Monday, June 6, 2016

The Gospel According to Clint

While surfing the channels I happened upon one of my favorite movies, Gran Torino starring Clint Eastwood. He plays Walter Kowalski, a retired auto worker who lives in Detroit. He's foul-mouthed, close-minded, and prejudiced. The Hmong who have moved into his neighborhood annoy him to no end, especially when one of them, a teenage boy, tries to steal his beloved Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation.

Nevertheless, when the boy is made to work for Kowalski to restore the family honor, Kowalski eventually befriends him and his family. However, the family finds itself targeted by the Hmong gang. They attack the young man on his way home from work. They shoot up the family's home in a drive-by. They assault the family's older daughter.

Kowalski, a Korean War vet, is pushed to the breaking point. He decides to take matters into his own hands to protect this family and his neighborhood. After spending a day getting a shave and a haircut, being fitted for a suit, and going to confession, Kowalski puts his plan into action.

After sunset he confronts the gang at their house. Standing on their front lawn he calls the gang members out for their cowardice. From the house, they draw their weapons in order to intimidate Kowalski. But it won't work.

You see, Kowalski has nothing to lose. He is dying of lung cancer and he knows it. Still, he wants his death to matter. With the gang's guns pointed at him, he reaches inside his jacket, as if to draw his own weapon. When he quickly jerks his hand out of his jacket the gangbangers open fire. Kowalski is cut down in a hail of bullets. In full view of the neighbors. All of whom will testify.

And here's the Gospel "money shot." As Kowalski falls backward, his arms outstretch. A close-up of his right hand reveals that he had reached not for a weapon but for his cigarette lighter. A trickle of blood flows from under his jacket's cuff down his wrist into the palm of his hand. Then the camera draws back to show him lying on the ground ... in the shape of a cross.

Walter Kowalski has given his life to rescue his neighbors from the threat of evil.

Sound like anybody else you've heard of?


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