Clint Eastwood Really is That Great: Gran Turino Review

I have one major outrage about this film: Why in the hell wasn't  it nominated for Best Picture? Seriously, Slumdog Millionare? That movie was definitely not better than this great monumental film. Believe me, I was one of those people who thought the hype for Million Dollar Baby was ridiculous, but the unhype for Gran Turino is even more ridiculous.

I especially loved the way everything comes full circle, and not in a corny Crash sort of way, but in a very subtle and slightly heartbreaking sort of way. Walt(Clint) is a senior who has just lost his doting wife. He is a classic old school breed(much like his treasured car) and he truly doesn't mind telling people what he feels or thinks about them. This behavior, especially now that his sensoring wife is dead, leads him into quick trouble with his neighbors. He lives around a diverse neighborhood, but he would rather have it the old 1950's segregated way, and he is quick to use every stereotype in the book.

This sounds like a full in your face don't be racist movie, but it really isn't. Walt eventually learns a strange kind of tolerance and appreciation by helping his neighbors grandson, Thao, become a man so to speak. Walt learns that this Hmoung family is more appreciative of his racist yet helpful existence than his own children ever could dream of being.

I felt that Walt was sort of like a Zen student in need of some dire enlightenment. His honesty, although downright mean and cruel, is also somewhat refreshing because at least he is speaking what he believes to be the truth and isn't trying to hide behind political corectness. Not that anyone should or could speak the way he does to people, but he does know who he is.

The ending is so powerfully subtle and ingenius. I felt I learned far more from this movie than I ever could have learned from Crash because it didn't preach and perpetrate coincidence the way Crash did. I cannot say how much I recommend this movie enough, it is funny, enlightening, sad, humbling, and even a little beautiful at times.