Great story if you can stomach the racism

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2020)

There's something extremely relatable about the character that Clint Eastwood plays in Gran Torino. Perhaps it's just because I'm getting a bit older myself, but I could totally understand how he was stuck in his ways and struggled to connect with his kids and grandkids. Perhaps those relatives were depicted in a way that was a bit too negative, but there is a lot of truth in the different ways these generations prioritize things. I could also understand our main character's struggle with the young priest who continues to irritate him. But the heart of Gran Torino lies in his slowly developed relationship with his Hmong neighbors. I cannot say enough about my enjoyment of these interactions. It was funny and heartwarming in all the right ways. They took time to develop things as well, so I never got the impression that people were changing on a whim, but they were actually growing and maturing into a true bond of friendship.
I want to say I loved everything about Gran Torino and just be done with it, but there was one aspect that soured the experience a bit for me, and will probably keep this from becoming one of my favorite films. I struggle at times with characters that are written like Walt Kowalski, who have such open and unchecked racism. When it's this aggressive, it can feel like the writers are hiding behind a "misguided character with a heart of gold" to spew hate speech and play it off as "funny." Trying to excuse it by showing that his speech is just as vile with his friends doesn't do enough to make it charming for me. It certainly doesn't help the racist bent of this movie when it becomes a massive white-savior story. I allowed myself to forgive Gran Torino because you can view it as the neighbors saving him from his own grief, loneliness, prejudice, and hatred. There is also an element of regret in Eastwood's performance, and I tried to convince myself that was good enough. Besides, the story is so enjoyable that I was trying to ignore the negatives, but I wouldn't blame anyone who is horribly offended by Gran Torino.