Freitag, 12. Oktober 2012
Gran Torino
janixunso, 15:20h
Introduction
The movie „Gran Torino“ by the director Clint Eastwood and with him acting the leading role as Walt Kowalski, plays in the USA of today and is about the old American Walt Kowalski, his views on life, racism and the values of an older generation.
In general Walt is a very pessimistic and moody person, who shows no sentiments about telling his true opinion to everybody. For being raised in the old days, which were very patriotically marked and therefore more or less racist and fighting in the war in Korea, Walt’s thoughts and opinions are mostly hard to understand for the audience. During the story the protagonist is forced to experience new things that never occurred that way in his life. In such situations he behaves like people would expect a hero to behave. His ideals, which at first might seem very old-fashioned make him behave like a gentleman and a tough but helpful person.
The name of the movie “Gran Torino” is the name of an American car, built by Ford from 1972 till 1976. In this movie the car has an important role. Many people covet it and even try to steal it. It represents the old America and his ideals.
Plot
The story begins at the funeral of Walt’s wife. His sons talk about him, his character and his past and present life. This way the director gives a short introduction of the main character of the following narration.
After this Walt’s living conditions are shown. He is in at the beginning of the story in a very bad mood, which is understandable, because his wife recently died. He observes critically the behavior of the children at the funeral and of his Asian neighbors at home. They seem to not like him for still living in the now Asian occupied neighborhood, while he does not like them for his own reasons, like prejudices from his time in the war in Korea and because in the past his neighborhood seemed to be in better condition, while there lived only Americans.
Now a new and important character is being introduced - Thao, one of the neighbors’ kids. He is a not very respected person in his family, due to their opinion that he does, so called, “woman work”. When he is molested by some Latinos his cousin Spider comes around with his gang to protect him. Spider says Thao would “fly solo”, so he and his gang decide that he has to hang around with them to get protection and become a man. The gang forces him to break into Walt’s garage and to steal his car, the Gran Torino. At night when Thao tries to steal the car Walt wakes up, catches him in the garage and points his gun at him, but Thao manages to escape.
Later the priest comes to visit Walt at home to take care of him, because this was the last wish of Walt’s dead wife. The priest wants Walt to confess to give him peace, but Walt is very distant towards the priest and does not want to talk to him. Therefore the priest comes to see him at another day in a bar, where Walt met with some of his friends. This time Walt decides to not be as distant and unfriendly as before, because his friends seem to like the priest. So the priest manages to talk to Walt in private about his thoughts about life and death and what he had seen in Korea.
In the next scene Thao’s cousin and his gang come back and want to give him a second chance to enter their gang, but he does not want to and his family tries to protect him from the gang. As a result all of them end up in something like a fight over Thao. By this they enter Walt’s property, which he really dislikes and point his gun at them and tells them to leave right now. So he drives the gang out, saves Thao from them and is therefore a kind of hero to the neighborhood and his neighbors start to bring him gifts to thank him. At first he dislikes this kind of attention, but in the end seems to appreciate it. There can be seen that Walt’s old-fashioned views of right and order are not as out of place as they appear at first, because the people still appreciate them.
In another scene Walt shows the good side of his character again. The neighbor’s girl, Sue, is in trouble for being pestered by some African-Americans. Then he comes around in his car, recognizes that she has problems and gets out of his car to help her. The argument they have contains many racist swear words, like Walt uses all of the time during the whole movie, but when he pulls his gun again the discussion ends, he saves the girl and takes her back home. During their drive back home the two get to know each other. Sue seems to be a nice, intelligent, open-minded and daring (she keeps calling him Wally even though he obviously hates this name) young girl. They talk about living in their neighborhood and Walt finally finds out more about the, so called, Hmong-culture of the people living right next to him.
On his birthday Walt sits again on the porch and reads a newspaper. It contains a message for the persons, whose birthday is on that day. He reads it out loud to his dog and makes fun of this message. It says: “This year you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances come your way.” Even though the old man makes fun about it, at this point in the story he starts to decide to choose another life path. You can see this when Sue comes to invite Walt to join a party at her house and he accepts the invitation. He even takes foreign food that is being offered to him and likes it or speaks to some of the Korean people at the party. At one point the man says to himself that he feels like having more in common with these foreigners than with his own family. During the party he talks as well to Thao, who tried to steal the Gran Torino in the beginning of the story. Walt calls him Toad, on one hand probably because of his racist thinking and on the other hand to not show him any respect. But he finally talks to him about the tried robbery and a girl at the party that obviously likes “Toad”. So it becomes obvious that Walt starts to change and chooses a different path of life, when he opens up to a new culture and even talks to a person he used to hate.
