A Reflection on Gran Torino
Gran Torino is an interesting portrayal of communication dilemmas, spread out across several characters and in particular that of main character Walt Kowalski. After the death of his wife, Walt is bombarded with unwanted attention from several angles and attempts to “deal” with the attention to the best of his ability. There are many examples of communication struggles in the film, but they all seem to follow a similar pattern, and that is distance in time and culture. I’d like to focus on some of these communication barriers between his family, neighbors and priest and see how some of these walls got broken down, or could have been removed more easily.
From the start of the film you’ll notice right away that Walt
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After years of having a racist mentality brought about by war and his own time period, Walt is reluctantly levitated to hero status by that of his “gook” neighbors, after running off some threatening gang members and stepping in to save the girl next door from some street thugs. Walt shuns all advances of the neighbor’s gratitude with racial slurs, harsh stares and blatant disrespect. He finds their gifts to be weird and odd at best, and a downright invasion of privacy at worse. This is shown by his glares of bewilderment as he proceeds to throw all of their gifts in the garbage. Walt’s character is very driven in body language expressions and when he does speak, much is said with little words. The difference in cultures is shown when Walt is next door and pats the young girl on the head, he proceeds to insult everyone for staring at him and then is given a few lesson in cultural differences which he shrugs off at the time by calling them weird people. Ironically the person in the room he probably has the most in common with is the one he can’t understand a word from, their bitter and angry grandmother. The communication barrier is finally broken down when Walt begins to see similarities between himself and his neighbors. Walt begins to let loose of his old ideas and form a profound friendship with his neighbors. The fact that he never loses grip of
Humans are funny creatures. We judge and classify others and ourselves into groups. We tear apart others esteem to feel stronger. And we put limits on ourselves, whether they are thought up by our imagination or other’s. The truth is, we aren’t perfect, but we can become better, that is, if we choose to. Benchwarmers captures that thought perfectly. Though it is a comedy, and a very hilarious one at that, it provides some very true points to consider. Benchwarmers is a great movie to watch because within this side-splittingly funny movie, there are important messages such as: bullying is a double edged sword, stereotypes can be overcome, and that diversity is what makes life exciting.
As a young child growing up in a small country like The Kingdom of Thailand, I didn't have much experience with people of different races. I would often imagine what it would be like to be around people of other races within the own neighborhood. How could I interact with one to another? The movie, Grand Torino, is an inspiring movie that presents viewers with a real-life story of a grumpy old widower man, named Walt Kowalski, who faces all the challenges of growing old in America. This movie depicts the racial interactions as well as the personal struggles and emotions that come with aging within a very diverse community.
In a different situation, Walter would not display his selfish intentions. This behavior can be attributed to working in a degrading, underpaid position and not seeing results. Metaphorically speaking, Walter can be related to the furniture in the small apartment,?tired and broken in spirit?. Every black male in America can be regarded as a provider for his family. However, society does not afford black males the benefit of feeling secure about providing for their families....
Throughout the semester, we have been introduced to many topics related to interpersonal communication. I have come to believe that these concepts have allowed me to better understand interactions that occur in our daily lives. My knowledge of these concepts was challenged when asked to relate these notions to a movie. During the time that I was watching the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I realized myself grasping onto what was going on and being able to relate certain scenes and situations to topics I had previously learned about. Interactions in My Big Fat Greek Wedding display concepts of conflict and politeness theory, which can be pointed out in a few specific scenes.
“Who was the most racist in that situation? Was it the white man who was too terrified to confront his black neighbors on their rudeness? Was it the black folks who abandoned their mattress on their curb? … Or was it all of us, black and white, passively revealing that, despite our surface friendliness, we didn’t really care about one another?” He never blames the black neighbors for their disregard of the mattress because their black, but sounds aware of the stereotyping and how he comes off addressing it. He also knows how much he stands out in the community as a minority, wondering what the cops would say to him, “ ‘Buddy,’ the cops would say. ‘You don’t fit the profile of the neighborhood.” Despite his pride in his actions of disposing of the mattress, the mistreatment by his black neighbors comes off as an unfortunate, but expected, consequence, “I knew the entire block would shun me. I felt pale and lost, like an American explorer in the
Sex, love, depression, guilt, trust, all are topics presented in this remarkably well written and performed drama. The Flick, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Annie Baker, serves to provide a social commentary which will leave the audience deep in thought well after the curtain closes. Emporia State Universities Production of this masterpiece was a masterpiece in itself, from the stunningly genuine portrayal of the characters of Avery and Rose, to the realism found within the set, every aspect of the production was superb.
