Clint Eastwood has done it again, a superb character study.

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2009)

In the 1970s Ford made a car model called the Gran Torino. The main character in this movie is Walt who, after serving in the Korean War in the 1950s worked for Ford in Detroit. In 1972 he was on the assembly line, and actually installed the steering column of the Gran Torino which resides in his detached garage and workshop in the rear of his modest home, still pristine and Walt's pride and joy.
Clint Eastwood directed and stars as Walt Kowalski, and as the movie opens we are in the local Catholic church at the funeral for his long-time wife and partner. He sneers at the behavior of some of the younger in attendance, and in fact Walt sneers a lot. He sneers at the "rice burner" car one of his sons drives. He sneers at the Asian families in his neighborhood. He seems to just want to be left alone.
The parish priest is Christopher Carley as Father Janovich, who informs Walt that on her deathbed he promised Walt's wife that he would look after him. Particularly she asked that he go to confession. Walt sneered at the priest and told him he didn't want to have any part of that, he only went to church to keep his wife happy.
So that sets up Walt's character, by all indications he has no close ties with anyone now that his wife died, not even his two sons and the grandkids. He sits on his porch, drinks lots of beer, and his usual meal is beef jerky.
But somehow he takes pity on the shy Asian teenager next door, and in Walt's own way berates him into being more outgoing and to assert himself. Bee Vang, in his first movie role, is Thao. When Thao is forced by his older and larger "cousin" to accompany his gang, they tell him he must steal the Gran Torino to show he is worthy. But Walt catches him, and almost shoots him. The family requires that Thao make amends so he is given to Walt for a week or two to work for him. Walt puts him to good use cleaning up the neighborhood, fixing things in disrepair, and in the process teaches Thao some skills, which leads to a job. Walt sees value is trying to save this kid from the Asian gang.
Thao's slightly older sister is Ahney Her as Sue, also in her first movie. She is the opposite of her brother, assertive, but this gets her into trouble with the gang members who want her to submit.
The story is the transition of Walt from a grizzled, indifferent war veteran to one that has a purpose in life. He sees that these two nice, intelligent teenagers will not have a chance to develop their lives with the gang influence around, so he must help figure something out.
SPOILERS: Walt even in his old age is strong and wily, and knows his way with guns and battle. But he has another struggle, lung cancer. He occasionally coughs and spits up blood but doesn't tell others the whole story. Faced with a hospitalization to try to cure him, he instead decides to protect the youngsters. The gang has to be caught in the act, with witnesses, to get them off the streets and into prison. So he shows up at their house one night and, reaching for his lighter, they all shoot, killing Walt. He was unarmed. He gave his life to save these kids, partly in reparation for his having killed any number of young Koreans in the 1950s. In his will, he gave the Gran Torino to Thao, with the provision that he wouldn't paint it or alter it to look like the abominations that many of the younger crowd were doing to their cars.