In Gran Torino, there is a lot of things happening that I would like to point out for discussion.
First, we have to look at the beginning of the movie and how Walt is as a person. Walt comes from a different world in a sense. He was exposed to horrible things and put through a lot throughout the time of the wars. These events led him to a very racial and generation biased person.
Racially, he views other races as a problem to society. He views their traditions as silly because of his lack of exposure or maybe even acceptance into his own world. To a point, he takes American pride almost to a sense of ignorance just like a lot of people in the older generations did. He views all the work he did to form the country just for foreigners to almost come pollute it with their traditions and culture. He has a lot of issues of why to respect other races. At the same time, why would he give the cultures a chance when most the minorities he comes across doesn't give him a reason to respect them. They mostly are thugs or people that pick on the weak and for older generations stereotyping was very easy and hard to break. So we have questions that arise. Why is Walt so biased by race? Why is there so much hate? Why did he give them a chance? Why does he feel so much for people that he had no intention to meet?
Generationally, he views the younger generations as lazy and always taking the easy way out. This is why he never lets his kids help because they never live up to his standards (even something as simple as grabbing chairs). Additionally, he views them as needy and always having theirs hands out for things that Walt has earned. The only time they came to actually talk to him was about the car and the house for the most part (or the couch on the porch for the granddaughters dorm room). Like he said though, he just doesn't understand them and to a point probably never gave them a chance in his perfectionist world. You can also see the generation barrier being set with him and the priest. He doesn't believe the priest has experienced anything to be preaching to him or to earn his respect. To a point he was right. How could a young new priest know anything of life and death. He surely knows some but when talking to a older generation its almost negligible, especially after men have experienced war.
Besides these two big parts of Walt, his personality is brought into the perspective of the movie. His perfectionist style makes him a very hard mad to even talk to. Walt is a person that is very prideful in himself and is very possessive. He believes that most the time people talk to him is because they want something from him (and for the most part he is right). He never wants anything handed to him, he has to earn it. He loves to point out ignorance and stupidity in other people to almost teach them a lesson. His personality is also depicted in the way he talks to his friends. The insults are a way for them to relate and communicate with one another on a man level. They brush aside the politeness and get down to business. The cursing is interesting and raises the question of why do they consider it man talk?
This Walt starts to die out about half way into the movie when he saves the Hmong people from the low lives of the neighborhood. By doing this Walt inadvertently opens his door for people to associate with him. The people usually are able to get in the door with Walt when they are not intimidated by him. They almost earn his respect when they stand up to him. The more he learns about the culture and lives of the Hmong people the more he brings down his wall of ignorance toward them.
Lastly, we see Walt take on a new leaf of being a role model even when he failed in a sense on his children. In a way, I think he views Tau as someone who is worthy of a better life and can earn it (unlikely his sons). He doesn't come into Walt's life with his hand out and does what is asked of him and in a way Walt respects a lot. To the point he is reaching out farther then he would for anyone else. This is personified by the ultimate sacrifice of not bringing a gun to a gun fight to get all the Hmong thugs on their path of life in prison. This brings up interesting points as well. Is he doing it for Tau or is he trying to make mends for not giving his children the same chance?
Overall, this movie is a great choice to see a lot of different relationships and how people change when a chance is presented (and accepted). Also a great look into culture and how things are perceived from the other persons side.
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Incredible analysis, Greg. I never really saw that far into Walt's personality and your take on it is really interesting!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I thought that his ultimate sacrifice was to make up for the people he had killed back when he was a soldier; At one point in the movie (when he locked Thao in the basement, I believe) he explained that Thao could never possibly imagine how it is to kill a man, and even remarked that the 'gooks' he killed didn't even have weapons to protect themselves (I hope I'm remembering this all correctly)
My take on the movie is that perhaps he was searching for justification in the war he took part in, and that he was passively seeking that peace the priest would constantly reiterate on throughout the movie.
His ultimate sacrifice of bringing along no weapons, to me, was retribution for the lives he had killed back in his soldier days. This is how I take it considering he never confessed murder to the priest before going out to confront the Hmong gang.
In a sense this makes it ironic, for him to find himself laying down his life for the same race of people he killed in the war. He had laid out the situation possibly in the same way it was back in his days, but reversed the roles of assailant and victim.
It's true that he began to see Thao in the light that he is worth of a better life than his sons who seemed self-centered and non-caring; I think this loose-end of the story was tied up when his will was read out with his Gran Torino was passed on to Thao rather than his grand-daughter(?).
I agree on your overall view of the movie. Allowing the breaking down of stereotypes or false perceptions really makes a huge difference. This is just my two cents though, I hope I didn't misunderstand anything about the movie or what you said!
I was going to say what Michelle said so well -- about perhaps Walt sacrificing himself for Thao and his family to make up for the Korean soldiers he killed. I think Walt might see the Hmong as the same or near enough to the Koreans, though of course they are not the same people/race/ethnicity at all, except from the viewpoint of a non-Asian outsider. American society, census takers, and official forms lump all of Asian/Far Eastern culture into one, but of course each is distinct and different from one another, just as the Spanish, Bulgarian, and German cultures are not all the same, just as Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, and Iraqi cultures are not all the same.
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