REEL CRITIC:

The “golden age” of Hollywood produced many iconic actors, actresses, directors and producers. Many of these actors and filmmakers are still remembered today due to the many classic films made during this period between the late 1920s and the late 1950s. With the demise of the studio system and their star-making apparatuses, it is virtually impossible for a modern actor or filmmaker to achieve such status.

Perhaps the lone Hollywood figure that can be reasonably considered to have scaled such heights is Clint Eastwood. Now 78, the actor/director/producer/musician has matured like fine wine. From an inauspicious uncredited screen appearance in 1955’s “Revenge of the Creature,” Eastwood’s improbable journey to Oscar-winning director is more improbable than most movie plots.

Eastwood makes a rare screen appearance, and perhaps his last, in his new film “Gran Torino” which he also directs and produces. Appearing in his first acting role since “Million Dollar Baby” in 2004, Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, an aging retired auto worker whose wife has just passed away. Living in a working class neighborhood in Michigan, Walt busies himself by performing household chores, drinking beer on his front porch, and polishing his beloved 1972 Ford Gran Torino, a vehicle he personally helped assemble.

Walt has two sons but barely talks to them. They drive foreign cars and have produced slovenly disrespectful children. Their attempts to convince him to move to a retirement community do nothing but enrage him. The death of Walt’s wife removes the common bond that tenuously held them together.

Walt’s neighborhood has slowly deteriorated as his generation of white blue collar families have moved away. They have been replaced by Hmong families much to the consternation of the bigoted Walt. Muttering racial epithets under his breath, Walt keeps to himself and whiles away his time. Occasionally he is visited by the well-intentioned Father Janovich (Christopher Carley), a very young priest who promised Walt’s wife he would persuade the lapsed Catholic to go to confession. Despite Walt’s rude dismissals, Father Janovich persists in his attempt to bring the old man the peace that has eluded him since his decorated service in the Korean War.

Walt’s isolation ends when his young neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) is pressured by a local Hmong gang to steal his Gran Torino. Walt confronts Thao with his rifle and only an accidental fall in the garage saves the thief from being shot. When the gang returns to confront Thao, Walt intervenes and becomes a neighborhood hero. Neighbors constantly bring Walt food and flowers in tribute.

Thao’s sister Sue (Ahney Her) befriends Walt and insists her younger brother perform whatever work the elderly man wishes as penance for his attempted crime. Reluctant to accept the offer initially, Walt comes to realize Thao is actually a decent young man whose future is jeopardized by the pressure to join a gang. Walt acts as protector for the family but the gang’s escalating violence provokes a final confrontation.

The trailers for Gran Torino may suggest Eastwood’s character is a geriatric version of Dirty Harry. This is far from the truth. While Walt is as racist as Archie Bunker and has Harry Callahan’s trademark sneer, this is a very nuanced and complex character that requires Eastwood to give probably the best acting performance of his long career.

Walt Kowalski and his 1972 Gran Torino represent a generation and a nation that has changed forever.

Walt’s all white post WWII universe has been replaced by an ethnically and culturally diverse society just as his beloved Gran Torino has become a faded footnote in an industry controlled by foreign automakers.

Both have lost their place in the world and are quickly fading away. Walt’s relationship with his Hmong neighbors gives him new purpose and ultimately his old fashioned sense of honor and duty are truly put to the test.

“Gran Torino” would be worth seeing if only for the novelty of being the final role for one of the most significant figures in American cinema history. However, “Gran Torino” is much more than that.

A thought-provoking film with a great performance by Eastwood, the picture stands on its own merit even among the other strong films in current release.

VAN NOVACK is the assistant vice president of institutional research and assessment at Cal State Long Beach and lives in Huntington Beach with his wife, Elizabeth.