Equality In Gran Torino

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The 2008 film Gran Torino is about a Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski who is the last person in his neighborhood dealing with new faces coming into the neighborhood. In this essay I will be talking about how certain film concepts are used in the film to talk about the film’s message of equality.
Firstly, Walt is seen at a racist, grumpy, old man who can’t wait to die. He doesn’t seem to have a purpose on this earth and just wants to be by himself. Even though it seems that Walt is a flat character he is actually a round character. Walt does have morals even though he is racist. Even though he is racist to everyone he doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. Walt takes in Thao in the time of need and essentially raises Thao as his own son. This to me was an important part of the film because its like Walt is getting a second chance at life. In a way he is trying to justify all of his sins. In a way it’s ironic that he is trying to man up a Hmong boy from Vietnam even though he killed many boys during the Korean War. I know they are two different kinds of people but because Walt is seen as a racist so he categorizes the people as all the same.
Furthermore, at the
A racist Korean veteran showing love and affection for a Hmong family that he has no real connection with. The film did a great job in showing how stereotyping shouldn’t be the path to take instead, people should form relationships. In this essay I talked about how certain film concepts are used in the film to talk about the film’s message of equality. Walt made the ultimate sacrifice for people he genuinely cared for by making a statement that at the end of the day everyone is equal. To me when Walt made a stance it was like he was saying that people come into this world and die but it’s how the person makes the most out of their time on earth is what matters most. That’s what Walt did by making peace with

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