Walt Kowalski is not a people person and he doesn’t like having Hmong people around his neighborhood. One night Walt catches a Hmong kid trying to steal his Gran Torino car. His name is Thao and the reason he was trying to steal Walt’s Gran Torino was because his cousin told him to do it. His cousin is apart of a dangerous gang and they show up at Thao’s house to take him with them. The family tries to stop them. They get on Walt’s lawn and he scares the gang off by pointing a gun at them and threatening to kill them. Thao’s sister, Sue, runs into some trouble with these boys who won’t leave her alone. Walt shows up and saves her. Sue and her mother have Thao do chores for Walt as an apology for trying to steal his car. Walt doesn’t want his help, but it’s one of the Hmong’s rules. The more time Thao spends with Walt, they begin to bond and Walt becomes a role model to Thao.
Blaine: When Clint Eastwood read the script for “Gran Torino", he thought the story was bizarre, but also fresh and new. “Gran Torino” was also a great way for Clint to give a lesson on Hmong people because he knows a lot about them and every time he would talk to someone about them they didn’t know a thing. Clint hadn’t acted in movies since “Million Dollar Baby” because he enjoyed directing more. The only thing that would get Clint Eastwood back into acting is a character he felt suitable for. Clint felt that the character, Walt Kowaiski, was written for him because he has some similarities to other character’s he has played in the past like Dirty Harry. Screenwriter Nick Schenk never had Clint in mind when he wrote the part. Nick had based Walt Kowaiski on people he knew growing up. Before Nick achieved a career in screenwriting he worked at constructions and trades and he met a lot of guys who were like Walt. Nick felt that Walt would be a scary role for an actor to take on while developing the script, but Clint Eastwood knew he could handle this character easily. Clint added stuff to his performance that wasn’t written in the script.
Walt is kind of a racist at first, but that all changes the more time he spends with his neighbors and they get to know each other more. He becomes closer to them than his own family. A lot of Nick Schenk’s friends were telling him not to write the script for “Gran Torino” when the idea first came to him because it involved a race that people hardly know about and it sounded racist, but Nick chose to ignore that. Nick spent a lot of time with Hmong people at a factory he used work at. He learned everything there was to know about their culture and he felt there should be a movie about them because it all sounded interesting to him. It surprised a lot of Hmong people that Clint Eastwood was going to make a movie about their culture. It was also exciting because a lot of them are big fans of Clint and his work. “Gran Torino” became the first movie to show the Hmong culture. The Hmong people were very nervous to be working with Clint Eastwood the first time they met him because he’s a legend. Clint made sure that everyone felt comfortable as he was directing them. The Hmong people didn’t have to act because “Gran Torino” is about getting to know them. They just had to be themselves.
Of course the Hmong people who played main characters in the movie did have to act and it wasn’t easy to find them because there’s not a lot of Hmong actors out there. Clint wanted real Hmong people instead of having professional actors who could pretend they were Hmong. Clint Eastwood is all about making things in his movies real because that’s the type of director he is. Clint doesn’t care if he has stars in his movies, he likes to introduce new faces. Thao starts off as someone who can’t stand up for himself and is shy, but he’s a good boy. That all changes when he helps Walt with his yard work in order to make it up to him after trying to steal his Gran Torino. Walt helps Thao give himself a purpose in life by helping him get a job in construction. Walt also helps Thao become a man. The casting director thought that Bee Vang had a likable face and looked like a nice guy.
Walt pushes a lot of people away. Walt's son and daughter in law feel he needs to settle down and move into a retirement home because he works around the house too much, but Walt is not completely useless. Sue Lor is a lot of things. Sue treats Walt like a person, she takes a liking to him quickly, she’s not afraid to talk to him if he looks grumpy because she’s very friendly and she helps him come out of his shell. Sue is looking after her brother, Thao, and is trying to protect him from their dangerous cousin and his gang. She doesn’t want him to go down the wrong path. Sue knows that Walt is what’s best for Thao. Ahney Her was happy to know Clint Eastwood was going to make a movie about Hmong people, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get a part in the film. But lucky thing for her Clint wanted a lot of Hmong people to be in “Gran Torino” and Ahney Her was lucky enough to play Sue. Ahney just acted as herself during the audition.
A lot of actors wanted to play the priest, Father Janovich. Clint wanted someone who was like a young Pat O’Brien and the casting director knew there was someone who was right for it. She recalled seeing an audition tape of an actor named Christopher Carley. He looked like a priest to her and he looked like the type of person Clint had described. Clint thought he looked perfect. Father Janovich is another person who is not afraid to face Walt. Walt’s wife and Father Janovich were very close and before she died she asked him to look after Walt. Walt’s wife wanted him to confess for whatever sins he has so he could have a nice afterlife. Father Janovich is trying to get to know Walt more of who he is.
In the end, Walt gets rid of the gang by having them shoot bullets at him. They shot at Thao and Sue’s house and raped Sue. Walt was going to die anyway because he had some kind of disease. Walt is lucky that people were able to witness him being murdered, otherwise the gang wouldn’t have been arrested. Walt is gone, but he will always be remembered by Thao and Sue, but especially Thao because Walt made him a better person.
My rating on “Gran Torino” is five out of five stars