This story takes place in the south during the civil rights movement when people were trying to eliminate poverty and racism from the society that they lived in. There are four important characters in this story, and the two main ones are Julian and his mother. Julian is a recent college graduate who lives with his mother but knows “some day [he’ll] start making money” (Mays 448). Julian sees the world as ever changing during the civil rights movement and does not like or condone racism. Although this is true he subconsciously is small minded and petty just like his mother. His mother often makes racist remarks and will not find herself sitting next to a black African American adult. She often would bring up the topic of race to Julian “every few days like a train on an open track” (Mays 449). She also makes her son ride the bus with her to the YMCA because of the new changes due to the civil rights movement and in some ways this makes Julian mad. As they begin to board the bus Julian and his mother argue but quickly board. Shortly later a black woman and her son named Carver board. Carver sits next to Julian’s mother, she does not mind, and Carver’s mother sits next to Julian. Carver’s mother is an impatient woman who ironically wears the same hat as Julian’s mother. The hat in many ways is a symbol of the ever changing south during the civil rights movement. It symbolizes the social equality between
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
An American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood which has gained recognition worldwide particularly because of Clintwood’s appealing directing style. It was recognized by the American Drama Institute as one of the “Ten Best Films of 2008”(Gran Torino, 2013) and debutedthe writer, Nick Schenk. Clint Eastwood demonstrates, through Mr. Walt, that if your past negatively affects your life and the way you see things, then its best to let go of it and start a new beginning. An intense film told with great humor, Gran Torino is a cinematic masterpiece. This film succeeds in its development in portraying the negative aspects involving multicultural communications and the bond formed by people from two extremely different generations.
The family goes through struggles, such as their son having dyslexia, their daughter joining private school, and George trying to find his biological father. Many of the statements and visuals portrayed are those that negatively illustrate how Mexicans and Cubans act.... ... middle of paper ... ... Social Cognition (2008): 314-332. Browne. "
Within the German Democratic Republic, there was a secret police force known as the Stasi, which was responsible for state surveillance, attempting to permeate every facet of life. Agents within and informants tied to the Stasi were both feared and hated, as there was no true semblance of privacy for most citizens. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie The Lives of Others follows one particular Stasi agent as he carries out his mission to spy on a well-known writer and his lover. As the film progresses, the audience is able to see the moral transformation of Stasi Captain Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler primarily through the director 's use of the script, colors and lighting, and music.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
The Fast and Furious franchise has been going on since 2001. Since then there have been seven movies to come out. Fast and Furious 7 may be the last movie in this series. With the actor Paul Walker, Bryan in the movie dead, there may not be any other way to produce another film. With that said, I thought the movie was very good and well thought of when coming to filming the rest of movie without Paul Walker and digitally having his face put in. In some scenes near the end of the movie you can tell that something is off and seems a little weird when looking at Paul’s character but aside from that it was a brilliant job done by the
Clint Eastwood’s film “Gran Torino” traces the end of the life of Walt Kowalski. He has recently gone through a lot – the death of his beloved wife, his distant relationship with his son, his emotional scars from the Korean War and his bad health. All these things stop him from living a proper life. He doesn’t care about himself much – he smokes even though he is sick, he doesn’t eat a lot, he refuses to confess even though that was his wife’s last wish. However, all this changes when he meets the Hmong Family that lives next door. At the beginning he detests them because of their similarity to the Koreans, but later, as he gets to know them, they become the family that he was never able to have. The story traces the psychological changes in Walt’s character due to his unusual bond with the Hmong family, which changes are one of the main strengths of the film.
We are all a product of our experiences, our struggles and choices in life will determined our attitude towards others and our overall outlook on life. Walt had a distinct standpoint theory he saw the world based on his position in life and made assumptions about Asians based on his experiences. Some would say people don’t change but in Grand Torino that just isn’t true. A mad hardened by the world gave his life at the end to protect two people he would have subjected to a mere slur had he never met them. He learned to care deeply for Sue and Tao and ultimately sacrificed himself to grant them comfort in life. This movie was extremely touching and the intercultural communication between the character was groundbreaking to watch. Ultimately