History Film / GranTorino

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler: Sue spends most of the film as an engaging, intelligent, and interesting character. However, after she is beaten and gang-raped in order to motivate Walt's HeroicSacrifice, that's it for her agency, and even dialogue, for the rest of the film. We only see her again, still bruised and shell-shocked, in the congregation at Walt's funeral]].

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It gets a 5, for [[spoiler:the rape]], otherwise the violence is on level 4, with the cigarette burning and [[spoiler:Walt Kowalski being riddled with bullets at the end (mostly bloodless)]].

* BerserkButton: It's hard not to press Walt's: it is best not to steal his Gran Torino, get him to move into a retirement home, or, in a more heartwarming example, hurt Thao and Sue.

* NotSoDifferent: Walt basically says this to himself when he's in the bathroom at the neighbor's house. He looks in the mirror says that, "God, I've got more in common with [[PretendPrejudice these gooks]] than I have with my own spoiled-rotten family."

* RacistGrandma: Walt is a deconstruction of this trope. The whole point of the movie is that Walt realizes the people who he has being directing racial slurs all his life are NotSoDifferent, that his experience as a soldier [[ShellShockedVeteran only let him know much more about death than about life]], and that he is a KnowNothingKnowItAll.

* RealityEnsues: In defiance of the common VigilanteMan trope Eastwood himself helped popularize, [[spoiler:Walt's attempt to drive off the gang alone goes horribly wrong and just results in them being emboldened by their humiliation and brutally retaliating, beating and raping Sue and eventually killing Walt himself. What solves the issue is when Walt gets the police involved and ''plenty'' of witnesses to the gang's crimes.]]

* MightyWhitey: Walter. It apparently takes one elderly auto-worker to figure out how to fix everything that his Hmong neighbors can't, whether that's teaching Theo how to "be a man" or stopping the local gang.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: A longtime smoker, Walt suffers from coughing fits, [[BloodFromTheMouth occasionally coughing up blood]]. [[spoiler: When he finally goes to see a doctor about it, it's made clear he doesn't have long to live, making his Heroic Sacrifice all the more understandable.]]

Not to be confused with the series ''Videogame/GranTurismo''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GetOffMyLawn_7157.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:His lawn. You should get off of it.]]

* LullDestruction: Walt talks to himself a ''lot''. And to his dog. Some of this may help the story, but a lot of it could be communicated without words, or is information the audience already has. TruthInTelevision, as multiple studies have shown that people who live alone or are isolated tend to talk to themselves just to break the silence around them.

* BaitTheDog: When Thao is being harassed by a gang of mexican thugs, Spider and his gang come over to scare off the mexican gangbangers. At first, it seems like they're protecting Thao, however as the film progresses, it becomes more or less clear that their first act of kindness was not at all genuine.

* YoureNotMyFather: While they don't actually say this, it's clear Walt's two sons have denounced[=/=]disowned him as their father due to their established distant relationship, only caring to hope for his impeding death out of IrrationalHatred behind his back to relieve them of his existence to completely inherit his precious belongings for their own ends.

* IHaveNoSon: If Walt [[spoiler:cutting off his sons and their families out of his will after his HeroicSacrifice is any indication]].

* YoureNotMyFather: While they don't actually say this, it's clear Walt's two sons have denounced[=/=]disowned him as their father due to their established distant relationship, only caring to hope for his impeding death behind his back to relieve them of his existence to completely inherit his precious belongings for their own ends.

* BadassGrandpa[=/=]RetiredBadass: Walt Kowalski embodies a realistic version of this trope, as well as being a {{Deconstruction}} of the trope. Walt's fighting skills don't help him in his life in the city. His recently deceased wife was all too aware that their two grown sons cannot empathize with Walt, so she asks the local GoodShepherd to keep an eye on him after her death. Walt’s antics and {{Badass Boast}}s give him a reputation of a CrankyNeighbor and only make things worse (see MyGodWhatHaveIDone). His real act of bravery is realizing he is a TroubledSympatheticBigot, and the conflict is not solved by his acts of violence [[spoiler:but with a BatmanGambit that invokes ShootHimHeHasAWallet. The only people who really felt protected by him were his neighbors.]]

* ComingOfAgeStory: A delayed example -- Walter Kowalski, even when he is a senior who has raised a family, still lives emotionally as [[ShellShockedVeteran the young soldier that crossed]] the MoralEventHorizon during the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. He must [[HeelRealization assume]] he is a {{grumpy|OldMan}}, {{jaded|Washout}}, {{cranky|Neighbor}}, RacistGrandpa who has alienated his own family and now that his wife has died is completely alone, so he can be a real BadassGrandpa PapaWolf.

* DrinkOrder: Walt drinks only Pabst Blue Ribbon at his home and the bar. When drinking at his neighbor's, he notes that they have plenty of beer, even if it's not Pabst.