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The movie is paced well. Again, you sense Eastwood's experienced story telling at work moving the audience through the story. It is manipulative, but only in the most gentle and benign sense. Scenes are there to evoke emotional responses; however, each one is genuine.

He has a natural touch with humor, which is very effective. The audience is engaged with humor and yet equal amounts of sadness often at the same time. In the very first scene, which is the funeral of Walt's wife, he appraises his family's appearance with crotchety glances and mumbles through familiar Eastwood gritted teeth. He easily sprinkles funny lines of dialogue throughout. The humor, however, never feels like deliberate or strained comedy relief.

The story moves through a predictable arc where Walt begins to realize that the Hmong people are very much like the traditional American ethnicities he is originally more comfortable with. He comes to realize that he has just as much in common with his new neighbors if not more than he does with his own family.

There are nice moments of clarity which again prove Walt is not always right and not the one with all the answers. Father Janovich (played by Christopher Carley), his wife's priest, confronts Walt's deeply held belief that only Walt knows more about Death than most. Father Janovich proves to Walt, that while he may know about Death this does not bestow upon him insight into Life. This is supremely enlightening to Walt.

In a way, and I don't know if this is intentional, Gran Torino seems to be the second of what one could be considered his "redemption" movies. Arguably, Eastwood's two most significant performances are as The Man With No Name from the Sergio Leone westerns and Harry Callahan from the Dirty Harry movies.

Unforgiven - whether intended or not - was Eastwood's subtle exploration of the end results of the Man With No Name's life. While the characters were not the same and there were differences (The Man With No Name being an Anti-Hero and William Munny decidedly more villainous, there was an attempt it seemed to draw parallels and thus conclusions to the life led by The Man with No Name.

In Gran Torino and the character of Walt Kowalski there are again parallels to Dirty Harry Callahan. Both men live by a code of ideals that most see as irrelevant and they themselves see as under threat. He sees his ideals as threatened from everyone including initially his Asian-American neighbors. And while it is too late for him to be an influence in his own families lives - as they clearly misunderstand him and reject his code - he knows he can nurture, guide and protect others who, while not of his blood line, share his values

In these value sets the audience sees a positive ideal. But much of the movie involves characters around Walt driven to him and his beliefs by threats from the outside. Perhaps Gran Torino is, in part, a discussion of what beliefs people are attracted to while under threat. The Dirty Harry movies are an attempt to discuss this very concept. These are relevant questions in a post-September 11th reality just as they were in the political, social and economic difficulty of the 1970s. While the Dirty Harry movies were an attempt to show a resolute character confronted by negative changes and triumphing over them. Gran Torino pulls us back and attempts to discuss the consequences of a thoroughly un-adaptive life. All the while, he shows that resolution in the face of adversity brought on by change is also its virtue. It is an exploration of the various faults and benefits of resolution as a characteristic. In this way, Gran Torino is a much more subtle and complex movie than one would think.

It is another successful film, nearly as affecting as Million Dollar Baby as it explores themes of intolerance and preconceived notions, emotional progress, loss and the subtlety of resolution as a characteristic. It is another artistically satisfying work by a performer who continues to impress and surprise with his evocative work.

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