Gran Torino

Yesterday my wife took me out to see a movie titled Gran Torino, saying it was critically acclaimed.
These days movies have become a casual and purse-friendly entertainment especially when you are old. If you are a married couple and one of you are over 50, both of you can see a movie for mere \1000 each. It would be even more reasonable if you bring an Onigiri or two for lunch. We did.
The film was not bad and I enjoyed it... the way I enjoy Hollywood movies. The story is about a stubborn old man who worked for an Auto Factory (Ford?) for 30(?) years or so and is now retired and has just lost his beloved wife. He is also a Korean War veteran, only survivor from a fierce battle, having killed a dozen young Korean soldiers. The memory has haunted him for a long time, but he will not admit the trauma even to himself refusing going to confession which his deceased wife really wished for him, to lighten his sense of guilt and pain.
He is a kind of racist, but through a relationship with his Asian neighbor, a young boy and his sister, who he at first called rice-eating gooks, he slowly but in what seems is all too easy way changes his view of people in general. And we see a "shocking" but well anticipated ending of his.
The movie was in a way formulaic although there was no “kill'em-all” for vengeance. I exactly predicted the story all along and so did my wife. This was basically a hero movie with a cheap lesson "let's not hate people for their skin colors". Mr. コワルスキー represents American values which, together with his vintage car Grand Torino, used to be a symbol of their good old days. But to me, this value has a smell of "America- is-number-one" mentality. So, now, finally, at least in this movie, they are taking the trouble of slightly stepping down to us, Asians. Well, thank you… It is good if they begin to suspect that Asian values might be by some chance better than American values. It may be new to them, but we already known it since decades ago.
I also smell something hypocritical and condescending about the movies directed by him such as Letters from Iwo jima. It is very close to a 「日本のことも分かってあげようね」or 「We can learn ethics even from a dog (こんなやつらでも見習うべきところがある)」mentality, delivered from high horse. Perhaps he is not aware of it. In this sense he represents feelings of Americans.
The problem for us is we do not hold Asian values any more. That may be why many Japanese also like this movie.
Having said that, Clint Eastwood was cool and good as actor. He showed us what a man should be like. Brave, dignified and strong, which I am not.