Gran Torino 2008: Breaking the Cross-Cultural Barrier - Movie Review Example

344885_Gran Torino 2008 Gran Torino 2008: Breaking the Cross-Cultural Barrier Synopsis Multi-awarded actor-director Clint Eastwood starred in a serious story of racial difference, peer pressure, belongingness, and open-mindedness. Gran Torino 2008 is the first film of Eastwood also himself as the lead role since the Oscar Award winner film “Million Dollar Baby.” Clint plays Walt Kowalski, a close-minded, self-absorbed Korean War veteran residing in a neighborhood totally strange to him, when eventually his prejudice to other races changed his world. In the film, Kowalski is a retired automobile worker who spends his day drinking beer and home repair. His life is lived apart from his two sons and having to deal with such predicament of disrespectful grandchildren. As an embittered veteran of the Korean War, he is widowed by his wife whose last wishes were for Walt was confession and retirement to his ill-feelings towards “other” people. For Walt’s, he trusts no one but his M-1 rifle which he makes it clean all the time and Daisy, his Labrador. Walt, an old man, is described as an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions. Walt Kowalski had no choice but to live surrounded by Hmong immigrants whom he despises greatly when all his neighbors have gone or transferred to another place. His prejudice over the Southeast Asian people is shown through his resentment in everything he sees about them which are foreign to him. He hates most the teenagers who belong to gangs of Hmong and Latino and African-American youth who think and act as if the whole neighborhood is their possession. The Hmong, who live next door, along with gang bangers roaming around the streets, displeases Walt. In one evening, when Thao, a member of Hmong settlers, steals Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino prized possession to please the gang he wished to join. Equipped with his prejudgment among those people, Walt abhors their lack of morals. Then he discovers that Thao’s cousin, who is among the gang, compels Thao to steal his vintage car as an initiation. Thao’s family make amends by insisting him to work for Walt. As much as possible, Walt resented any dealings with the immigrants but he was forced to accept which eventually led to a deeper relationship with them as the days go by. Later development made Walt realize the warmth and love of the Hmongs. He discovers and realizes certain truths about them due to their continued kindness. The Hmongs were provincial refugees in the past. Now becomes his friends and a defender of them too. Analysis Universal adage says, “there’s always a second chance.’ In the film, the theme of acceptance is highlighted in the character of Walt who is embittered and impermeable to the culture of other race. The character gradually leads to new possibilities and realization that life is not at all violent. Eastwood playing Walt is a character who seeks redemption. He is an angry man who seems to be not giving any chance for acceptance and love. This is also evident in his dealings with his children therefore summing up Walt as a blemished character. He is the kind of man or role who believes that he has nothing to lose for when he has everything to gain after realizing his old self. Exploring further the aspects of American culture and history, Sue, played by Ahney Her, the courageous Hmong neighbor who embraced the American society is an important point in the film. However, Bee Vang playing Thao is a mediocre actor because of his inability to match the intensity of Clint’s acting ability. Eastwood himself failed to put the chemistry between them because of the distance between their portrayals. Walt generally dislike the Hmong settlers because they are Asian but these people are specifically part of the local Hmong population, mountain folk from Laos, Thailand and elsewhere who sided with the United States during the Vietnam War and fled when the Americans left Southeast Asia. Walt is an unfriendly person who shows great disgust for people from other generation. He is an old cranky man who sees no one, accepts no one – the result of him being a racist or bigot. The good in it, the film has come to transforming the character far likely to his old self. Walt turns out to become a friend and protector of Hmong immigrants instead of the white race but it does not entirely mean that he disowns his color. Older generations of Americans especially in Walt who is a war veteran, his character expresses the gap in generation. As seen, Walt’s property and home are well-kept and organized. He fixes a lot of things having his tools properly arranged and kept in his garage, even his Frod Gran Torino which he keeps it intact and clean. But when the Hmong immigrants moved to his neighborhood, Walt calls them “swamp rats” (Daily Planet, 2009). The slur language thrown upon the people from the Asia is a sign not just about disrespect but violence. Since Walt has served the war in his own generation and was brought to finish his duties and kill indiscriminately, it is understood that