“Gran Torino” feels like the last rendezvous for Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character, the invincible vigilante who has finally settled down and allowing nature to take its course. But as we’ve seen in the similar “Unforgiven,” he just wants to be left alone while trouble just follows him where ever he sits. Clint Eastwood’s crime drama is not so much the actor’s rare performances on the screen in the last few years, but a dichotomy on the twisted world we live in and how his character Walter is dwindling in to a distant memory in front of a generation of know nothing and do nothings who have zero respect for their elders. Walter is a man so embittered by the recent death of his wife, that he finds solace in simply rotting away to let nature takes its course.

Though advertised as a crime thriller with blood shed and Eastwood blasting bad guys to kingdom come, “Gran Torino” is actually a dramatic yarn and one based around human relationships and how detrimental Walt’s connection to their family inevitably provides a purpose for a man who can do nothing but marvel at the sheer disrespect suffered by folks just looking to live their lives in peace. Walt is a man who craves the same consideration and once his bond, an old anachronistic sort of man who finds solace in labeling folks by vicious racial comments and garbs that become amusing after a certain time thanks to Eastwood who turns a potentially hateful man in to one of quiet dignity and silence. Eastwood has come along way and this potentially final hurrah is a great way to reflect on a career of troubled characters sucked in to human cruelty and injustice.

Possibly his last tale of vengeance and revenge molded in a shell of social undertones and inner city turmoil Eastwood gives us a morbid take on righting wrongs in a world that lends no help to the victimized. Frankly it’s one of my favorites of 2008.