Soon on DVD and Blu Ray: Gran Torino

This is a film that I saw alone when I was waiting for my car to be repaired, and strangely enough its a film centered around a car. Well, in reality its centered around the friction, and eventual friendship between Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) and Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang). Kowalski is a Korean War veteran, whose family views him as a nuisance, and who has recently lost his wife. In essence, he is a man who is perfectly willing to spend the final days of his life completely alone. When a local gang attempts to steal his car, a beautiful green 1972 Gran Torino Sport, he only manages to catch one of them. This one was in fact, a boy named Thao, Kowalski's newest neighbor.

Thao's family demands that he compensates Kowalski in some way, and so begins the interaction between the two. Thao does housework and chores, all the while disgusting his new employer, who has prejudices against the boy as he does all Asians, having been traumatized during his war experience. The two people are of differing age, race, national origin, culture, and worldview, but a crisis in the films central a demands that these differences be re-examined by both.

Performances are impressive across the board, including Christopher Carley as a young Catholic priest who will stop at nothing until Kowalski bring his own hardships and his dwindling faith to terms with each other. Ahney Her plays Thao's sister, Sue, whose friendly and boisterous nature serves as the bridge which eventually unites her brother with Kowalski. Most of all, however, Eastwood delivers the performance of a lifetime. His character is as complex and gritty as any other he has ever brought to the silver screen, and it is an absolute embarrassment to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts that he was not even nominated for his acting or directing here. Just one more casualty for 2008's awards, having been snubbed along with other major releases for independent films for the sake of pretension alone.

"Get off my lawn..." one of the film's more memorable lines

This fantastic film serves as a lesson which spans the generations. Prejudice may serve as a barrier to prevent uncomfortable confrontation between those of different backgrounds, but that barrier also serves to obstruct the unity which is sometimes necessary during hard times. It is the responsibility of older generations to teach this lesson to their children and grandchildren, so that their descendants do not repeat the same mistakes which plagued their own lives.

The film will be released on both DVD and Blu-Ray on June 9, 2009.