Anne and I went to a free screening of Clint Eastwood's latest movie Gran Torino yesterday. (It was free in that my sister and her partner had given us two movie passes!) What a movie!
Clint Eastwood is at his snarly best trying to live in his changed neighbourhood after the death of his wife but surrounded by people of other nationalities and small-time gangs.
Next door to him is a family of Hmong immigrants (from the Vietnam, Laos, Thailand area). Slowly these people break through his defences to the point where he acts, in a stunningly selfless act of redemption, to rid them of an element who will never allow them any freedom. The redemption theme is multifaceted in this movie. Eastwood's character, Walt Kowalski finds a way towards healing the scars from his Korean War experience, he begins to find his faith thanks to the persistence of the local Catholic priest who proves to be more than you might expect, and his neighbours who he considers his enemies prove to be closer than his family. The climatic redemptive act is for you to find out, but for me, it has the scent of the gospel all through it.
Eastwood at 78 is reported to have said that this will be his last role in front of the camera - I hope not, but maybe this movie is the redemption of Dirty Harry. Maybe it is also indicating a way forward for his own people as they look upon those they consider their enemies.
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