When Clint Eastwood squints in your direction and spits out a big wad of Red Man, it is generally not a warm and fuzzy gesture. Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is an angry, bitter Korean War Vet, who just lost his wife. He lives alone with his dog in a Michigan neighborhood which has seen better days. People in his neighborhood generally keep to themselves, when not terrorized by local gangs.

Walt is somewhat alienated by his remaining family, his two grown sons and their families, and also annoyed by the presence of the Asian family that lives next door. Their lives however become intertwined when Walt reluctantly disrupts an act of gang violence on his front yard. The neighbors and community interpret this as a selfless act of heroism and bring offerings of food and flowers to the misunderstood loner. In time, Walt begins to get to know his next door neighbors better and eventually takes pity and kindness on the teenage brother and sister. He recognizes that the young and awkward boy, Tao, has no father and no real hope of survival with the ever-menacing gangs there to disrupt his daily life.  Walt takes Tao under his wing, teaches him a trade with tools and even a thing or two about being a man and survival. But this surrogate father role does not go unnoticed.

The relationship between Walt and the Hmong Clan is real and affecting. For Walt, it comes with some painful realizations that he is sick and might in fact have more in common with these people than his own family. Their community just wants to be left alone and live in peace, but they are threatened by violence. Walt knows a thing or two about war and death, and against his better instincts, he must ultimately intervene, while facing his own inner demons of the past.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino is simplistic, and all too lavish in its depiction of ethnic stereotypes, with every slang and politically incorrect epitaph spilling from Eastwood's tight-lipped breath like toxic whiskey. It is humorous in its non-discriminate offense to everyone: African-Americans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Poles, Italians and Jews. With his American flag proudly waving in his front lawn above his prized 1972 Gran Torino in mint condish, Walt is a throwback racist to a bygone era that exceeds fifty years. You see, that was the only time when Walt really lived, before the Korean War, when his America really was a far different place.  The movie does not bemoan or belabor that point, to its credit. But it paints a clear portrait of Walt's mindset and how long he has lived alone with the suppressed atrocities of what he has endured.

This is really a perfect Clint Eastwood movie. Walt is an all too familiar, iconic character not unlike Josey Wales, Dirty Harry or the Man with No Name. But it is so fun to see the actor again, chewing up the scenery in his classic understated fashion. Of course, the reluctant hero is a classic story known throughout the ages and nothing new for the persona of Eastwood himself. But you just know, that somewhere in the Eastwood storytelling lies a bigger than life heart, and you also know that where there is an act of injustice, someone will surely pay.

MPAA Rating: R