Later the family of Thao comes over to Walt’s house and tells him that Thao has to help him for a while now to make up for trying to steal his car. After a short discussion the old American finally accepts the offer and tells the Korean boy to fix some things of the neighbor’s house in front of Walt’s. There Walt reveals again his good character. On one hand he is egoistic, because the house is being repaired, because he has to look at it all day, but on the other hand he behaves unselfish, because he obviously helps another person. This even continues, when some neighbors ask him to let Thao repair something at their houses.
In a short scene in between, the audience can see that Walt suffers from a bad disease. He coughs blood and goes to the doctor, who tells him that his situation is bad. Back home Walt calls one of his sons to talk to him, but he does not seem to be interested in talking with his father. Therefore the conversation ends early.
The story continues with Walt and Thao developing then something like a real friendship. They work together if one of the two needs help, for example when Walt has to move his old washing machine out of his house or when Thao has to fix the sink, but does not know how. Thao tells the old man after a while that he would like to have a job and earn money, but does not know where and how. So Walt wants to introduce him to one of his friends that owns a construction company to get him a job there. Before doing this he feels that he has to “man him up”. Therefore he takes him to the barbershop where he always goes and teaches him how a real man has to speak in his opinion. Furthermore he even gives him some of his tools to work with them. So they seem to have more than a friendship. They help each other out very often, but Walt also is a kind of role-model to Thao for teaching him so much.
Things at this time seem to be all right, but then the troubles really begin with Thao’s cousin Spider and his gang beating the boy up, when he comes back home from work. When Walt meets the boy again and sees the wound, he decides to take revenge. Therefore he drives to the house of one of the gang members, beats him up and tells him to leave Thao alone. Another day at night the Korean gang rolls up to the house of Walt’s neighbors and shoots at it with machine guns. None of the family gets seriously hurt, but Sue comes back home beaten up and raped by the gang.
The old and seriously sick Walt realizes that violence is no solution to the problem of having this gang molesting the neighborhood. Even though Thao wants to take revenge right away, the old man tells him to stay calm and think about it first. He himself thinks a lot, then starts to make personal preparations like getting a haircut, buying a new suit and even making a confession to the priest. At night Walt goes all by himself to the house of the gang. He stands in front of it talking to the members and provokes them. When he reaches in his pocket to take his lighter, the gang believes he would reach for his gun and fires at him. Walt dies and the whole gang gets arrested when the police arrive. This way, by sacrificing himself, Walt prevents the neighborhood from more troubles. It seems that he has been happy with his life in the end and gives his life willingly to save his new friends, the Korean family, although he did not like them in the beginning of the movie.
In the last scene a man reads out Walt’s testament and tells the family and his Korean friends that he wanted to give his most expensive good, the Gran Torino, to his friend Thao, on the condition that he does not change anything on this car and keeps it the way it is. This last wish of Walt contains a very important message. The Gran Torino, as a relic from the old days, like Walt it was, represents the values Walt himself stood for. The values of an older generation - seriousness, honesty and courage, which are still up-to-date when it comes to doing good. The people should still stick to these values, because they did never lose their importance. Therefore Thao should not change anything on the car to make it look modern, because it is good the way it is and worth to be kept that way.
My personal opinion about the movie
I liked the movie very much. The topic racism really interests me and here the story shows how racism can be all around you, but if you finally get up and try to understand the cultures, you may find something you like and realize that this foreign, strange culture is not as bad as you thought before. Also I like the character of Walt in this movie. He is a person, who just wants to be on his own, but when somebody needs help, even someone he does not know very well or he does not like, he comes around to help them. This way he makes a lot of good friends. Although he is always very skeptical, not very open-minded and even racist in the beginning, he opens up and learns many things, becomes happy and gets in touch with another culture. I truly admire the type of character Clint Eastwood represents in his movie. He seems to me somehow like the old heroes in the western movies: a serious, independent and though person.
