Blu-Ray Review: Beloved ‘Gran Torino’ Gets HD Treatment

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

CHICAGO – Is it coincidental that Clint Eastwood’s beloved and uber-manly “Gran Torino” is hitting Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for shoppers looking for a great Father’s Day gift? Of course not. No one knows marketing like Warner Brothers and the well-timed and transferred “Gran Torino” should satisfy many a proud pop this season.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

I’m a huge Clint Eastwood fan as an actor and director. “Mystic River”, “Million Dollar Baby”, “Unforgiven,” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” are some of the best films of the last twenty years. But he’s not perfect and when I saw “Gran Torino” in theaters, I thought it fell much closer to missteps like “Space Cowboys” and “Pink Cadillac” than his best.

Gran Torino was released on Blu-Ray on June 9th, 2009. Photo credit: WB

Watching it again on a very well-transferred Blu-Ray release and after months of near-glowing praise, I realize that I may have been a little hard on “Gran Torino”. I still think the two-dimensionality of Nick Schenk’s script and some dull filmmaking decisions keep it from standing anywhere near Clint’s best, but I see what people liked about it, especially those who read it as a commentary on all of Clint’s career.

The archetypal male that Clint played in so many Westerns and “Dirty Harry” movies has moved from the great plains to a small Detroit neighborhood. Walt Kowalski is a bitter, cranky, racist old man. (And all of you who wrote me regarding my theatrical review to claim that Walt isn’t racist need a reality check. Even the writer and producer of the film refer to him as such in the special features on “Gran Torino”.)

“Gran Torino” opens with the funeral of Walt’s wife and the revelation that this grumpy old man has grown increasingly distant from the rest of his family. A Hmong teenager next door named Thao (Bee Vang) tries and fails to steal the only thing that Walt still loves - his 1972 Gran Torino. Walt wants to be left along during his final days but he’s sucked into a gang war when he saves Thao from an altercation on his front lawn.

Gran Torino was released on Blu-Ray on June 9th, 2009. Photo credit: WB

Thao basically becomes a servant to Walt, who finds himself getting closer and closer to the immigrants he used to hate. Walt realizes he has one last sacrifice to make and perhaps the changing face of his neighborhood isn’t such a bad thing.

I still can’t get over Schenk’s paper-thin script, one that has not a single subtle moment. Does Walt really need to look at himself in the mirror and say, “I have more in common with these gooks than my spoiled rotten family” for audiences to get it? And “Gran Torino” is Eastwood’s least interesting film visually in years.

Having said that, watching it again with lowered expectations, I see more of what audiences liked about it in theaters. And LIKE they did. “Gran Torino” made an amazing $263 million worldwide and its domestic gross was nearly $50 million higher than any Eastwood film in history. It was a super-smash.

Gran Torino was released on Blu-Ray on June 9th, 2009. Photo credit: WB

Audiences who loved it in theaters will eagerly pick it up on Blu-Ray and DVD and they’ll find a relatively predictable package for the film. No one should expect a commentary track from Eastwood - he’s not that kind of a filmmaker - but a bit more behind-the-scenes material or examination of the film in light of Clint’s career might have been nice. The special features on “Gran Torino” total just over half an hour of material.

The transfer of “Gran Torino” is typical for Warner Brothers - above-average. The video is crisp and clean with no loss of detail but not an overly polished look and the audio track is what you’d expect.

Special features include the Blu-Ray exclusive “The Eastwood Way” which claims to “Explore the Actor/Director’s Filmmaking Process” but is really just a behind-the-scenes piece about the film specifically not Eastwood’s work overall. The other two special features - “Manning the Wheel” and “Gran Torino: More Than a Car” - are pretty standard stuff except the latter looks at the Woodward Dream Cruise, an annual car event in Detroit. Focusing on something not directly related to the film but to the car culture that inspired it is a good idea and I wish there was more of it than 4 minutes.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com