In the 2008 movie Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, a retired autoworker who is recently widowed. Walt lives in what once was a thriving middle class, predominantly white, Detroit neighborhood that now is run down, ran by gangs, and has violence crime. Walt’s neighborhood is also has a large Asian community. A lot of this movie focuses on racial prejudices he has towards the Asian people living next door. Walt is a Korean War veteran and often recalls the horrific treatment of the Asian people that he witnessed. After returning from his wife’s funeral, there’s a gathering of family and friends at Walt’s house. He’s not happy that everyone is there and when the doorbell rings, he grumbles even more. It’s Thao (played by Bee Vang) his Hmong teenage neighbor. This is the first time we’re introduced to this character and see how prejudice Walt still is when he refers to his neighbors as “chinks, gooks, and zipper heads”. The neighborhood is controlled by gangs and one of those gangs is trying to recruit Thao but he doesn’t want anything to do with them. One member of the …show more content…
gang is his cousin who continues to harass him until he finally asks what his initiation is. Everyone knows that Walt Kowalski has a prize 1972 Gran Torino that he himself helped build before he retired. Thao’s initiation to the gang is to steal Walt’s car. Thao makes an attempt to steal the car but is met by Walt who is brandishing a gun. In the meantime, Walt rescue’s Thao’s sister Sue (played by Ahney Her) from a group of young African American guys who were hanging out on a corner and tried to stop Sue. Walt was driving by and saw Sue being harassed by these guys so he stops, picks her up, and gives her a ride home. He slowly starts to befriend his neighbors and actually becomes sort of a hero of the neighborhood after saving both Thao and Sue from the gangs. All of his neighbors start leaving gifts of food on his porch to show their appreciation. Walt starts mentoring Thao and helps him get a job, get tools, and headed down the right road. A road that doesn’t include the gang. This angers the gang members so they do a drive by shooting at Thao’s house. The house is riddled with bullets. Thao’s family makes him work for Walt as repayment for trying to steal the Gran Torino. Together they work on some of the houses in the neighborhood to try to restore them and make the area look nicer. One day while they were working, Sue stumbles into her house. She’s been beaten severely by the gang. It’s at that moment that Walt decides to get revenge on the gang for all they’ve done to the Hmong community and especially what they’ve done to Sue and Thao. He drives over to the gang member’s house and waits for someone to come out. They come out to confront him with their guns drawn. Other people come out of their houses to see what’s going on too. Walt puts a cigarette in his mouth and asks for a light. No one offered a light so he puts his hand in his pocket to get a lighter. When he pulls his hand out, he’s pretending that he has a gun in his hand which makes all the gang members to open fire and they shoot him several times. After falling to the ground, you see that all Walt had in his hand was a lighter to light his cigarette. He was unarmed. He was killed because the gang members thought he was going to pull a gun on them and that’s exactly what he wanted them to do. He drew them out of their house, out into the public where everyone could witness the killing. There’s so much going on in this movie from racism, gang activity, assault, theft, and ultimately murder that are scary to think that these things go on in my own neighborhood. Criminologists have come up with different theories to explain why people commit crimes. Some of those theories are the strain theory, social learning theory, control theory, and the labeling theory just to name a few. The strain theory suggests that people commit crimes based on not conforming to the “norms” that society has set up. Robert Merton, an American sociologist, believes that society has placed too much emphasis on the American dream which in turn places pressure on an individual to either perform up to those standards or become a deviant or a criminal. When a person is faced with their reality which might be living in poverty, they become strained when they try to live up to what others declare as a normal standard of living. This strain along with the lack of opportunities tends to encourage some people, especially the poor to engage in forms of street crimes. He also believes that once poor always poor and that the poor cannot become wealthy. According to Merton, the strain between our culture's emphasis on wealth and the lack of opportunities for success may encourage some people, especially the poor, to engage in stealing, selling drugs, or other forms of street crime (Merton's Strain Theory, n.d., para. 4). In poverty stricken areas the potential for gang activity is high. Gangs offer an opportunity for an individual to join a group with common goals. Those goals might include financial gain. A gang can provide financially for members because the members can come together to commit crimes. It’s easier for a group to steal or commit burglaries as opposed to one person trying to do it. Another socialist, Cohen differs from Merton’s theory in that Cohen theorizes that gangs are created to gain social status and acceptance and not to gain monetarily or materialistically. Cohen explained that the crimes committed by gangs were not done to achieve monetary success but to achieve social acceptance. The strain theory summarizes that if a youth doesn’t have the means to succeed monetarily, they will resort to gangs to achieve that success. Social learning theory says that you are a product of your environment. If you are around deviant people you will begin to act like them. If you surround yourself with are criminals, you begin to admire the results of those crimes and start to immolate those crimes. According to Crossman, individuals often model or imitate the behavior of others, especially if it is someone that individual looks up to or admires (para. 8). If you see someone you know participating in criminal activities, benefiting from those activities, and not being punished for it, you might decide to do it yourself to reap those same benefits. This theory was developed by Burgess and Akers in 1966, indicates that criminal behavior is a learned behavior based on the environment you’re in and it’s not an instinctual behavior that you’re born with (Social Learning Definition, para. 3). An example of this can be seen in an experiment by Albert Bandura in the 1960’s. It was called the Bobo doll experiment and consisted of a group of kids watching how adults interact with a doll. The adults mistreated the doll by punching, hitting, kicking, and yelling at it. Later the kids were put in a room filled with toys, including the Bobo doll. More than half of them treated the doll the same way they watched their parent treat it (Social Learning Definition, para. 3). The same can be true of crime. If that the environment your surrounded by, is filled with deviant acts, you will do the same. If your friends are thieves, you will be considered a thief too. In Gran Torino, Walt is doing everything he can to prevent Thao becoming prey to the gangs he’s surrounded by and falling victim of the social learning theory.
Walt could have easily just continued to stay away from Thao and sat back and watched him give into the peer pressure. He did give in when he tried to steal Walt’s car but after he was unsuccessful, he didn’t try again. This was because Walt stepped in and provided a different way of life. Walt had him helping around the neighborhood doing cosmetic repairs to some of the houses around there. He started with a neighbor across the street and eventually Walt was able to secure a job for Thao based on his performance with the things he was doing to revitalize the area. Walt helped Thao get the necessary tools and supplies he needed for his job. Had it not been for Walt’s intervention, Thao could have given in to the
pressure. The failing economy in the Detroit neighborhood created another obstacle Thao had to overcome. The strain theory describes how the lack of opportunities leads to crime. Given the fact that the automotive industry had been the leading employer in the area and most of those factories had shut down, the poverty level rose. With the lack of jobs and living an immigrant community, Thao was up against a double edged sword. Statistics show that gang activity in immigrant communities is higher than in any other community. The higher the poverty level, the more gang activity. Most immigrants are often segregated within their own communities, within their own ethnic minority. It is said that if a person is poor and an ethnic minority, they are more likely to have personal contacts with people who are already involved in crime (Illegal Immigration: Drugs, gangs and crime, para 8). Walt himself was also part of a social learning theory. His racism is a deviant activity. He probably learned this behavior from his parents who learned it from their parents, and so on. Racism was the norm years ago but no longer is. Communities are so racially diverse now that it’s no longer tolerated. The neighborhood Walt and Thao lived in was a culturally diverse area. It once was a predominantly white, middle class area, but after the automotive industry slowed down and factories closed, the white families moved out and other ethnic groups moved in. In the beginning of the movie, Walt was blatantly racist and didn’t think twice about using racial slurs to describe his neighbors. Throughout the movie, he slowly began to accept everyone and no long used racial comments. He even was accepting enough to have dinner’s with Thao and Sue’s family and began to learn about their culture. Racism is a sign of ignorance and educating Walt seemed to end that. There are several criminological theories and variations of each. They’ve been refined and have changed over the decades since their first introductions. As we continue to evolve these theories will continue to change to reflect the changes in society. What once was acceptable no longer is and we as adults have to model that behavior. Just like the Bobo doll experiment, kids will copy behavior seen in adults. If adults can stop and think about what they’re doing and showing kids, everything could change. Like Walt and racism he changed this learned behavior. In the movie Gran Torino, the car represented to Walt a time when he was at his best. He was superior in his mind to other races. Having endured and witnessed what he did during the Korean War changed him into a disgruntled, angry old man. Having spent time with Thao and his family made his opinions change. If he can change, we all can change and it shouldn’t have to take theft, rape, and other forms of violence to get us to change.
Racism causes Walter’s to think different about the world. As a teen Walter started to realize racism would always be apart of his life. At school Walter only found white authors and white people that made history. Cabs didn’t stop for “colored” people so the had to take the train. “We did not get many yellow cabs coming to the street, because downtown cabs did not stop for black people” (Page 59).
The movie Gran Torino from 2008 stars Clint Eastwood as a Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran. The film starts at his wife’s funeral and when he goes back home, he notices his neighbors, who are Hmong. Walt’s displeasure with them is clear as he spits when he sees the grandmother of the family. That night, the Hmong boy Thao tries to steal his Gran Torino as an initiation to join his cousin’s gang. His attempt is fruitless and caught by Walt. Thao then tries to avoid joining the gang, but they come back to force him. At this point, Walt comes out to stop the ordeal by threatening to shoot. Slowly, Walt shies away from his racist ways and becomes a mentor and friend to Thao and his family. He teaches Thao and gets him a job, but the gang beats Thao up, shoots up his house, and beats up his sister. Walt was not going to allow this to continue, so he decided on a plan. He went to the gang’s house where he let them kill him. Finally, the gang goes to jail and Walt grants his Gran Torino to Thao instead of his family in his will.
The movie Crash was directed by Paul Haggis is a powerful film that displays how race is still a sociological problem that affects one 's life. It also focuses on how we should not stereotype people based on their color because one may come out wrong in the end. Stereotyping is a major issue that is still happening in today 's society and seems to only be getting worse. This movie is a great way to see the daily life and struggle of other races and see how racism can happen to anyone, not just African Americans which seems to only be seen in the news and such.
This was especially evident when they were being pulled over by a racist white cop. She felt that he could have done more to defend their rights instead of accepting injustice. There is also a Persian store owner, who feels that he is getting the short end of the stick in American society because his store was robbed multiple times. Then the Hispanic locksmith encounters racial slurs and discrimination, although he just wanted to keep his family safe. The partnered detectives and lovers of different races, one is a Hispanic woman and the other is a black male, who are dealing with his drug addicted mother who feels that he does not care enough about taking care of his family. In this movie, discrimination and prejudice are the cause of all kinds of collisions. We easily prejudge people with stereotypes, and we are concerned with our pre-thoughts of what kind of person he/she should be, we forget to actually get to know them. It is human nature to have some type of prejudices in one way or another; we fear the unknown. There are stereotypes that black people are angry or tend to be violent; white people feel they are the dominant race and discriminate against all; Asians are thought to be poor or ignorant, and people with higher economic statuses are distinguished to the working class
The movie “Gran Torino” has many instances of inequality. Inequality in the United States of America is a problem that has been around and will continue to be around until the United States no longer exists. Since Clint Eastwood’s character, Walt Kowalski, is a racist, inequality abounds in this movie. The movie shows the interactions Walt has with his grandchildren and, more importantly, the Hmong people. Walt has a problem communicating with any non-white person. He is wildly inappropriate and seems to enjoy being that way. He is the stereotypical, racist white man that sits on his porch yelling and screaming at everyone that walks on his lawn. He has no use for anyone except himself.
In Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino (2008), the main character Thao Vang Lor struggles to fulfill the male role in a Hmong household, and initially Thao is introduced washing dishes, considered “women’s work”. To obtain his masculinity, Thao has two paths to choose. The first is to join his cousin’s gang, which will inevitably lead to jail. The other option is to accept the tutelage of his neighbor Walt Kowalski, who will teach him to be a self-sufficient American man. Thao accepts his help, and Walt guides him to manhood, by teaching him work ethic, and by giving him a job and a car. Through Walt’s sacrifices and teaching Thao now possesses the ability to live free from gangs and delinquency.
For the third and final paper film review, I decided to watch “Gran Torino” after I heard our class hyped it up and classmates said it is the best film about Hmong that has ever been released. I believe the representation of the Hmong characters in “Gran Torino” are closely aligned with stereotypical representations of Asian Americans. For instance, Sue and Thao, part of the family that live next door to Walt Kowalski, and most of the members of the Hmong characters in the film, are depicted as people who are unable to care for and protect themselves and thus desperately need Walt’s intervention.
Decades after the Korean War has ended, old veteran Walt Kowalski (played by actor Clint Eastwood) is still dreaded by the atrocities he witnessed in the combat zone in Korea. An extremely racist Korean War veteran now living in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Detroit after the death of his wife, is forced to confront his extreme and persistent prejudice when a misguided Hmong teenage from his neighborhood is peer pressured to steal his highly cherished Gran Torino. Hmong, which means “free people” are culturally Chinese and fought with the United States during the Vietnam War and then migrated to the United States at the end of the war. The two things that matter most to Walt in life are his 1972 Gran Torino that signifies his happier
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
Gran Torino embodies racial slandering, stereo typing, and discrimination to a high degree and unfolds into a beautiful picture of friendship, true family values, and retaliation at its finest. Racism is an obstacle for potential relationships. This film is a prime example of how race sometimes gets in the way of friendships. Clint Eastwood plays a war veteran who appears to have been forced into racism after serving in the war. A silent racial segregation exists in society today and this segregation is present throughout the film Gran Torino. We find ourselves grouping together
The film Gran Torino directed by Client Eastwood challenges The issues of stereotypes through the attributes of contemporary assumptions of status, gender and ethnicity. Exploring the themes of absence of a male dominate figure, enabling protagonist Theo to be a feminine figure exploits the idea of gender portrays the Hmong men to be stereotyped.Ethnicity and status also express multiple meanings through the cinematography and the Hollywood narrative style illustrates many representation of the western and eastern cultures These key terms gender, ethnicity and status all intertwine with each other during the entire film. The Hmong culture have been stereotyped by the western culture concerning that the American way is the only way which evidently challenges the ideas and ideologies of the Hmong society. the film illustrates the idea of realism but underlines the factor that cultures outside of America should obtain the manners and ideas of an American to survive in society. there is clear indication that classical Hollywood narrative, mis en scene and cinematography style can support stereotypes about gender, ethnicity and status.
Gran Torino is a suspense film directed by Clint Eastwood, which portrays the relationship between a 78-year-old Koran war veteran and his neighbors who are from Laos. The main character, Walt is a racist who still has memories from the horrors of war and has a dislike for anyone, including his own family. After his young neighbor Thao is coerced by his cousin’s gang into stealing Walt’s prized Gran Torino, a unusual relationship forms between the pair. Walt starts to respect Thao and his culture while fulfilling a fatherly role that Thao is lacking. Eventually, Walt has to confront the gang knowing that the confrontation will end in his death. Apart from the stereotypical, get off my lawn quote, this film depicts the relationship of family concerning the care for older adults, the struggle with despair and meaning later in life, and the morality of a good death. This paper will address each of these themes.
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.
The ‘Gran Torino’ symbolizes Walt's belief that hard work and integrity earns you what you want in life. Ironically, Thao Hmong, a neighbour of Kowalski, attempts to steal this symbol, and in doing so puts in motion his eventual earning of its inheritance. As the the pair bond, each begin to understand each others’ values and beliefs. Aside from symbolising the unity of multiculturalism, this relationship allows Thao to learn that the car represents the integrity and respect that comes from those who earn it, not demand it. As Walt begins to see this change in Thao, he rewards him by slowly trusting him with the Gran Torino, washing it, driving it on a date, an obviously symbolic gesture of trust. Finally, Walt handing over his legacy, the Gran Torino, to Thao near the end of the film, is a symbolic gesture of his acceptance of multiculturalism. He became more open to a racially equal neighbourhood, and a racially equal America. Meanwhile, the film showcases the power of the individual by introducing new meanings to one’s salvation that can be realized through America’s multicultural promise.
Today’s society is brimming with discrimination, violence and prejudice between races and cultures. The critically acclaimed drama, Gran Torino does an exceptional job in tackling these issues head on. Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski, is angered by the ongoing cultural changes throughout his neighbourhood. However, as Walt develops a strong relationship with a Hmong family, he recognizes the importance of acceptance in society, while overall enhancing his character development. Through Clint Eastwood’s film, the viewer is able to trace Walt’s character development in order to learn valuable lessons and create a new perspective on appreciating differences as this class embarks on the study of world religions.