The movie „Gran Torino“ by the director Clint Eastwood and with him acting the leading role as Walt Kowalski, plays in the USA of today and is about the old American Walt Kowalski, his views on life, racism and the values of an older generation.
In general Walt is a very pessimistic and moody person, who shows no sentiments about telling his true opinion to everybody. For being raised in the old days, which were very patriotically marked and therefore more or less racist and fighting in the war in Korea, Walt’s thoughts and opinions are mostly hard to understand for the audience. During the story the protagonist is forced to experience new things that never occurred that way in his life. In such situations he behaves like people would expect a hero to behave. His ideals, which at first might seem very old-fashioned make him behave like a gentleman and a tough but helpful person.
The name of the movie “Gran Torino” is the name of an American car, built by Ford from 1972 till 1976. In this movie the car has an important role. Many people covet it and even try to steal it. It represents the old America and his ideals.
Plot
The story begins at the funeral of Walt’s wife. His sons talk about him, his character and his past and present life. This way the director gives a short introduction of the main character of the following narration.
After this Walt’s living conditions are shown. He is in at the beginning of the story in a very bad mood, which is understandable, because his wife recently died. He observes critically the behavior of the children at the funeral and of his Asian neighbors at home. They seem to not like him for still living in the now Asian occupied neighborhood, while he does not like them for his own reasons, like prejudices from his time in the war in Korea and because in the past his neighborhood seemed to be in better condition, while there lived only Americans.
Now a new and important character is being introduced - Thao, one of the neighbors’ kids. He is a not very respected person in his family, due to their opinion that he does, so called, “woman work”. When he is molested by some Latinos his cousin Spider comes around with his gang to protect him. Spider says Thao would “fly solo”, so he and his gang decide that he has to hang around with them to get protection and become a man. The gang forces him to break into Walt’s garage and to steal his car, the Gran Torino. At night when Thao tries to steal the car Walt wakes up, catches him in the garage and points his gun at him, but Thao manages to escape.
Later the priest comes to visit Walt at home to take care of him, because this was the last wish of Walt’s dead wife. The priest wants Walt to confess to give him peace, but Walt is very distant towards the priest and does not want to talk to him. Therefore the priest comes to see him at another day in a bar, where Walt met with some of his friends. This time Walt decides to not be as distant and unfriendly as before, because his friends seem to like the priest. So the priest manages to talk to Walt in private about his thoughts about life and death and what he had seen in Korea.
In the next scene Thao’s cousin and his gang come back and want to give him a second chance to enter their gang, but he does not want to and his family tries to protect him from the gang. As a result all of them end up in something like a fight over Thao. By this they enter Walt’s property, which he really dislikes and point his gun at them and tells them to leave right now. So he drives the gang out, saves Thao from them and is therefore a kind of hero to the neighborhood and his neighbors start to bring him gifts to thank him. At first he dislikes this kind of attention, but in the end seems to appreciate it. There can be seen that Walt’s old-fashioned views of right and order are not as out of place as they appear at first, because the people still appreciate them.
In another scene Walt shows the good side of his character again. The neighbor’s girl, Sue, is in trouble for being pestered by some African-Americans. Then he comes around in his car, recognizes that she has problems and gets out of his car to help her. The argument they have contains many racist swear words, like Walt uses all of the time during the whole movie, but when he pulls his gun again the discussion ends, he saves the girl and takes her back home. During their drive back home the two get to know each other. Sue seems to be a nice, intelligent, open-minded and daring (she keeps calling him Wally even though he obviously hates this name) young girl. They talk about living in their neighborhood and Walt finally finds out more about the, so called, Hmong-culture of the people living right next to him.
On his birthday Walt sits again on the porch and reads a newspaper. It contains a message for the persons, whose birthday is on that day. He reads it out loud to his dog and makes fun of this message. It says: “This year you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances come your way.” Even though the old man makes fun about it, at this point in the story he starts to decide to choose another life path. You can see this when Sue comes to invite Walt to join a party at her house and he accepts the invitation. He even takes foreign food that is being offered to him and likes it or speaks to some of the Korean people at the party. At one point the man says to himself that he feels like having more in common with these foreigners than with his own family. During the party he talks as well to Thao, who tried to steal the Gran Torino in the beginning of the story. Walt calls him Toad, on one hand probably because of his racist thinking and on the other hand to not show him any respect. But he finally talks to him about the tried robbery and a girl at the party that obviously likes “Toad”. So it becomes obvious that Walt starts to change and chooses a different path of life, when he opens up to a new culture and even talks to a person he used to hate.
