History YMMV / GranTorino

* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Walt's farewell scene to Thao, who has been locked up in Walt's basement to stop him interfering with his HeroicSacrifice.]]
** [[spoiler:Also, when Walt, the lovable old racist, is gunned down by those gang-bangers in the end of the movie.]]
** When Walt calls his son, apparently to tell him about his [[spoiler:incurable cough of death,]] he does not tell him. This is compounded by [[spoiler:Walt's confession that he regretted not becoming close to his sons.]]
** [[spoiler:Thao's sister getting raped by Spider. She comes in the house, looking practically catatonic from shock with a beaten and bloody face]].

** [[spoiler:Thao's sister getting raped by Spider. She comes in the house, looking doped up and scars all around her face]].

* DesignatedVillain: Walt's kids and grandkids. We see them make numerous attempts to reach out to him, even if it may seem misguided. Walt indicates regret when confessing to the Priest that he was never closer to his sons, but does not state that it's his own fault. On his final day he doesn't bother to call anyone in his family despite tying up other looses ends. His grandkids clearly couldn't care less about him, but that's also likely becasue they see him as nothing other than a mean judgmental old man who doesn't take any interest in their lives and thus feel no sense of obligation inr eturn. On top of it all his sons are clearly close to their own children.

** Walt has never forgiven himself for the horrible things he did at the war.

* AwardSnub - ''Gran Torino'' received critical acclaim when the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Film_Institute American Film Institute]] named it as one of the ten best films of 2008 and made it onto the top 250 films list on the Internet Movie Database. Number of Academy Award nominations? ''Zero.''
* CompleteMonster - Spider [[spoiler:eventually attempts to kill Thao's family (who are his relatives) and rapes his cousin.]]
* CrossesTheLineTwice - Walt is ''so'' damn racist that it's [[strike: stops being offensive and starts being]] hilarious.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome - [[MemeticMutation GET OFF MY LAWN!]]

* CrowningMomentOfFunny - Thao tries to talk like a man and gets a gun pointed at his head for his troubles. The following scene where he puts this training to use counts too.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming - [[spoiler: Walt lending Thao the Gran Torino to take Yua out on a date.]]

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome - Over the credits, [[spoiler: Clint Eastwood sings about the movie's events. A song written by him no less!]]
* FridgeBrilliance - [[spoiler: Walt confesses to the priest, but doesn't talk about his experiences in the war. His true confession comes later, to Thao, after he's locked the kid in the basement. . . through a screen door, evoking the screen between the confessor and the penitent in the confession booth.]]

* JerkSue - Tremendously deconstructed. Walt, who is based off DirtyHarry, has been a JerkSue his whole life and has thus driven away anyone who ever cared about him. The purpose of the film has him get over being such an asshole, becoming a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and finding out that violence just begets more violence, so the peaceful idiots who would be strawmen in earlier Eastwood films ''were right all along''. [[spoiler: And he reaches his redemption by basically pulling one Hell of a ThanatosGambit.]]

* MoralEventHorizon - Spider, who [[spoiler: performs a drive by on Thao's house and ''rapes Thao's sister'', his own cousin.]]

* TearJerker - [[spoiler: Walt's farewell scene to Thao, who has been locked up in Walt's basement to stop him interfering with his HeroicSacrifice.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Walt is not a racist. He doesn't say anything to the Hmong that he wouldn't say to his best friend.

* CompleteMonster - Spider [[spoiler:eventually attempts to kill Thao's family and rapes his sister.]]

* FridgeLogic/FridgeHorror: Many, if not most, jurisdictions write their self defense laws broadly enough that all the shooter has to do is have a "reasonable fear" that his or her life is in danger. The gang bangers honestly thought [[spoiler: Walt]] was about to pull a gun on them, which means a good lawyer could easily get them off for [[spoiler: Walt's]] murder. Though [[spoiler: Sue's rape and the drive by are another story.]]

** [[spoiler: The whole scene with the Attorney reading Walts racist, insulting will.]]

** Thao then going back with advice on complaining about job, girlfriend, car etc. Thao stumbles confusedly through it all, culminating with "My ass hurts from all the guys on my construction job."