Bronwen and I both enjoyed this somewhat predictable Clint Eastwood-directed and star vehicle (he says it will be his last bit of acting) about a 70+ former autoworker/Korean War veteran, Walt Kowalski, whose wife has died, whose neighborhood has gone immigrant, and whose country has changed. All he has left is his mint 1972 Gran Torino to remind him of his and the nation’s glory days, ironically, of course, as the US was losing in Vietnam, but that’s never said. You can hear him thinking “give me back my country” as he sees his Hmong neighbors, African-Americans, etc Yet over time he forms a profound and moving relationship with the young man next door Thao (Bee Vang) and his sister Sue (Ahney Her). They see through his gruff exterior to the good-heartedness within. He may speak in every ethnic slur possible about friend and foe alike (there’s a lovely bit by John Carroll Lynch as Walt’s Italian barber, Martin), but he’s seriously protective of the good kids in his neighborhood. This makes the film work but also becomes justification for saying “it doesn’t matter what someone says, how he speaks about other people, it only matters how they feel and think”. I don’t buy it, but I enjoyed this traditional filmmaking nonetheless. A contradiction?. To say the least. Simple filmmaking works on and for me even as I can see its problems