he is an impassionate person who shows no mercy. Guys like Walt in Vietnam War are just like the Americans who killed because they hate gooks (‘gook’ is used as a disparaging term for a person of East Asian birth or descent). Walt is something of a Vietnam Veteran or a member of the World War II who killed in combat—with gruesome numbers he had killed maybe earned him a silver star for his valor. After the turnabout of character, Walt tries to reach in with his Hmong neighbors. When Walt catches Thao stealing his Gran Torino, the former’s family insists he work for Walt to make amends. At first, Walt has him make repairs around the neighborhood, wherefrom initiating a father-son relationship between extremely unlikely prospects. He teaches Thao in fixing things up his old fashioned way and defends the young man from gang-bangers who are highly influential in making Thao’s life with no sense of direction but avoids being subordinated with them. Further described in the article in Daily Planet, the gang bangers portrayed in Gran Torino are power hungry and brutal and well armed. They make things worse for someone who opposes them especially Walts who protects Thao. Yet, the protection has gone far beyond its limits when Walts has to finish them all for the better. Conflict with Kin Inspite of his upright justification as a War Veteran, Walt has never divulged his experience in the war to his sons and grandchildren. Ironically, his sons were reared in a suburban life who are spoiled brats and disrespectful of parents. They are young professionals who outgrew their father and made a world upholding different values for themselves. The relationship of a father and son is a manifestation of American psycho-dynamic in which neither one of them can relate to each other in the true sense of the relationship. Walt’s son is very distant to him and can’t even relate to him about his mission and duty. This, perhaps, is one reason why Walt is self-absorbed, resisting to accept and love ‘other’ people since the people he owns do not accept him. Maybe there is a misconception on both sides becoming either of them judgmental and cold. Other Conflicts Aside from Thao, Walts also becomes a defender to Sue when he rescues her from bad guys in the street. Interesting enough, Walts learns that among Hmong kids in America, the girls go to school and the boys to jail. Then Walts realizes that he has more in common with the people he usually detests than with his own family whose kids are spoiled grown ups. Walt’s own life is the total opposite of his Hmong neighbors. Then with Sue’s help he tries to mix with the warmth of her big family. The kindness displayed by the Hmong family to Walt for helping Sue and Thao is overwhelming as they showered him gifts constantly. Such generosity is very common among Asian people and it is not rather surprising to see this culture in the film because the practice is inherent to Asian culture, especially in the South East. Gran Torino isn’t just a film released to people of one generation. Its purpose is to communicate with all of us and unify and defy whatever conflicts we may have on our culture and race. The character may be a bitch grumpy old man but is left to evolve to chase its purpose since the character of Walt portrayed what is only a reality but this doesn’t imply that we have to viewers have to absorb everything they see in the movie including the slur speeches being thrown indiscriminately. They still matter because people have to understand the contention of being an American or an Asian of some sort. Gran Torino is basically a film about racism and ethnic prejudice. It is entirely a craft of Clint Eastwood’s work that is straightforward and honest about reality in the society. For the viewers, the film is supposed to present the changing face of the nation and that every race or country have some sort of similarity in culture, and we cannot deny that immigrants have a need to be understood even if they have assimilated the life they have built in a foreign land. Inadvertently as it may seem, Eastwood has just made the first film of the Barack Obama era. (McCarthy, 2008). As a Director The Grab Torino is one of two films Clint Eastwood has both directed and acted in - the first in the Academy Award Winning 2004 movie Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood is already an established icon of the film industry due to his magnificent talents in directing and creating well-crafted pieces of stories. Eastwood’s style in directing make him fast-paced and economical where he only allows one to two retakes before moving on to the next scenes. But this style doesn’t suit up for inexperienced actors like the Hmong who were part of the cast in Gran Torino. In Comparison to Other Clint Eastwood Roles/Films Clint Eastwood plays the mythical American Western hero, John Wayne in the movie Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone.The perception of the American hero is the shootin’ cowboy from the Old West, a mindset which continues to prevail as a universal symbol of American. The genre of the movie depicts an icon hero in Eastwood