Overview: A quarter century ago, Clint Eastwood—playing hardnosed, middle-aged police detective Harry Callahan in Sudden Impact—launched “Go ahead...make my day” into the national lexicon (complete with his iconic, threatening sneer and large handgun). Eastwood—now almost 80 years old—has done it again. In Gran Torino, his hardnosed, Korean War veteran, auto-factory retiree Walt Kowalski adds an equally threatening command (accompanied by a large shotgun) to our popular vocabulary that’ll be parroted around water coolers for quite some time: “Get off my lawn.”

The Lowdown: See, Walt has a few problems. Well, a lot of problems. The biggest is that the once-safe neighborhood he’s lived in most of his life has been overrun with gangs—one of which is threatening a family next door (and which led him to order the scuffling thugs off his lawn one night—they complied). But Walt’s issues run much deeper. His beloved wife has just died, and he’s not completely well himself. Plus he peppers his conversation with little more than grunts, profanity, and exasperated, racist epithets. And (surprise!) he doesn’t really like anybody—and nobody really likes him. Not even his sons and grandkids. Walt is Archie Bunker on steroids and Red Bull, and nobody is changing his ways, getting in his way, or “getting in.” Not gangs. Not ungrateful relatives. Not the fresh-out-of-seminary priest who persistently begs Walt to come to confession (and, by extension, certainly not God).

But after the “get off my lawn” incident, things begin to change. His grateful neighbors—and their huge extended family—flood him with gifts. (The fact that they’re Asian hilariously gets on Walt’s nerves.) He strikes up a tentative friendship with their plucky young daughter, Sue, and begins reluctantly mentoring her timid younger brother, Thao, who earlier was coerced into a gang initiation—a foiled attempt at stealing Walt’s prized 1972 Gran Torino muscle car. At this point Eastwood—who directed and produced the film—begins peeling back Walt’s many layers, and we start seeing the depth of pain and loss and just plain old life that had been residing underneath his tough, old school skin. In many ways Walt is adopting a new family, and they’re adopting him back. Things are finally looking up.

But there’s still a gang out there, lurking and menacing, and you know they’re not going to leave Thao or Sue alone. You might be tempted to guess what happens next—and if you do, you’d be partially correct...but also know that Gran Torino’s climax is every bit as eye-opening as its overall substance and complexity.

Teachable Moments: Plenty—although it may prove difficult to separate the extremely raw dialogue from its deeper value, depending on how you want to contextualize it for your group. With each painful, human interaction, Walt reveals more of who is and who others are to him. There’s distance and coldness toward his sons and their families (Walt actually kicks them out of his house after they stop by on his birthday and encourage him to move to a retirement community). There’s deep-seated dislike toward his Asian neighbors, which thaws eventually. There’s, of course, fearless aggression toward gang members and other thugs. There’s chummy congeniality masked by relentless, over-the-top insults between him and his blue-collar acquaintances. There’s disdain and disrespect toward the young priest (much of their interaction focuses on life, death, and eternity—and Walt’s impatience with theology and church in general). There’s tough love for Thao, who grows up a great deal as the film progresses. Most lines and scenes are useful and full of meaning—there’s very little fat or gristle in this engaging film.

Viewer Discretion: Gran Torino is replete with disturbing violence, profanity, and nearly every racial slur you can imagine. But the language is so outrageously unbridled that it’s actually comical and disarming. Eastwood’s portrayal is brilliant in this important respect: He so deeply resides in Walt Kowalski’s core that rather than recoiling from what would otherwise be an unlikeable character, you almost immediately begin rooting for him as you get to know him better. His unseemly tongue is, therefore, rather easy to digest. The violence, while raw, is absolutely essential to the plot and is in no way gratuitous.

General Appeal: Certainly not a movie you’d want to see with your students, Gran Torino—as the top-grosser in its opening last weekend ($29 million)—is a movie some of them may already have seen. And it’s one you should see, too. Not only to prepare yourself in case its dialogue or subject matter comes up in conversation with your teenagers, but also for your own edification. So much of Gran Torino is fodder for spiritual and interpersonal discussion and consideration that it’d be a shame not to let it impact you. (Plus you’ll have a huge handle on how to use its many valuable scenes once it hits the DVD racks this spring.)

The Final Grade: Entertainment value—A; ministry value—A