Clint Eastwood fans have reason to rejoice with his latest film, "Gran Torino" set to be released on DVD June 9. If you can't wait that long to see the consummate actor/director, find a copy of "Unforgiven" and rediscover the Western.

Gran Torino

(R, Avail. 6/9)

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a solitary man, a man who seems only to derive pleasure from working on a car or repairing a leaky drainpipe. He's a man's man in a world that seems increasingly foreign to him.

After the death of his wife, Walt tries to press on, but his adult children avoid him and as an unabashed racist, his status as the lone white person in the neighborhood only makes things tougher on him.

Walt's prized possession is his Gran Torino, a vehicle his spoiled teenage granddaughter callously suggests should be hers once he has passed. He is not about to leave the car to her, nor to anyone. Certainly not to a teenaged thief named Thao (newcomer Bee Vang) who escapes with his life when Walt catches the young man during his gang initiation.

Shortly after this however, Walt saves Thao from possibly being killed by the same gang. "Get off my lawwwn," he growls. Slowly and reluctantly, Walt grows close to the boy's family, especially his sister, Sue (Ahney Her, another newcomer). She understands Walt more than any other character in the film, and he becomes a kind of uncle to the girl. As tensions rise between the family and the gang, Walt has to become something more.

Directed by Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk, "Gran Torino" is really a tremendous surprise. Not as bleak as the majority of Eastwood's recent efforts, but certainly no less powerful, the film boasts a surprisingly wicked sense of humor.

Walt's attempts to make Thao a man are often very funny, especially their trip to the barber (John Carrol Lynch, "Fargo," "Zodiac"), with whom Walt shares what many would consider to be a highly offensive sense of humor.

It is to Eastwood and Schenk's credit that Walt is so likeable. It takes a certain fearlessness to not try to make a character like Walt into a despicable man. He's deeply flawed, to be sure, but we come to understand and love the man, thanks to Eastwood's incredible performance, maybe the finest of his career.

"Gran Torino" is a very powerful examination of a man who stands alone and ultimately stands up for what is right. It's also Eastwood the director's most enjoyable film in some time. It's not "Unforgiven," but it is not to be missed. 9/10.

Cinematic Classic

Speaking of "Unforgiven," Clint Eastwood's last word in Westerns stands tall as not only a great genre film, but as a masterpiece by any definition.

In 1992, with the Western long considered dead (with the recent exception of "Dances With Wolves"), Eastwood directed and starred in a script David Webb Peoples ("Blade Runner") had written some fifteen years earlier.

William Munny (Eastwood), like "Gran Torino's" Walt, is a widower. Left to raise his two young children, William is a broken man, struggling as a farmer while attempting to leave behind his cold-blooded past. When encountered by a young man calling himself The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) however, William wonders if he can ever really leave his past behind.

A bounty has been offered by a group of prostitutes, one of whom had her face cut to pieces. William enlists his old partner in crime, Ned (Morgan Freeman), to join him and the Kid on their trip to the town of Big Whiskey, which is presided over by crooked law man "Little" Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman).

Bill is not taking kindly to those who have come to town to try to claim the reward. He makes an example of professional assassin English Bob (Richard Harris) to show the citizens of Big Whiskey just what will happen if someone tries to shoot someone else in his town. But William Munny is not English Bob, whether William remembers that or not.

"Unforgiven" is as close to perfect as a film can get. Peoples' old fashioned dialogue and fully realized characters are served wonderfully by Eastwood's assured and pitch-perfect direction. His performance as Munny is terrific. At the film's beginning, he is a thoroughly broken man, barely able to mount a horse. As "Unforgiven" progresses, however, we see a man remembering and embracing his true nature.

Each performance is outstanding, particularly Hackman's Oscar-winning work as Bill, who's every bit as developed and every bit as intriguing as Munny. He is not a good man, nor is he evil. There is no point in trying to describe Bill. Hackman's performance must simply be witnessed and digested.

This is one of the great films of the 1990s or any decade and the last twenty minutes add up to one of the finest endings in cinematic history. Whether you're a fan of Westerns or not, "Unforgiven" is a modern day classic worth checking out again on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Little Bill Daggett: You'd be William Munny out of Missouri. Killer of women and children.

Will Munny: That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill...

Coming to DVD & Blu-Ray

June 9

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