which seems totally deviates from Walt in Gran Torino. In the said flick, Eastwood emerging from a cowboy image holds true the image of a hero even with some sort of stubbornness that is totally different from Walt whose character is more of a antagonist at the beginning of the story and whose heroics gradually arose but not quite the typical American hero of the West. In contrast to Dirty Harry where Clint plays the archetypal bad cop, Walt’s badness doesn’t promise to save anything or anyone unless confronted with circumstances. While being cop is always a sure job to protect people. Besides, the action-laden genre of most of Eastwood’s films has gone into a mature theme in Gran Torino which more of a combination of crime and drama (Dennis, 2009). Yet, Eastwood seems to be making a similar point about his urban crime dramas in this film and also with the Dirty Harry films and Mystic River and Chalenging which are more violent. The heroism in the character thrives but Eastwood surprises the audience with characters living out their lives after years of reckless justice. In the film, ‘Unforgiven’ (1992) and ‘Blood Work’ (2002), a decade apart, Eastwood feels like happy endings are quite needed sometimes. Clint Eastwood is an icon that transcends genres. Gran Torino is a film recommended to study morality, honesty, racism, learning to be a neighbor, and even self-sacrificial behavior. Although the character of Walt in Torino to Randy Ram in ‘The Wrestler’ has in some ways similar, they both go out in their own terms. Further, The Wrestler does have in any way had the heart of redeeming value of Gran Torino. Randy Ram turned away on his daughter and on a woman he cares for so much in favor of fame and glory (Witherington, 2009). Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino did not leave his family for fame. Even if animosity thrives between Walt and his children, it has nothing to do with popularity. The character is thereby redeemed at the end when Walt realized the importance of family relationships in the face of Asian settlers in America. In ‘Unforgiven,’ Eastwood plays the role of a man who deals in memories of death that he has isolated himself from life, similar to Gran Torino where Walt preferred to live his alone when his wife died. However in Unforgiven, the character find that life insists on his taking part – that is, being violent. While Walt find peace in a new found life (Perry, 2009). Gran Torino is unique from other recent movies of Clint Eastwood while he attempts at covering every genre possible as a filmmaker and actor. Based on then review, such movie may be closest to him making an indie film. The movie explores racial conflicts; the touch of melodrama is present even if Eastwood did not deviate to the typical heroic cowboy type in his films. Evidently, Eastwood had fun in making serious and grim dramas in a row (Douglas, 2008). Moral Lesson The Gran Torino begins with the wake of Walt’s deceased wife. The attendance of his children and their wives is just merely ceremonial in nature with no affinity reflecting from their faces. The relationship of Walt to his family is clearly in these scenes. He lives in a pit because he has no real relationship with them even with his grandchildren who are irritated with his presence and plays with his medal of valor he acquired from his past battles in war. Walt is deteriorating and could not even tell his son about his medical condition. Walt owning a 1972 Gran Torino is treated with care in what the Hmong teenager in the strange neighborhood has to steal under pressure from a gang initiation. The scene marked the change in the lives of two different individuals belonging to two different dimension and culture. An evident racist locked into his Korean War mindset, Walt closed-mindedness over Hmong immigrants is set to transform when the group of people arrived. What is interesting in the character of Walt is his antagonistic nature suddenly transformed into a supportive father trying to reach out and make connection longing for a son. This can be true since Walt really have a strange relationship (or no relationship at all) with his own children. He relinquishes the spirit of Dirty Harry in protecting Thao from the gang-bangers. This initiated the bond between father and son. Another exposition of Walt’s tormented world is his encounter with a young Catholic priest in Father Janovich, who made a promise to Walt’s wife that he would check on Walt after she’s gone. Eastwood is effective in making the two characters float in their individual pursuit – the first one as innocent and the second as skeptic. Truly, Walt is a character and individual facing many problems in his quest for redemption in a society full of racism and hatred. The Gran Torino, the film that depicts the ideal America – Walt being absorbed in his vintage car, taking care of it while drinking his beer, misconceive other nationals, and upholding his citizenship as part of a historical war which waves his American flag constantly in his home – is finally pushing himself to befriend the ones he used to hate and defend them as if they are his