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“Gran Torino is in many ways a suburban Unforgiven but with a more hopeful message of redemption”. Gran Torino. A film that “celebrates life and honour in the same beautiful way that Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers did.”. Clint Eastwood was asked.
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“Gran Torino is in many ways a suburban Unforgiven but with a more hopeful message of redemption” Gran Torino A film that “celebrates life and honour in the same beautiful way that Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers did.”
Clint Eastwood was asked... “Can’t films be used to teach people instead of sending messages of violence?” He replied: “Yeah, I think they can do that. They certainly have the ability. But I don’t think that Hollywood should get to the point of propagandizing. I mean, it should have it’s effect unintentionally...” After Unforgiven came out – a film about violence and revenge...Are the messages of Gran Torino ‘in your face’?
Matthew Toffolo Reviews Gran Torino “Gran Torino is a film about regret and trying to overcome it, no matter how old you are.” What does Walt regret? • Regrets not being close to his son • Killing young men in Korea • Cheating on his wife • Selling a boat and not paying the tax How is his regret shown? • He has outbursts about war – He’s a bitter man How does he redeem himself from it? • He finally goes to confession (his wife’s request) • Dies to put the gang members in jail.
Said of Clint Eastwood...Do they apply to Walt Kowalski? “His squint alone has the ability to make lesser filmmakers renounce the craft altogether and his gravelly snarl has made plenty of punks reassess the status of their luck.”
Walt Kowalski • Stuck in his ways • A man at odds with himself, angry, bitter, lonely • Starts with growly, staunch old man. His relationship with Sue and Thao softens him (single tear, sitting in the dark after what happens to Sue) • Independent, old man, his wife has just passed away • Two sons, not close to them at all • Worked for 50 years at Ford plant at Highland Park • Put steering column in his 1972 Gran Torino • Last white-American in a neighbourhood populated by immigrants • Values hard work, self reliance, respect • No tolerance for laziness or fools • Racist – ‘chinks’ ‘zipper-head’ mean at the start but racial slurs become affectionate in the same way he speaks to his friends – the barber and construction foreman. • Steps up and becomes ‘man of the house’ after the drive-by shooting. • Angry understanding about life and death – his life has been very bitter, his death is bitter-sweet. • Resists relationships – Relationship with Sue and Thao and Father Janovich is what allows him to find peace.
Character • Eastwood’s films are personal to him (he has worked with a number of people on his crews for many years)...People have questioned if this will be the last film Eastwood will act it. Appropriately we can ask is this film Clint Eastwood (the man) contemplating his own life and regrets? It would certainly seem so. • Eastwood’s films always contain unique friendships. “Eastwood is looking for that universal connection within his films”. In a number of his films, recently and notably Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby the unique friendship takes the form of the “mentor/protege” setup “the ones where people learn from one another because they are from different generations and see the world differently”.
Character • “a strong stoic type whose sorrow lurks under the surface but who is wept over by other characters and by the audience” – Tania Modleski. • How does Eastwood achieve this with Walt? • “Here is a supreme instance of man’s loss turning into a gain” – Modleski • A Hmong shaman tells Walt he is not at peace. In the bathroom Walt considers his reflection and realises he received more insight “from these gooks” than his own family. He has more in common with people he earlier despised than his children (who he is not all that impressed with either). Advice from this Eastern religion is more meaningful to Walt than the ideas of a more traditional Catholic faith.
“Hope for a Racist, and maybe a Country” – Dargis Review • What does Dargis mean? • Walt is a typical representation of white racist old school America and if he can change there is hope for everyone else. This kind of racism isn’t necessarily from anger but from fear of the unknown. • Why did Eastwood end Gran Torino with the crucifixion pose? Clichéd? Sentimental? Sacramental? • The sacrifice a political message? • Dargis – “the suicidal death of the twentieth century hero represents one generation ‘making way for the next.’” • “Thao, who in the film’s final shot is at the wheel of the car, presumably travelling down the road of American freedom” • Sue points out that Hmong people fought on America’s side during Vietnam war – they died trying to save Americans, “but in the film the old white man dies to save the Hmong and achieves absolution for the sins of American Imperialism.” – In the same way Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima deal with realities of war, is Eastwood making another partial political statement about war and it’s effects on the people? Or airing guilt of the American people? Million Dollar Baby deals with “suffering of the ‘white trash’ female boxer and the pain of the black male” – Again Eastwood’s character takes on guilt of their lives and it motivates his actions.
