Grandiose Gran Torino

This weekend, I saw Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, Gran Torino. This is an immense movie that clearly shows how Eastwood’s vision is continuously sharpening with time and not getting duller with age. The representation given by this movie of the mechanisms at work within the American society is flawless and the issues of immigration, racism, violence, and adolescence are treated with an intensity I rarely saw. The most unlikely Christic figure of Eastwood himself and his raw catholicism are central to the plot and they sound to me like an American rendering of Graham Greene’s atmosphere. The two young Hmongs are equally impressive in their acting, addressing the complex messages of cultural barriers and universal adolescent angst. The way the young girl very progressively thaws both the ice wall Eastwood has built over the years and his connected racism is completely convincing. Again, this is for me an immense movie, confirming the art of Eastwood.