Bad MoPho | Real Stuff For Real Men

Bad MoPho Clint Eastwood

The pop-culture made the Ford Gran Torino a part of its history and here; it is a vintage 1972 model that shouts the glory days of its owner – an American patriot who’s also a widower and a retired automobile mechanic who served in the army. Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) delivers the punch with full gusto – through acting, direction and also as a producer. The Gran Torino is the one that he helped to manufacture and later, bought it off, only to keep it in shiny, pristine condition while choosing an old Ford pickup for his transportation needs. But that doesn’t stop him from ogling at other foreign automobiles and cracking ill humors to their disloyal owners.

The story starts with an aging Walt at his wife’s funeral enduring the snide preachments of a young priest. Walt is a racist but tolerates the priest only to show respect to his dead wife. He shows a similar air towards his own sons and grandchildren, to his neighbors – particularly to the Hmong family, whom he sees to be nothing different from the 13 Koreans he fought and bumped off.

But Walt is also a hater of everything that undermines decent values. This reflects from his behavior when he spares Thao (his teenaged neighbor) even after catching him attempting to steal his Gran Torino. A dangerous meeting, but it changes both their lives. Clint Eastwood didn’t act in this movie; he just laid a sumptuous banquet. Any other actor in this role would have been a complete failure. It’s not easy to portray one’s own self as a racist, a reactionary and a bigot at one hand and an owner of a heart-of-gold on the other. But that’s the most common thing when you are 78 years old; we have seen many-an-old-folk in real life to combine elderly mannerisms with cowboy menace. Add to this his legendary narrow-eyed gaze showing righteous loathing, a facial mark left by telescopic gun-sights and the curling of his lips for that silent snarl, they all gel perfectly with his soft growls. So how did the movie fare? As good as its hero, though the bumpy plot transitions could have been smoothened out keeping at par with Walt’s smooth transitions towards becoming a better person. However, the transformation – at best – is questionable.

Tags: clint eastwood, dirty harry, gran torino, movie

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Movies & Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.