GRAN TORINO IS A CLASSIC TRAGICOMEDY
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino focuses on interaction between Walt Kowalski (played by the director) and the Hmong community in Detroit. When the film begins, there is a funeral of Kowalski’s spouse presided over by youthful Father Jancovich (played by Christopher Carley). During the reception at Kowalski’s house, Kowalski accuses Jancovich of knowing nothing about life and death, but the latter continues to intrude on Kowalski to keep a promise to his recently deceased spouse. Kowalski is a Korean War vet with memories of horror that he cannot suppress, though he is evidently not afflicted by PTSD; instead, his gutter language seems to be a response to that trauma in his life. When a Hmong family moves in next door, Kowalski exhibits strong prejudice against them as “gooks.” However, when he stops members of a Hmong gang from intimidating members of the family, notably Thao Van Lor (played by Bee Vang), they win him over with kindness. To impress the gang, Thao later tries to steal Kowalski’s mint-condition 1972 Gran Torino, but he catches him in the act. His family soon insists that Thao should do penance consisting of two weeks of work for Kowalski. Lacking a father, especially an American one, Thao then finds that Kowalski serves as his role model, particularly in the hilarious scene where Thao learns how to “talk like a man.” Kowalski, meanwhile, enjoys receiving more respect than he gets from his own children, with whom he was never close during their upbringing. However, the principal conflict remains between the gang and Thao. The resolution of that conflict provides a surprise ending, more tragic than comedic but meriting a nomination for best film on the virtues of nonviolence of 2008. MH
THE READER DEMONSTRATES THE BANALITY OF EVIL AS WELL AS JUSTICE
Fifteen-year-old Michael Berg (played by heartthrob David Kross), suddenly afflicted by scarlet fever one day in 1958, is assisted home by thirty-six-year-old Hannah Schmitz (played by Kate Winslet), a collector of fares on a tram in Berlin (though much filming also takes place in other parts of Germany). After a three-month recuperation, Michael goes to her flat to thank her for her kindness and soon ends up in bed with her, a summertime affair in which he reads the great novels of literature to her before or sometimes after sex. Then one day she abruptly vacates the apartment with no forwarding address. The next time he sees her, in 1966, she is a defendant before a Berlin court on the charge of sending 300 prisoners to their deaths as an SS guard at Auschwitz. He is present at the trial on a field trip as a law student at the University of Heidelberg. In open court, she admits that she wrote reports identifying which prisoners to send to their death even though Michael knows that she is illiterate, but he is afraid to say so out of fear that the affair will come to light. Although sentenced to life imprisonment, in 1986 she is about to be paroled as a model prisoner when prison officials contact Michael (played as an adult by Ralph Fiennes), who has been sending her taped readings from novels, to implore him to assist in her transition to life outside of prison. To build emotional suspense, the scene shifts back and forth in time to highlight events in their lives, including Michael’s marriage, divorce, and efforts to be a good father. Based on the 1995 semibiographical novel Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink, currently Law Professor at Humboldt University, there is a tragic climax that will tug at the emotions of filmviewers, who are thereby implicitly urged to reconsider the meaning of justice, even as regards former Nazis, a theme that packs considerable poignancy in contemporary Germany. MH
CHE GETS INTO THE NITTY GRITTY IN CUBA & BOLIVIA
In Motorcycle Diaries (2004), director Walter Salles tracks the life of Ernesto Che Guevara from Argentina to Venezuela. Director Steven Soderberg’s current Che, which exceeds four hours in length, focuses on his time in Cuba and Bolivia, though press interviews and his speech to the UN in 1964 are featured as well, with Benicio Del Toro in the title role. Based on Che’s books on the subject, the film features wearying details on his efforts to promote revolution. Because cooperative Cubans are compared with turncoat Bolivians, serving as a kind of textbook on why some revolutions succeed, the Political Film Society has nominated Che as best film exposé of 2008. MH