Clint Eastwood directs and stars in the drama “Gran Torino,” marking his first film role since his Oscar-winning film “Million Dollar Baby.” Eastwood portrays Walt Kowalski, an iron-willed and inflexible Korean War veteran living in a changing world, who is forced by his immigrant neighbors to confront his own long-held prejudices.
Retired auto worker Walt Kowalski fills his days with home repair, beer and monthly trips to the barber. Though his late wife’s final wish was for him to take confession, for Walt-an embittered veteran of the Korean War who keeps his M-1 rifle cleaned and ready-there’s nothing to confess. And no one he trusts enough to confess to other than his dog, Daisy.
The people he once called his neighbors have all moved or passed away, replaced by Hmong immigrants, from Southeast Asia, he despises. Resentful of virtually everything he sees-the drooping eaves, overgrown lawns and the foreign faces surrounding him; the aimless gangs of Hmong, Latino and African American teenagers who all think the neighborhood belongs to them; the callow strangers his children have grown up to be-Walt is just waiting out the rest of his life. Until the night someone tries to steal his `72 Gran Torino. Still gleaming as it did the day Walt himself helped roll it off the assembly line decades ago, the Gran Torino brings his shy teenaged neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) into his life when Hmong gangbangers pressure the boy into trying to steal it.
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Gran Torino
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Cory Hardrict, Brian Haley, Brian Howe, Dreama Walker, Christopher Carley
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Screenplay by: Nick Schenk
Release Date: January 16, 2009
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, and some violence.
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $145,304,147 (70.5%)
Foreign: $60,900,000 (29.5%)
Total: $206,204,147 (Worldwide)