tonight iwatched the film Gran Torino by the great clint eastwood.... this may be the ultimate film about respect, and respect as a commodity.... the beginning of the film is a funeral and the reception for Eastwood's wife, much of how the film is shot, is done from eastwood's eyesight and then his reactions to what the eye of the camera sees, at the funeral and reception, we are hit over the head and there is a litter of disrespect shown by his family in their obliviousness to him, his grandaughter in inappropriate low cut garments, his grandson wearing a football jersey to church, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren rummaging through his medallions and old treasures from the war and his past lives, his grandaughter then later pratically begging for his car and his couch since she is going to school and since he is practically a corpse.... he is alone, just his dog with him, daisy.... but the house next door, are Hmong people..... he gives glares and constant racial remarks towards them..... one of the Hmong is goaded into trying to steal his car, but eastwood stops him, and later eastwood defends and saves the boy from his gangster cousins.... he takes the boy under his wing, teaching him how to work with tools and to work around the house..... the Hmong are ultimately grateful for him for saving and helping their youngin.... eastwood sees it as nothing, and continues his racial remarks.... he is invited over to their house, a get together with a sea of Hmong.... eastwood is back in vietnam.... charlie is everywhere.... but his fellow troops are gone.... a fish out of water..... he is now getting the stern glares the Hmong that corners him and surrounds him in every room.... the boy's sister tells him that they do not like or respect his people.... their customs and behaviors are completely different she tells him.... as the get together goes on....eastwood finds acclimation with the Hmong.... an internal unsaid respect is shown by him and the hmong to him.... sequence is the real tipping point and the cue to the audience of the stark contrast of respect that the film is highlighting..... in his old age, eastwood is a stranger to his own family who he has little respect for, given how oblivious they are in respecting someone who has lived such a long life full of legacy.... they want to steal his house and shoo him away in a nursing home.... where as the Hmong are incredibly welcoming of him and his presence despite his outward racial prejudices towards him.... simple minds, and the unobserved eye, will see this, and correct the film as being a simple racist "white saviour" outing where the minorities are caricatures are willing victims to eastwood's prejudices, but no, this film is about how respect transcends race.... two races do not need to like eachother to coexist here.... they dont really like each other at all without knowing eachother as we seen at the start of the film with eastwood asking why dont they go back to their own country.... but once welcome each other into their own homes and find a balance of respect and understanding, a more positve living experience is gained..... then, at the end of the film, when eastwood's will is being read in front of the family, his house goes to the church, and his car goes to the Hmong boy..... and his family is shocked.... BUT THATS HOW IT FUCKING SHOULD BE IN LIFE.....YOU PAY IN BLOOD, YOU PAY IN BLOOD... THOSE ARE THE REAL COMMODITIES IN LIFE, NOT MONEY