25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

Gran Torino is Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece, both in front of and behind the camera. He crafts a realistic Detroit torn by crime and sinks right into this world as Walk Kowalski, a Korean war vet, a pensioner, a widow, and a racist. He hates his Hmong immigrant neighbours and lives a cold life of spite with only his labrador Daisy for company.

Rather than make Walt a stock character, however, the nuances of his prejudices are teased out through the narrative and Eastwood’s carefully studied performance. His character is permitted to change and grow by befriending his neighbours and doing his best to protect them from a local violent gang, finding in the process a way to grieve, to move on, and a reason to live. But also a reason to die.

Facing breaking point, the old war hero strides onto the gang’s lawn and tears them a new one, before tricking them into gunning him down. It flips the classic action movie template, where the hero usually takes on the villains single-handedly, but with good reason. Walt’s death is his means to a worthy and admirable end. Recognising he doesn’t have that much time left, and what his death could mean for his neighbours, he sacrifices himself to get rid of the gang threat for good.

There are simple lessons here: change is possible; community matters; everyone has hidden depths. And, by gum, if this scene doesn’t take your breath away.