Gran Torino (2008)

Gran Torino (2008)

by Ben Alexander

“I'll blow a hole in your face then go inside and sleep like a baby.”

Gran Torino is the name of a muscle car put out by Ford between 1968-1976.  But a movie with the same name was made about the life of a man who mimicked the deep rumble of a Gran Torino.  His name was Walt Kowalski, an angry and embittered Korean War veteran who finished off the enemy with shovels.  Walt would grumble like his muscle car every time he saw one of those pretty boy cars drive by.  You know, the ones with obnoxious bass and rear spoilers for the whole world to see.  He grunted and spat while waxing his Torino at God, his decaying neighborhood, and his life.

Walt had just lost his wife.  He knew a lot about death.  He killed maybe 13 men in Korea, wounded more.  His sons were all but dead to him, and his neighbors, well, his neighbors he treated as good as dead.  In fact, Clint Eastwood, oops. I mean Walt Kowalski, was a monster.  He was a racist bigot.  When his Hmong (mung) next-door neighbor (God does have a sense of humor) tried to steal his beloved car he went straight out there with his M-1 Garand.  On another night, when a fight was brewing on his lawn he trumps out with his beloved monstrous weapon again threatening to shoot the gangsters not because they were harassing his neighbors, but because they were on his lawn. 

Walt knew violence and death, but he didn't know a lot about life.  The local Roman Catholic priest helps him to see this.  In fact, the priest preaches forgiveness to him, complete with an American flag waving in the background.  One might find himself surprised by how Christianity is treated in this film.

But make no mistake, this film is not your washed and tidy 4 points and the sinner's prayer movie.  It's about the gritty bitterness of a man who despite his mint condition Torino, is in need of a mouth washing and waxing himself.  And who does the Lord use to work on this crusty guy?  His Asian neighbors.  What an irony.  

Yep.  This Christian movie has irony.  And that's a nice change for Christian films.  Whoops. Did I say Christian?.... hhhmmm..  I'll let you decide. This movie is skilled in the craft of story.  Everybody knows Kowalski, everybody knows what he's got to do in the end, but like all good stories, the ending has a twist.  God's story is life as we know it, filled with lots of twists in the darkness.  God is skilled in the craft of story isn't He?  And most of our stories have the transformation of confession, the transformation of forgiveness in the middle of messy lives.  

And Walt Kowalski's life is a story of transformation.  But be ware, this transformation story is messy.  It ain't perfect.  It's a movie about sinners who act like them.  But who in the mess of life, are confronted with God's irony, God's sense of humor..the mess of forgiveness.