Tania Modleski – Clint Eastwood and Male Weepies • “The film expresses a melancholy sense of America’s economic decline” • Clint Eastwood’s directorial work “questions violence, vengeance and the viability of Western notions of heroism.” • “Gran Torino appears to accept the impotence of the lone avenging hero” – Walt knows he alone can’t do much, but what he does do is significant for the people he does it for. As opposed to a ‘western’ hero who rides in, shoots ‘em up and saves the day.
Eastwood – The Director • Central character motivated by the death of wife (or loved one) – typical of westerns and Eastwood’s films, both ones he has acted in and directed. • (Especially recently) Eastwood plays a man at odds with himself, his failures, weighed down by his own refusal to forgive his sins. • Wrestles with complicated moral choices and goes into grey areas (through cinematography and thematic focuses.) • Escalates to a typically violent, melancholy conclusion
Eastwood – The Director “All of the films Clint has directed have in common a certain style and attitude...In general they possess a sort of unforced naturalism...He likes to do it [themes] straight-faced, effortlessly, without giving the audience a warning or explanation when he does insert his subtle improvisations [on typical genre related portrayals of themes]...At heart, Eastwood is a subversive; an elusive director who does not care to be easily understood, in fact, he prefers not to let his hand show at all...”
“He commands your attention when he is infront of the camera and he thoughtfully crafts every moment of a film when he is behind the camera. He makes the kind of films that he wants to make with the conviction that only a truly talented filmmaker can get away with. He is compassionate, socially conscious and not afraid of controversial subject matter. Finally, you always know that no matter how old he is he is always capable of kicking your ass. There is something eternally reassuring about that.”
Christian Symbolism • Walt’s wife’s last request to Father Janovich was that Walt go to confession. She initiates their relationship which becomes an important part of Walt’s realisation and redemption at the end of the film. • Christian symbolism and spiritual conflict central to Walt’s character – He’s never been at peace. • Film begins and ends in a church, with a death, gives a cyclical balance to the film and ends on a final note of completion. • Father’s typical Catholic interpretation of life and death is naive. Life is not black and white. It’s bloody. Walt’s bloody hands express the messiness of life after he realises what’s happened to Sue is partially his fault. • Confession – inevitably Walt confesses. He gets the minor things off his chest. However, not the one thing that has really bothered him. However he fulfils his wife’s dying wish. She is a reminder of what was good in his life. • Confesses killing the boy to Thao – screen door a symbolic confessional screen. Thao ‘saves’ Walt... Walt saves Thao...
Saviour and Sacrifice • Walt gives his life to save Thao and Sue. Walt softens up through his relationship with Thao, they develop a father-son relationship. In a biblical parallel Walt dies in a crucifixion position. Although, instead of the son dying, the father figure dies to save the son. • Ending is typically Eastwood in it’s violence and melancholy conclusion. However offers hope.
The Gran Torino and Patriotism • Walt is proud to maintain it – washes it, brings it out of the garage. • Unifying symbol – drives the action, the ‘vehicle’ that brings Thao into Walt’s life. • Everyone wants it, Walt can’t understand why • A symbol of prosperous history of Highland Park and Detroit. • Passes the car to Thao – a generational passing of values. Thao has learnt important life lessons from Walt • Final shot in the film is Thao and Daisy driving into the sun, American highway... Driving to a hopeful future? • Other patriotic symbols: American Flag, Labrador, Fridge “I fix things”, beer in the cooler.
Military Undertones • Walt has lived his whole life with guilt of shooting a young Korean boy during the Korean War. • After Hmong gang burn Thao’s face he beats up a gang member and threatens him with a gun. • Guns symbolic/represent damaging effects of violence and destruction that comes when we live with anger. Thao wants to go ‘guns-blazing’ with Walt’s rifle. The same gun he shot the Korean boy with in war. He doesn’t want Thao to be involved. Walt considers himself “soiled”. He doesn’t want that for Thao. • Give Thao his medal of honour. He teaches Thao how to live honourably and that doesn’t include violence and guns and gangs. • Thao wears the medal and drives the Gran Torino to the crime scene – Sue and Thao stand and look at the gang being arrested and taken away while Walt is put in a body bag in the ambulance.
Redemption • Gran Torino is a redemption story. It revolves around a man at the end of his life working through the things he regrets. He does this through finding meaningful relationships with his two young neighbours who fill a desire for meaningful family relationships, and a developing relationship with Father Janovich who represents his wife’s goodness and the Catholic church. Father Janovich allows Walt to end his life having fulfilled his wife’s dying wish and his own desire to pass on his values of integrity and hard work to another generation.
