Gran Torino

Rating: 5/10 (1 April 2020)

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is recently widowed and hates the world. This curmudgeon does not get on well with his sons, one of them even sells Japanese cars. Walt is a former army veteran who fought in Korea and then worked for years in the Ford motor factory.
Walt's neighbourhood are full of foreigners. He is racist towards his Hmong neighbours who came here from Vietnam. One of them young, meek Thao is dared by his gangster cousin to steal Walt's Gran Torino as an initiation right. Thao fails and comes first into conflict with Walt.
When Thao is sent over by his family to do some chores for Walt as a punishment. Walt gets to understand the problems facing the young man and his family's plight.
Gran Torino was an inexplicable hit in the USA. It obviously touched a nerve to those Tea Party types, who believe in things such as: Our country is going to the dogs. Make America Great Again by building American cars with white American workers. Cars built to last by workers living in safe white communities.
It is a cynical and manipulative film. Eastwood holds his punches when it comes to racial insults. Walt's a racist but his racial insults are from the 1950s. Warner Brothers knew if you really insulted blacks and asians, then people would boycott the film.
There is only one white youth we see in this film outside of Walt's family. He gets attacked by some black people and runs away leaving his Hmong girlfriend at the mercy of these young black guys. Good job Walt comes along.
Walt's neighbours, the Hmong family gets attacked by a gang led by their cousin. It is never made clear why a family member would do this or even want some nerdy guy like Thao in the gang.
The film is a mess. There are better grouchy old men films than Gran Torino.