blood and involved himself in the family. The film contains high emotional appeal just like the typical soap operas shown in Asia where the story leads the viewers to be indulged ‘emotionally’ because the reality and day to day issues are showcased. Eastwood manipulates the emotional side which he believes will gradually lure the audience into an emotional involvement with the connection Walt made with the Hmong neighbors. This time, Eastwood himself played the serious dramatic type resolving the issue of Walt about his contentions in life. Probably, the interracial connection and involvement to the Hmong family are the best parts of the movie. He is influential in helping Thao to become a stronger person and his willingness to save the family from the gang even if it means his death depicts his valor and the sense of his oath as a soldier—willing to die to defend. Soldiers wage war to kill many and defend millions. Walt believes that it is also by dying that he repays all the people he killed in war. But this must be with sense and purely symbolical, that is, to grab the opportunity of changing his view regarding prejudice, discrimination, and racism. Two evident messages are depicted in the film for the discernment of the viewers. The first one presents the life of the Westerners, their innate culture of having busy lives most of the time (primary reason why children are less attached to parents). Eastwood tries to magnify such problem, if it is really a problem, so that other cultures could understand why that Western society is fail to neither communicate nor assimilate to the culture of other races. Some forget the importance of life experiences and the extent of lesson you can get from them. The second message the film depicts is about racial prejudice and how it puts distance in between people and judge them by the book without letting the heart reach for understanding. As prejudice denotes prejudgment, the ‘judged’ party is left with no room to explain his side or to be understood. Eastwood presenting Walt as an old, hardened man in the movie, the audience loves to find the soft center in him. Bu he is a man with a heart different from what his mouth says. His voice and language appears to drop offensive thoughts focused to other races and cultures. If the audience reacts violently to the racial slur that inadvertently flow from Walt’s lips, they will really misunderstand the character or fail to see the beauty of the inner self, or to understand that what the mouth says, the heart means the other way most of the time. They should realize that even though degrading words come out from the lips of a person in terms of racial concerns, such man is capable to change or worthy of love and acceptance. Because, those who fail to understand, are also guilty of prejudice. It is noteworthy to realize that every man is open to change no matter how ‘closed’ or narrow his thinking might be. Understanding someone that is different is not that easy. But if people will only be honest with themselves, they will easily acknowledge those that are different or at least minimal for those who can’t avoid to be prejudging. In everyday, we encounter and interact with people of our own race and background and also with those who belong to different races. Yet, we are also guilty of prejudice and discrimination when we say offensive remark to them without their knowledge. In some terms, we become racists too and we are irrational. Walt Kowalski is a perfect representation of a person having misconceived as an irrational, racist person due to his unwillingness to open his heart and reach out to his own family. But the truth is, his fellow Americans never seem to care. And the people he trusted more are those not of his race and culture although they live in one community. Kowalski may have a mouth that shows prejudice; he has a heart that is willing to love in the other end. It was difficult for him at first but gradually he learned to embrace the foreign culture that wakes him from a deep nightmare. He gave his life to two teenagers of different race by accepting and loving them. If, in the same way, we could be like Walt and possess the capacity to look beyond words, we will break the hurdles of discrimination, prejudice and racism.   References: Daily Planet, 2009. Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood. info@dailyplanet.net. Web. Accessed on 11 Dec 2009. Dennis, Michael, 2009. What is Heroism? Web. Accessed on 12 Dec 2009. Douglas, Edward, 2008. Gran Torino. Web. Accessed on 12 Dec 2009. < http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=51219> Jason Bellamy, Saturday, January 10, 2009, The Cooler. Web. Accessed on 9 Dec 2009. McCarthy, 2008. Gran Torino. Variety. Web. Accessed on 9 Dec 2009. Perry, Douglas, 2009. Eastwood Chases Down Violence in Gran Torino. Mad About Movies, OregonLive.com. Web. Accessed on 12 Dec 2009. Witherington, Ben, 2009. Two Men Leaving On Their Own terms – Gran Torino and The Wrestler. Web. Accessed on 12 Dec 2009. < http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2009/02/two-men-leaving-on-their-own-terms-gran.html> Read More