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.
In the movie, there are no Hmong characters, male or female, who emerge to mobilize the community to fight back against the gang who terrorizes it.
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There are no Hmong characters, who attempt to take individual action to protect the community. Most importantly, the gang that threatens the neighborhood is also Hmong. As such, the Hmong are represented in ways that are consistent with stereotypical images as Asian Americans are either passive, submissive, and compliant, or dangerous criminals who constitute a “yellow peril.” Simply put, all the Hmong characters in the film are either weak and in need of protection, or they are depraved criminals. In the article “The Cold War Origins of the Model Minority Myth”, it touched on the idea of Asian Americans “were both politically silent and ethnically assimilable” (Lee, 145).
As showed in the movie, the Hmong are so guarded of their community that they keep silent about anything that could disrupt it. According to Lee, “it was Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the Second World War that being the unraveling of the Yellow Peril myth” (Lee, 146). Yellow peril is the idea of peoples of East Asia are a danger to the Western World. We can see the representation of this through the Hmong gang. These stereotypes (silent and yellow peril) legitimize discrimination towards Asian Americans. By depicting the Hmong community only through these two stereotypical extremes, “Gran Torino” represents the Hmong as powerless, dependent, and in need of the patriarchal machismo of Kowalski to protect them from their criminal …show more content…
counterparts. I want to talk about Walt Kowalski character throughout the movie.
From the beginning he seems like an unpleasant man as he is mean to everyone around him. Since his wife had just passed away, he just wants everyone to leave him alone. He doesn't have friends throughout the movie and he doesn’t know his sons, which he also feels guilty about. He also had pass regrets that he cannot get over from the war as he feels like he killed innocent people. I believe Walt gets over that feeling through his relationship with Thao which is very interesting because at the beginning he hates and he uses many racial slurs towards him. However, as Walt gets to know Thao throughout their relationship, he realizes that they have more in common and that’s Thao is a respectable and responsible young boy. Thao earns Walt’s respect and in return Walt revives fulfillment from
Thao. I believe that Walt becomes a father figure to Thao, which allow him to get relief from some the guilt he feels from not knowing his sons in their lives. Also, at the end of the movie Thao gets a chance to save Walt from many things. He saves him by doing things that he thinks will change what Walt did in the past and actually put him at peace. Like, saves him from feeling what it feels like to kill a man because that’s one of the things he can’t get over with. He saves him from having to deal with those felling and he gives him the opportunity to live a happy life. As a result, Walt is happy to die to save Thao and that is what he wants to do. Walt believes that by doing this it will bring him fulfillment and peace within his life. It is just interesting to see how their relationship progresses even though Walt is such a mean character and he’s not actually very nice to Thao throughout the movie, but he will do many things for him. It shows that he gives the respect to Thao and that he realizes that his presumption he had made on him weren’t true. I found the overall relationship to be interesting because it kind of took something that somebody hated and make it something that someone needed or something that they wanted instead. It was an interesting aspect of the movie.
Gung Ho is a movie with good insight on what is like when two cultures have to work together to make what they want happen. In this case, it is American and Japanese men working together at an automobile factory in America. Assan Motors Corporation owns the factory and uses Japanese men to run it with American workers. Hunt Stevenson, the American who originally brought over the Japanese, is used as a go-between for the two different parties. I believe that the movie used stereotypes about both cultures to show the issues the two cultures would face in this situation and how they might overcome them.
In class, we watched a film called Ethnic Notions. In this film, it brought to light how devastating and powerful images can be. Due to exaggerated images and caricatures created pre-civil war era of black men and women, stereotypes were created and have negatively affected the black race in society. Caricatures, such as the Sambo, Zip Coon, Mammy, and Brute, have unfortunately been engrained in the minds of generations. So much so their stereotypes still persist today.
Of course, there were so many stereotyping that appear in the film such as: the Iranian man who is called Osama or ties to terrorist - Black people don’t tip or more Gang bangers have tattoo and sagging pants. More at the beginning of the film, The Asian women who stated that “Mexicans don’t know how to drive they brake to fast”. Don Cheadle who treated his partner as Mexican when she is actually Porto Rican descendant.
This demonstrates to us that no matter how much your legal or moral laws are violated, what matters is how you as an individual react to the situation, justly or unjustly. This movie is centered around the notion that if you are a person of ethnic background, that alone is reason for others to forsake your rights, although in the long run justice will prevail
Stereotyping is violent. During the film, when Officer Hansen and Officer Ryan are on duty searching for a particular carjacked vehicle. Ryan decides to stop a black SUV. Inside there is an interracial couple. The whole situation changes as he decides to hold their hands up and put them against the car. The couple, Cameron and Christine, are both convinced and have no choice but to follow the officer’s orders. Within moments, Christine is molested and sexually abused by Officer Ryan as he is searching her. Officer Ryan stops the couple for no reason. The couple is discriminated and handled with such pain and abuse. It is a wrong action. The officers here are not doing their job of assisting, protecting, and regulating people. Rather, in this instance, they abuse these innocent individuals and, most importantly, these officers lost their trust and respect. Stereotyping leads to misjudgments and often influences sexual violence over groups of people.
Racism had been an ongoing problem in America during the time of WWII. The American citizens were not happy with the arriving of the Japanese immigrants and were not very keen in hiding it. The Japanese were titled with the degrading title of “Japs” and labeled as undesirables. Bombarding propaganda and social restrictions fueled the discrimination towards the Japanese. A depiction of a house owned by white residents shows a bold sign plastered on the roof, blaring “Japs keep moving - This is a white man’s neighborhood” ("Japs Keep Moving - This Is a White Man's Neighborhood"). The white man’s hatred and hostility towards the Japanese could not have been made any clearer. Another source intensifies the racism by representing the Japanese as a swarm of homogeneous Asians with uniform outfits, ...
Andre, Judith. “Stereotypes: Conceptual and Normative Considerations.” Multicultural Film: An Anthology. Spring/Summer 2014. Eds. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren Martilli. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013.
The White Savior Complex is a damaging subconscious underlay of the Hollywood system, and more broadly all of western society. It is used to further separate the notions of “us” and “other” by creating a firm separation fueled by self-righteousness, and a sense of entitlement. Hollywood attempts to address race relations, but fails because of this trope. Kingsle, from the article “Does My Hero Look White In This?” described that both racism and colonialism are acknowledged, but not without reassuring that not only were white people against the system of racist power dynamics, but also were actively fighting against it in leadership roles (2013). In the remainder of my essay I will be commenting on many modern films and their use on this trope, and why subscribing to this filmmaking strategy is problematic.
Woll, Allen L and Randall M Miller. Ethnic and Racial Images in American Film and Television: Historical Essays and Bibliography. n.d. Print.
I gave several examples where Asian Americans were used to play very simple characters. These roles were defined by stereotypes that exist in America. I also researched instances on counter actions taken by Asian Americans to protest against these negative images. My research also has examples of Asians that have succeeded in breaking through the racial barriers in the media.
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.
Two Caucasian police officers come to odds as one uses his authority to unnecessarily pull over a couple who they believe is biracial and therefore wrong. Throughout the entire film race, this is one of the most prominent themes. The film shows that racism is not one sided as the characters themselves are Caucasian, black, Persian, Iranian, and Hispanic. The film shows that race assumptions are not something that is just in existence, but rather society builds up these prejudices and ideas.
“We fight each other for territory; we kill each other over race, pride, and respect. We fight for what is ours. They think they’re winning by jumping me now, but soon they’re all going down, war has been declared.” Abuse, Pain, Violence, Racism and Hate fill the streets of Long Beach, California. Asians, Blacks, Whites and Hispanics filled Wilson High School; these students from different ethnic backgrounds faced gang problems from day to night. This movie contains five messages: people shouldn’t be judgmental because being open-minded allows people to know others, having compassion for a person can help people change their views in life, being a racist can only create hate, having the power of the human will/goodness to benefit humanity will cause a person to succeed at any cost and becoming educated helps bring out the intelligence of people.