Gran Torino

Gran Torino is a movie about a Golden Lab named Daisy, and I wish I could sniff her because I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw her in Marley & Me (and kudos to the Labs’ union because they are tearing it up lately -- giving the German Shepherds a run for their money). Daisy runs into some trouble because of another pack-vs.-feral person storyline. In this case her person is the feral one, and frankly, pack or no pack, my sympathies were with him. He looks like the kind of guy who’d let you run around off-leash and then take you home and feed you meat. After doing some research I learned that this actor was mayor of Carmel, California, which is one of the most dog-friendly places I’ve been to. (This is off-topic, but I was walking down the street in Carmel once when an older German luxury car driven by an older woman pulled up next to me. The window rolled down and a dog stuck his nose out long enough to sniff at me. Then the window rolled up and the car drove away. I didn’t get to sniff the dog long enough to get a read on him, but I’d bet a treat or two that Doris Day was driving.) In any case, you know the rest: feral guy faces pack, scores Pyrrhic victory, roll credits… at which point you’ll notice that the dog star was once again left off them. When will this change? Still, I liked it. I want to go fetch a ball for the lead guy.