acting and directing job since Million Dollar Baby, but beyond Dirty Harry, I remember how much I loved his performance in Unforgiven, which shares similar themes of guilt and redemption. That film won Eastwood Oscars for Best Actor and Best Picture. He has every reason to repeat here. Walter is a rotten geezer, but we root for him as we come to understand and identify with him. The film absorbs us into his perspective, and although we cringe at his racism, we find some old-school wisdom. He's out for himself, but he has a clearly defined sense of justice.

In one memorable scene, Walter and his garbage mouth save Sue from some thugs who have filthy, jaw-dropping disrespect for women. People who know me know I have very low tolerance for those who show discourtesy and boorishness to the ladies. Walter Kowalski, you just went ahead and made my day.