Gran Torino (2008/Warner Blu-ray + DVD)

 

Picture: B/C+     Sound: B/B-     Extras: C+     Film: B

 

 

Though he is not giving up directing anytime soon, it is a shame to see Clint Eastwood going into retirement as an actor.  Four years after his triumph in Million Dollar Baby, he is back as the ever-annoyed and now widowed Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino, which he also directs.  A comedy with an edge that slowly drifts into a drama,  Walt is unhappy with his life, the loss of his wife to an illness has devastated him (whether he’ll admit it or not) and he sees just about everyone around him as an idiot.  He is also unhappy with minorities and that his once-thriving neighborhood where he has lived all his adult life has become a ghetto.

 

Besides being sick of his immediate family and adult children who don’t do much for him, their children are waiting for him to die so they can split up his personal belongings and does not like his Southeast Asian neighbors much either.  A brother and sister next door try to stay to of trouble, but a cousin in a street gang tries to bully the young man into trouble and that includes stealing.  Walt could care less, but is at the ready with his rifle if they even cross over onto his yard.  However, he’ll discover he cannot stay out of conflict for long and when they try to take his precious car (of the film’s title), they have gone too far.

 

Performances are fine throughout, but Eastwood steals the show as the last of a line of old-style patriots who are a bit racist in the least and after fighting in Korea, wonders what has happened to his country.  The Dave Johannson/Nick Schenk screenplay is a gem, very smart, knowing, bold, daring and with subtle points you might miss upon your first screening.  Whether this will be Eastwood’s last-ever performance or not is yet to be seen, but if it is, he is going out on top and Gran Torino is classic Eastwood all the way.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in real anamorphic Panavision and though there are some soft edges and style choices that hold it back, the transfer is rich in a way it might not otherwise be.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD proves this by having real trouble capturing said richness, but with weaker Video Black.  The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on both formats simply because it is not as rich or warm.  This film is often dialogue and some music, but sounds fuller in TrueHD in a way regular Dolby cannot cut.

 

Extras on both versions include Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices, two making-of featurettes, one called Manning The Wheel about manhood and the car culture and Gran Torino: More Than A Car with a visit to Detroit.  The Blu-ray adds BD-Live capacities that include The Eastwood Way about the way he makes his films.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo