Drama Unfolded: Analyzing Gran Torino

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Gran Torino is a drama that was released in 2008, directed by Clint Eastwood. This film tells a story about a man, Walt Kowalski, played by Eastwood, who was a Polish-American, recently widowed, Korean War veteran. Walt could be viewed as a hardworking, respectful man, yet stern and set in his own ways. During his time at war, Walt had killed a Korean boy who had been trying to surrender to him, which he had a hard time coping with for the rest of his life. Aside from being a veteran, Walt had retired from a Ford automobile plant, and owned a Gran Torino he had built himself. Walt had a young neighbor, Thao Vang Lor, a Hmong-American who was pressured into joining a gang made of up of his gangster cousins. As part of his initiation to the gang, …show more content…

It is apparent that the treatment Thao and his family experience from their community is much different from the treatment Walt receieves, and there are numerous instances of cultural barriers in communication. A particular situation in which this is portrayed takes place in a local barber shop where Walt is a regular customer. He decides to take Thao with him one day so that he can “learn how men talk to each other”. When they enter the barber shop, they are greeted by an Italian barber using the terms “Pollock” and “chink”. After Walt and the barber playfully insult each other using a variety of derogatory terms, Walt turns to Thao and says “that is how men talk to one another”. Thao, confused, asks “they do?” Walt then makes Thao walk outside and reenter the barber shop and greeting the barber in the same manner. When Thao reenters and greets the men using the same type of language, the barber quickly orders that he get out of his shop. They then suggest to Thao, that instead of using that type of language, he should have just said something normal, like “hi sir, I’d like to get a haircut”. This is implying that it was okay for Walt and the barber to talk to each other using that type of language, but because Thao was of a different ethnicity, it would not be accepted from

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