In 'Gran Torino', which opens in South African cinemas on 27 March, Clint Eastwood plays retired auto worker Walt Kowalski, whose pride and joy is his mint-condition vintage car.

He fills his days with home repair, beer and monthly trips to the barber.

Though his late wife's final wish was for him to take confession, for Walt — an embittered veteran of the Korean War who keeps his M-1 rifle cleaned and ready — there's nothing to confess. And no one he trusts enough to confess to other than his dog, Daisy.

The people he once called his neighbours have all moved or passed away, replaced by Hmong immigrants, from Southeast Asia, he despises.

Resentful of virtually everything he sees — the drooping eaves, overgrown lawns and the foreign faces surrounding him; the aimless gangs of Hmong, Latino and African American teenagers who all think the neighbourhood belongs to them; the callow strangers his children have grown up to be — Walt is just waiting out the rest of his life.

Until the night someone tries to steal his '72 Gran Torino.

Still gleaming as it did the day Walt himself helped roll it off the assembly line decades ago, the Gran Torino brings his shy teenaged neighbour into his life when Hmong gangbangers pressure the boy into trying to steal it.

But Walt stands in the way of both the heist and the gang, making him the reluctant hero of the neighbourhood

Though it's kept mostly in the garage — except when he lets it gleam in the sun — the car is a central symbol in the film.

Classic cars have a long history in cinema, whether for action, symbolism or aesthetics.

Can you match the classic car with the film in which it appeared? You could win one of three Clint Eastwood DVD sets.