[Insert Racial Slur Here]

There are many scary things in this world. African bees. Nuclear war. Tickle-Me Elmo. But these things pale in comparison to being confronted by a crotchety, angry Clint Eastwood armed with a rifle while you’re trespassing on his lawn.

Such is the situation that a local Asian gang finds themselves in after trying to steal Walt Kowalski’s, played by Eastwood, prized 1972 Gran Torino. Kowalski’s teenage neighbor, Thao, is pressured by the gang to hotwire the car as part of initiation. When he fails, the gang begins to harass Thao, pushing and shoving him and his family around in front of Kowalski’s house. Walt, a Korean War veteran with deep-seated prejudice against Asian people, intervenes mostly just to get the punks off his grass, but his courage makes him a hero to the local Asian community, much to his disgust. But despite his best efforts, Walt’s loneliness after the recent death of his wife and his growing disconnect from his own family gradually lead him to become close with Thao and his family. When the gang begins to harass Thao’s family more and more, Walt must decide how far is too far in a dangerous game of violent one-upsmanship.

If there was one thing that surprised me the most about Gran Torino, it was how humorous it was at some points. It was marketed as a very serious Clint Eastwood flick (like Mystic River: Sean Penn's daughter murdered… not so funny), but many of the scenes center around the odd, but hilarious, differences between Walt and his Asian neighbors, his family and the growing minority groups in the area. The biggest staple of this is race humor. In a world obsessed with political correctness, it was refreshing to see a more realistic portrayal of how people of different races relate to one another. While at times racial slurs were used with the intent to insult or hurt in the movie, most of the time they were used as terms of endearment between the characters. That might not be ‘correct’, but I found myself laughing out loud more than once.

Overall, this was a very good film. There were few missteps- some of the younger Asian actors lacked the chops for certain scenes, and I could really have done without Clint Eastwood singing during the end credits- but this is one I would definitely recommend. The writing, cinematography and acting are all top-notch. Clint Eastwood has once again proven himself to be one of the better directors in Hollywood, and certainly one of the greatest screen legends.