Simply Excellent!! - Yet Another Eastwood Classic!!!

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2009)

Man, its just hard not to like Eastwood films!! Ever since Play Misty for Me, Clint's directorial projects have consistently been high-quality films.
This is probably my favorite Eastwood project - it is multi-layered, affectionate, surprising, and thoroughly engaging. It makes a pointed and very necessary statement on racial attitudes in the US today. Moreover, it is an equal-opportunity statement - eventually NO ONE escapes the wrath of Walter Kowalski.
Clint portrays an embittered war veteran whose racial attitudes strangely enough seem to come more from popular stereotypes ingrained in his head rather his own personal beliefs. For me, it seems he is more upset that time has wrought such dramatic changes in his life - he has not had the time or the inclination to catch up with those changes. He is also in a vulnerable place. He just lost his wife, his relationship with his sons leaves much to be desired, he has little patience with religious ideas(or so it seems) and he is not well at all for the new racial fabric of his neighborhood. He DID cherish his wife/marriage, his service to his country, and it appears his only current pleasure is his prized possession, his Gran Torino.
Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice it to say, that he eventually "modifies" his attitude through his involvement with an Asian family living next door.
The ending is indeed touching and heroic and quite frankly, beautiful. Strangely enough, however, it seemed disconcertingly like the conclusion of Dirty Harry rather than Walter Kowalski - this makes it all the more sadder yet infinitely more gratifying. Clint was just wonderful as Kowalski and the actors portraying Sue and Thao were equally impressive.
This one, I'm sure I'll watch over and over again. I hiiiiiiighly recommend.