Later the family of Thao comes over to Walt’s house and tells him that Thao has to help him for a while now to make up for trying to steal his car. After a short discussion the old American finally accepts the offer and tells the Korean boy to fix some things of the neighbor’s house in front of Walt’s. There Walt reveals again his good character. On one hand he is egoistic, because the house is being repaired, because he has to look at it all day, but on the other hand he behaves unselfish, because he obviously helps another person. This even continues, when some neighbors ask him to let Thao repair something at their houses.
In a short scene in between, the audience can see that Walt suffers from a bad disease. He coughs blood and goes to the doctor, who tells him that his situation is bad. Back home Walt calls one of his sons to talk to him, but he does not seem to be interested in talking with his father. Therefore the conversation ends early.
The story continues with Walt and Thao developing then something like a real friendship. They work together if one of the two needs help, for example when Walt has to move his old washing machine out of his house or when Thao has to fix the sink, but does not know how. Thao tells the old man after a while that he would like to have a job and earn money, but does not know where and how. So Walt wants to introduce him to one of his friends that owns a construction company to get him a job there. Before doing this he feels that he has to “man him up”. Therefore he takes him to the barbershop where he always goes and teaches him how a real man has to speak in his opinion. Furthermore he even gives him some of his tools to work with them. So they seem to have more than a friendship. They help each other out very often, but Walt also is a kind of role-model to Thao for teaching him so much.
Things at this time seem to be all right, but then the troubles really begin with Thao’s cousin Spider and his gang beating the boy up, when he comes back home from work. When Walt meets the boy again and sees the wound, he decides to take revenge. Therefore he drives to the house of one of the gang members, beats him up and tells him to leave Thao alone. Another day at night the Korean gang rolls up to the house of Walt’s neighbors and shoots at it with machine guns. None of the family gets seriously hurt, but Sue comes back home beaten up and raped by the gang.
The old and seriously sick Walt realizes that violence is no solution to the problem of having this gang molesting the neighborhood. Even though Thao wants to take revenge right away, the old man tells him to stay calm and think about it first. He himself thinks a lot, then starts to make personal preparations like getting a haircut, buying a new suit and even making a confession to the priest. At night Walt goes all by himself to the house of the gang. He stands in front of it talking to the members and provokes them. When he reaches in his pocket to take his lighter, the gang believes he would reach for his gun and fires at him. Walt dies and the whole gang gets arrested when the police arrive. This way, by sacrificing himself, Walt prevents the neighborhood from more troubles. It seems that he has been happy with his life in the end and gives his life willingly to save his new friends, the Korean family, although he did not like them in the beginning of the movie.
In the last scene a man reads out Walt’s testament and tells the family and his Korean friends that he wanted to give his most expensive good, the Gran Torino, to his friend Thao, on the condition that he does not change anything on this car and keeps it the way it is. This last wish of Walt contains a very important message. The Gran Torino, as a relic from the old days, like Walt it was, represents the values Walt himself stood for. The values of an older generation - seriousness, honesty and courage, which are still up-to-date when it comes to doing good. The people should still stick to these values, because they did never lose their importance. Therefore Thao should not change anything on the car to make it look modern, because it is good the way it is and worth to be kept that way.
My personal opinion about the movie
I liked the movie very much. The topic racism really interests me and here the story shows how racism can be all around you, but if you finally get up and try to understand the cultures, you may find something you like and realize that this foreign, strange culture is not as bad as you thought before. Also I like the character of Walt in this movie. He is a person, who just wants to be on his own, but when somebody needs help, even someone he does not know very well or he does not like, he comes around to help them. This way he makes a lot of good friends. Although he is always very skeptical, not very open-minded and even racist in the beginning, he opens up and learns many things, becomes happy and gets in touch with another culture. I truly admire the type of character Clint Eastwood represents in his movie. He seems to me somehow like the old heroes in the western movies: a serious, independent and though person.
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