A modern suburban Western

Rating: 9/10 (22 April 2013)

Although set in modern Detroit, this film is another great Western-style movie that Eastwood can add to his resume.
While some may find the racial slurs and stereotypes insulting, these add an element to Eastwood's hardened vigilante character. He plays a Korean War veteran named Walt Kowalski who is isolated from his family, has no close friends, dislikes his Hmong neighbors, and prefers to keep to himself. His dislike for his immigrant neighbors intensifies during the first part of the movie, but eventually Walt warms up to the Hmong neighbor kids, a teenage brother and sister.
Like any good Western, the film is set on the frontier--this time the urban frontier, where "the law" and "civilization" have little to no effect. Walt is one of the few remaining Americans in one of Detroit's once-"civilized" suburbs. Gangs have taken over the area, however, and Walt's neighborhood is now largely Hmong--a small, close-knit Asian ethnic group who are very private. The police have no control over the area, so it's up to the families to protect themselves from the rampant gang violence. At one point, Walt pulls out his old rifle from his service during the Korean War to chase the Hmong gang off his property and prevent them from kidnapping the teenage neighbor boy, Thao, and claiming the boy as one of their members. The local priest chides Walt for not calling the police, to which Walt has no reply.
The gang violence against the Hmong neighbors escalates to the point where the local Hmong gang terrorizes the neighbor family by shooting at their house and beating and raping the teenage sister. Again, the police are powerless to do anything about these crimes, so there is nothing to stop the gang from ruling the neighborhood through the use of violence.
At this point, Walt must step up to protect the teenage children. The only way to do so is to make sure the gang "goes away for good." He formulates a plan to go over to the house where the gang members live, seemingly to kill them all in vengeance; he spends the day cleaning his gun, getting a military-style shave, buying a new custom-fitted suit, and going to confession--all things he has either never done or has not done in decades. At the showdown in front of the house--the classic saloon gunfight scene, except in a rundown suburb--Walt seemingly reaches for his gun as the entire house full of gang members cock their guns and open fire. It turns out Walt was merely reaching for his cigarette lighter and had actually come to the house unarmed.
In a twist on the classic Western plot, Walt--the Western hero--used the gang's violence against them. In going to their house unarmed and allowing the gang to shoot him in front of several witnesses, Walt ensured that the gang would go to jail "for a very long time," effectively protecting the teenage neighbors from further violent acts through his martyrdom. The "law" that had been absent throughout the movie up to this point ends up saving the day by putting the gang members away for good. Ultimately, without an effective legal justice system, Walt's martyrdom would have been useless.
Overall, the basic concept is that vigilante justice must come before the legal system can operate effectively. However, vigilante justice must yield before civilization and "the law" can arrive.