Let's talk about the Gran Torino, the classic car in the film. If you go to Baidu, you will find that you can't find much information about this Ford 1972 Gran Torino. She is not a famous car, nor a luxury car, and it is not worth much money. She is not a prominent birthplace. She was originally positioned as an ordinary family car, but it proved to be unpopular in the family car market, especially in the era when Toyota entered the American market and became a big success. He finally returned to a sporty car with a strong American style. It was unwinnable, uneconomical, not exquisite and delicate, but with enough natural American style. So he won his own success, at least beginning to have fans who know how to appreciate his stability. There is a saying in the industry that in the world of car spirit, car culture and even car taste, the best thing in the United States is the Ford Mustang rather than others. Perhaps Gran Torino and Ford Mustang are similar in this regard, Gran Torino said. A return and inheritance of the American spirit.
So far, what I want to say is that "Gran Torino" is not a heroic movie, nor does it have anything to do with the post-war personnel's life arrangement and spiritual reflection, nor is it a modern interpretation of a western movie, although these elements are in the movie. Can be easily found. "Gran Torino" is a film about American spiritual heritage and its inheritance. Eastwood uses Gran Torino as the title and Gran Torino as important clues and props. In fact, he has been revealing this issue all the time. The old man in the film is exploring a kind of inheritance, a kind of old-fashioned inheritance, but with the disappointment of his eldest son, the disappointment of his grandchildren, and the disappointment of the young people in the entire block, the old man can only be with his old friends. Find the remnants of the good times that have gone away in the barbershop. The United States in that impression is getting farther and farther away from the old man. This feeling makes the old man unable to calm down, just as the old man complained to the eldest son who hurriedly left after the funeral in a Toyota car, "Buy an American car. Will TMD die?"
The main background and driving clues of the film seem to be that the old man has a bad post-war mentality, it is difficult to calm down, and it is difficult to enjoy a real happy life in his old age. We will take it for granted that this story is like many films present, the protagonist encounters innocent hands on the battlefield, but slaughter the weak situation? Or is there a story of sacrifice and entrustment with your comrades? And these things have caused the protagonist to still be unable to let go of, and unable to live a peaceful life? But after careful taste, "Gran Torino" is not such a film. Although the film begins with a funeral, although the young priest in the film has been asking the old man to go to church to confess to relieve the psychological trauma caused by the war, if you are careful, you will find that the old man has no psychological problems in this regard. For example, some of the words of the old man expelling the hooligans, "Sometimes, have you ever thought that you will provoke someone you shouldn't provoke?", "In North Korea, I sized the bodies of guys like you to five feet tall!" , Such a remark does not seem to be said by a person who is trapped in the blood of innocent people with his hands. For another example, the old man hates the people of the East very much, and he still stubbornly calls them "pig heads" and "ditch rats". If he had shot and killed innocent Orientals, would the old man look at the East with such fierceness. Man-made ants and rats?
We might as well see directly from the film why the old man is not happy, and why he is gradually calming down. In the film, the old man's grievance is that his children and grandchildren are not like old-school Americans. The eldest son is a Toyota salesman. He completely ignores his father's decades of work at Ford. He not only gives up American cars and drives Toyota cars. He has become glib, good at catering, and has no American temperament. Those grandchildren are also selfish, weak, poorly educated and less polite. Even the children in the neighborhood of their residence are all gangsters. Seeing the old man The thing that fell, actually jumped over and walked away without stopping to help. The old man adhering to the old-school American cultural tradition asked disappointedly, "What's wrong with the children today?"; in contrast, When he saw Tao going to help the elderly, when he heard Ann explain that they came to the United States by reality rather than actively invading, when he heard Tao entering the barber shop for the second time, he slammed his old friend. When the American men spoke harshly, when Tao followed him to learn the skills of American men repairing the house, the old man gradually calmed down and felt relieved. This actually tells us that the film has nothing to do with post-war healing, only a kind of relationship between father and son. Skill inheritance, spiritual inheritance, an American style of life, the inheritance of spiritual temperament among men. In his American son, the old man saw the sleek catering like a Japanese car, and in a childish and a little bit of an oriental face, the old man gradually saw the traditional old-school American manpower, which really made the old man happy. , Happy and gradually feel calm. Where is the real turning point of the film? Is it the old man who died calmly at last? In fact, it is not. It is a climax and an end. If that is a turning point, this movie can be regarded as a modern or old version of a western hero, an American hero theme. The real turning point of the film is the old man’s neighbor’s yard. During the afternoon barbecue, the old man chatted with Tao and Ann and Youya, because he accidentally learned that Tao took the initiative to ask the girl Youya to eat and watch the movie as he expected. The old man was overjoyed and offered to take his life’s beloved thing, Gran in 1972 Torino lent Tao. You know, this is a privilege that the old man's dead friends do not enjoy. You must know that the old man is not willing to drive this car on weekdays, but because the old man feels the inheritance of an American spirit, the old man can be completely calm and relieved. I particularly understand this feeling, because only at this moment, the pain and trauma experienced by the old man in the war will truly be rewarded and meaningful. Born to death, what is the bloody battle for? It's not just three meals a day, worry-free food and clothing, but for a spirit and temperament, representing the free and independent American spirit and temperament. At that moment, the old man did not look at Tao, but looked at his car affectionately, "Yes, I mean let you drive my Gran Torino". This is undoubtedly the real core of the film.
