MarathonMike
Diamond Member
SPOILER ALERT! This contains a summary of the movie along with my personal take..........
I've seen the movie 'Gran Torino' a couple of times and read several reviews of the film. Not surprisingly, all the reviews can't condemn the "blatant anti-Asian Racism" strongly enough. Clearly, Walt Kowalski reflects the Racism of his generation and the general nasty disposition of many White men of the time. I certainly remember my neighborhood full of angry White Fathers who were mean to everyone, not just minorities.
But I think all the reviewers do the film an injustice by not exploring the story and the Walt Kowalski character in more depth. He certainly hurls awful slurs at his innocent Asian neighbors, but to me that is just being authentic to who Kowalski was. The more interesting side of him emerges as he takes the young teenager Thao under his wing and ends up protecting him from a local gang of Asian thugs.
He treats him like a son and later in the film when the gang beats and rapes Thao's sister, Kowalski literally sacrifices his own life to insure the gang is imprisoned and insures Thao's family is safe from them. The best scene imo is at the end of the movie where at the reading of his Will, Walt gives his prize car to Thao and not his own bratty grand daughter.
So what do you think? Was 'Gran Torino' just a vile Racist movie, or was it a fair exploration of the complex topic of Racism and what it means to be a Racist?
I've seen the movie 'Gran Torino' a couple of times and read several reviews of the film. Not surprisingly, all the reviews can't condemn the "blatant anti-Asian Racism" strongly enough. Clearly, Walt Kowalski reflects the Racism of his generation and the general nasty disposition of many White men of the time. I certainly remember my neighborhood full of angry White Fathers who were mean to everyone, not just minorities.
But I think all the reviewers do the film an injustice by not exploring the story and the Walt Kowalski character in more depth. He certainly hurls awful slurs at his innocent Asian neighbors, but to me that is just being authentic to who Kowalski was. The more interesting side of him emerges as he takes the young teenager Thao under his wing and ends up protecting him from a local gang of Asian thugs.
He treats him like a son and later in the film when the gang beats and rapes Thao's sister, Kowalski literally sacrifices his own life to insure the gang is imprisoned and insures Thao's family is safe from them. The best scene imo is at the end of the movie where at the reading of his Will, Walt gives his prize car to Thao and not his own bratty grand daughter.
So what do you think? Was 'Gran Torino' just a vile Racist movie, or was it a fair exploration of the complex topic of Racism and what it means to be a Racist?