This movie puts a lot of families to shame.

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2009)

Usually I know Clint Eastwood only for the roles like Dirty Harry or "blonde" in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. His most recent performances, starting with Unforgiven, along with Million Dollar Baby gave audiences a feeling of over-seasoning with old-age. As the audiences becoming old, they also got more and more involved in the characters played by Eastwood. In Gran Torino he perfects this tone of performance and delivered an Oscar-worthy performance. Just the last 20 minutes are worthy the Academy Award, in my opinion.
Well, I think this film is made on behalf of all the elder people, but made for their children to watch. The whole movie is seemingly race-biased but ultimately has an undertone of putting a lot of white families to shame. In China we have a saying that "a distant relative is less reachable than a good neighbor." which describes the situation in this movie. Walt's family is estranged and can't really relate themselves to him, while the Hmong family has a lot of respect for elders(witnessed by Walt). Despite all the discrimination of Walt on Hmong's life style, he found them easier to get along with and warmer to make friends with. Mr. Eastwood definitely has a negative comment on the American society in this movie, delivered by the grandchildren of Walt's.
The end is the punch of the movie, it hit your stomach and make you think a lot about what's worth in a life. To prevent me from spoiling the movie, I will also not reveal any further story in the movie. But if you want to watch a movie made with a heart, this is one.