If you can still remember the old man's expression when he mentioned Tao stealing the car, you will understand it better. If you care about Tao stealing his classic car, his emotions should be similar to "you actually want to steal my car." But in fact, the emotion he really expresses is almost all contempt, you? Steal my Gran Torino? Are you worthy? You bastard, do you know what Gran Torino is? Are you the American man who deserves to own Gran Torino?
This just created the most dramatic and thought-provoking scene of the film. The tall and sturdy son did not take over the baton of Gran Torino, which symbolizes American culture, from his own hands, but the Eastern face boy Tao Cheng who he usually hates. A mantle.
Another branch line in the film can also verify this point of view. The young priest always persuades the old man to go to church to confess, and always persuade him with his mouthful of "life" and "death". The old man doesn't catch a cold very much. This 27-year-old virgin knows a fart. Has he experienced "life" and "death"? What he has is nothing more than a book theory. But after some conversation, the priest still told the old man, "Maybe you have experienced too many deaths, but for the new life, you don't have much experience." The old man was indeed speechless for a while, he wanted to say that I came back from the battlefield and established a family is a new life. But he suddenly couldn't continue, because he suddenly thought of his son, grandson and granddaughter who didn't give him a long face. The old man suddenly felt the same way. I have experienced so many "deaths" and I have paid so many sacrifices, but where is the "new life". Until the young Tao has his own shadow, the old man can calmly say, now you can drive my Gran Torino, now you can tell others that you are my friend, until the end, the old man said, leave the murder to I, you have other things to do. The old man chose the person who inherited the American spirit in him, although that was not the American but the Eastern face he once hated.
Everything in the back is sentimental, but it's a matter of course. Gradually calmly accept that the priest calls himself Watt instead of Mr. Kovasky, calmly prepares the suit, calmly confession, calmly smokes in the bathtub for the first time and apologizes to the dog. What we can't see is peace. He made a will and left the house to the church, leaving Gran Torino, whom he loved all his life, to Tao. Then the old man walked to the house of the gangsters and taught Tao the last lesson in the way of his own man, about the American spirit and heroic feelings. , The last lesson about going from boy to man. The moment the old man fell on the lawn peacefully, I believe that all boys would cry. This is a nostalgia for the blurred back of his father who is gradually disappearing in my sight and memory. It is also a rite of passage that begins with tears and ends with tears. . I personally liked the last shot very much. When Tao accepted everything from the old man, when Gran Torino was driving on the seaside promenade in the afterglow of the setting sun, the old man’s dog was next to him, not the girl Yua that Tao liked, and the car moved forward. What I recalled in my mind was the old man’s last words in the will: "You can't spray the roof of the car with a pattern of flames, and you can't install him with a naive and funny tail.... If you agree, my Gran Torino is yours... …"
Again, this is not Eastwood's best movie, but this is the ending movie that suits him best. There is nothing more representative of Eastwood and the American men of that era than Gran Torino. pay tribute.
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