Sue gains a father figure too, and a friend; she finds Walt invaluable in her battle to keep Thao on the straight and narrow. The movie centers around Walt, a Korean War veteran whose wife has recently passed away leaving him unhappy, angry, and disappointed in the behaviors of his family and country. Along the way, he fends off the sincere but very young parish priest (a persuasive Christopher Carley), who is only carrying out the deathbed wishes of the late Mrs. Kowalski. Gran Torino is a 2008 film that Clint Eastwood produced and starred in. He is a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. His housing area has become populated with poor, immigrant families and gang violence has become commonplace. This was Eastwood's first starring role since 2004's Million Dollar Baby. This doesn't involve some kind of grand transformation. Rated R
Just as Clint Eastwood's character, Walt, earns the respect of the Hmong community in the film, Eastwood himself was similarly appreciated by the Laos Hmong American community as a whole for portraying them in the movie. Hardly even nominal. Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, Thao Lor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino. Gran Torino is a 2008 film that Clint Eastwood produced and starred in. What other figure in the history of the cinema has been an actor for 53 years, a director for 37, won two Oscars for direction, two more for best picture, plus the Thalberg Award, and at 78 can direct himself in his own film and look meaner than hell? He does not believe that he should be rewarded for doing the the right thing. In his eyes, they're overweight meddlers working at meaningless jobs, and his granddaughter is a self-centered greed machine.
Walt is not so much a racist as a security guard, protecting his own security. Eastwood plays the character as a man bursting with energy, most of which he uses to hold himself in.
Written by people who wish to remain anonymous Walt Kowalski is the main character of the film, and played by Clint Eastwood.
resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. He resents the new violence in his community that has come with the first generation Hmong Americans, but he does not believe that they are representative of the community as a whole. When they threaten Thao to make him try to steal the Gran Torino, Walt catches him red-handed and would just as soon shoot him as not. Among actors of Eastwood's generation, James Garner might have been able to play this role, but my guess is, he'd be too nice in it.
We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. T he Ford Gran Torino earned its footnote in pop culture history when a ketchup-red 75 model with a white racing stripe was featured every week in … The film features a large Hmong American cast, as well as one of Eastwood's younger sons, Scott. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. The movie centers around Walt, a Korean War veteran whose wife has recently passed away leaving him unhappy, angry, and disappointed in the behaviors of his family and country.
When Sue is threatened by some black bullies, Walt's eyes narrow and he growls and gets involved because it is his nature. Thao gains a father figure he is much in need of, and a surprising ally in his quest to stay out of the gang lifestyle forced upon him by his cousin.
Set in Highland Park, Michigan, it is the first mainstream American film to feature Hmong Americans. The Question and Answer section for Gran Torino is a great will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. GradeSaver, 7 May 2020 Web. He sits on his porch defending the theory that your right to walk through this world ends when your toe touches his lawn. Then it occurred to me Walt didn't know it wasn't realistic. He is a man who does the right thing because it is the right thing to do; when he defends Thao, Thao's family bring food and thank you gifts to his door, which he finds embarrassing and does not like. "Gran Torino Study Guide: Analysis". After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Walt sits on his porch all day long, when he's not doing house repairs or working on his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a car he helped assemble on the Ford assembly line. Then Thao's sister Sue (Ahney Her, likable and sensible) comes over to apologize for her family and offer Thao's services for odd jobs, Walt accepts only reluctantly. When he gets to know Thao, the teenage Hmong who lives next door, he takes him down to his barber for a lesson in how Americans talk. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Gran Torino essays are academic essays for citation. "Gran Torino" isn't a liberal parable.
for language throughout and some violence, Bonded and Unbound: Sean Connery, 1930-2020, Disney+'s The Mandalorian Makes a Valiant Return in Season Two Opener, Amazon's Truth Seekers is Missing Jokes and Scares. With Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley, Ahney Her. this section. Dirty Harry on a pension, we're thinking, until we realize that only the autoworker retired; Dirty Harry is still on the job. I would like to grow up to be like Clint Eastwood. An editor And it helps if you live in the kind of neighborhood where they are next door. He sees a carload of Hmong gangstas trying to enlist the quiet, studious Thao into their thuggery. Walt makes no apologies for who he is, and that's why, when he begins to decide he likes his neighbors better than his own family, it means something. Walt is a nominal Catholic. Not affiliated with Harvard College. In fact, he rightly believes that they are only interested in their inheritance. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Walt gains an extended family who want him in their lives, and a son and daughter in Thao and Sue who find his influence both welcome and beneficial to them.
Walt is a man of fairness.
Throughout the film, Walt’s demeanor and feelings toward the significantly different culture surrounding him soften and he eventually gives his life to protect them. As Walt comes to understand and participate in the cultural traditions of his new neighbors, he begins to develop a friendship with the immigrant family next door. Eastwood's oldest son, Kyle, provided the score. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. The film co-stars Christopher Carley, Bee Vang and Ahney Her. It's more like, out of the frying pan and into the melting pot. So would Walt. It involves starting to see the "gooks" next door as people you love. It's about the belated flowering of a man's better nature. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Walt is not close to his own children. When his neighbor Thao Lor (Bee Vang), a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Walt Kowalski calls the Asian family next door "gooks" and "chinks" and so many other names he must have made it a study. His advice seems sage to Sue, who offers him an unlikely friendship that he did not know he was in need of. Gran Torino Summary. Ultimately, the characters each provide for the other the relationships that are lacking in their lives. "Gran Torino" is about two things, I believe.
When she drags him over to join a family gathering, Walt casually calls them all "gooks" and Sue a "dragon lady," they seem like awfully good sports about it, although a lot of them may not speak English. When Thao, Walt’s young neighbor, tries to steal Walt’s 1972 Ford Torino to complete his initiation into a gang, Walt angrily prevents the theft, riffle in hand. I found this scene far from realistic and wondered what Walt was trying to teach Thao. He sees a lot. What with one thing and another, his life becomes strangely linked with these people, although Sue has to explain that the Hmong are mountain people from Laos who were U.S. allies and found it advisable to leave their homeland.
"Gran Torino" stars Eastwood as an American icon once again -- this time as a cantankerous, racist, beer-chugging retired Detroit autoworker who keeps his shotgun ready to lock and load. The Gran Torino Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. The skills that he would have liked to teach his own son and grandchildren seem fascinating to Thao. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. "Gran Torino" stars Eastwood as an American icon once again -- this time as a cantankerous, racist, beer-chugging retired Detroit autoworker who keeps his shotgun ready to lock and load.
Walt's believes in right and wrong. At first glance, Walt seems like a curmudgeonly old man who hates everyone and resents the influx of Asian immigrants that have altered the ethnic balance of his previously all-white community; but Walt is a complex man and he cannot be judged at first glance. He and the barber call each other a Polack and a dago and so on, and Thao is supposed to get the spirit. Each word, each scowl, seems to have broken loose from a deep place. How does he think this sounds? Eastwood the director, Eastwood the actor, Eastwood the invincible, Eastwood the old man.
If the climax seems too generic and pre-programmed, with too much happening fairly quickly, I like that better than if it just dribbled off into sweetness. Many Lao Hmong war r… Walt's wife has just died (I would have loved to meet her,) and his sons have learned once again that the old bastard wants them to stay the hell out of his business. The film is about a melding of cultures but it is also about the familial relationships that are sometimes found in the strangest and unlikeliest of places. And it's about Americans of different races growing more open to one another in the new century. They are not interested in including him in their own families, or in spending time learning from him, but one of the most interesting things about the movie is the way in which this rejected father is embraced as a father figure by two young people from a different culture and a different generation.