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Gran Torino
‘Gran
Torino’ is a film directed and starred by Clint Eastwood, who brings to life
the character of Walt Kawolski, a racist Korean War veteran living in a
neighbourhood where people from different races, mainly Asians, live too. Walt is
a grumpy old person and has a really hard character that complicates the
relationship with his family and neighbours, but with the last ones it will
gradually change. The film starts in the Walt wife’s funeral, apparently the
only person that he really loves.
As I said,
the main character is Walt and we can see how he evolves during the film. The
relationship whit his family is bad, they only worry about Walt by interest, he
knows it but he doesn´t mind, and he does what he wants. Walt loves his Gran Torino
car, one night he sees Thao, his Asian neighbour, trying to steal it (his
cousin forced him to do it if he wants to be part of the gang). When Thao’s
family realize that his child has done it, they say to Walt that Thao has to
help him, as a ‘punishment’ because of his mischief.
From then
on, Walt sees Thao maybe as the grandchild that he would like to have. He
teaches him to be a good boy, to get a job... Walt is like a teacher, or mentor
to Thao. At first he ‘hates’ them, now he is growing fond whit Thao and Sue,
and their family. Walt becomes the ‘hero’ of the family when he saves them from
the cousin’s gang threating them. The neighbourhood gives Walt presents to
express their thanks.
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| Teaching Thao how to use the tools |
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| Neighbours expressing their thanks. |
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| Teaching Thao how to speak with others. |
Unfortunately,
the cousin’s gang will took revenge on them, they are going to shoot Thao’s
house and to rape Sue. After that, Thao wants to clear his sister’s name
killing the gang, but Walt will prevent it. First of all, Walt goes to
confession, he tells the priest Janovich he regrets not to be a good father,
his action during the war... (He had never wanted to do it, despite it was his
wife’s wish), so in this action we can see again a change in Walt’s mentality.
The end of
the film is really unexpected, most people would think that Walt would go to
the cousin’s house and would kill everyone who is part of the gang. But it didn’t
happen like that. Right, he goes to the cousin’s house but he lets himself be
killed in order to help the neighbourhood; the cousin and his gang will go to
prison. We can say that Walt dies to save the rest of the neighbourhood from
the gang. In that sense, Walt is a representation of Jesus Christ’s death.
The main subjects
that appear in the film are:
- + Racism:
Walt hates his neighbourhood because it is plenty of immigrants, he speaks with
them always with superiority... We also see that the different gangs are formed
by people who are from the same culture.
- + Prejudices:
Walt is full of prejudices; he hates almost everything and everyone (his
neighbours, his family, religion ...). Fortunately, he changes thanks to Thao,
Sue, and the priest.
- + Violence
is everywhere, the gangs; Walt is a Korean War veteran...
- + Interest:
We can see it in the relationship that Walt’s family have with Walt, they only
want to get rid of him. At the end, we see that Walt knew that and when he dies
he doesn’t give anything to his family.
All of them
are problems that we also see in our society nowadays.
I think
this film it’s really good, it makes you really think about change, about how
people can change. Walt heated the immigrants, his neighbours, and after, he
dies for them.
The film is
also enjoyable with touches of black humour but that Walt uses them with
affection.
I love the
director and actor, Clint Eastwood, and the social criticism that He does in
the film.
