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Gran Torino
His character Walt Kowalski is full of regret and disappointments with very little consideration for his own family. He is a bitter old racist asshole that has so many issues that he created a dysfunctional family that does not care about dealing with his selfish ways.In his wife’s funeral, he doesn’t approve of his granddaughter wearing a short miniskirt that shows her belly button, and his grandson makes jokes saying a Hail Mary at the same time. He puts more effort into maintaining his 1972 Gran Torino, than the relationship with his real family. This selfish son of a bitch is too busy feeling sorry for himself, instead of focusing on his own personal issues.
Nevertheless, fate would have him obligated to defend his neighbors, an Asian family that kills him with kindness and delicious food. Over the years he witnesses his own neighborhood deteriorating with gang members and drug dealers with graffiti painted on houses. Walt makes it a habit to keep himself armed at all times, as if he was still in Korea. The first time we see him pointing a gun at a gang member he says,“I’ll blow a hole in your face,and then I go in the house. And sleep like a baby. You can count on that.” This part made me laughed especially with that Freddy Krueger voice of his.
Walt feels that his family does not truly love him. He feels they are just waiting for him to die so they can help themselves to his things. In the scene when his granddaughter is smoking in the garage she asks him what he plans to do with the Grand torino when he dies. Walt just looks at her and does not answer her question. In another scene, it seems as if his son and his daughter in law come over for his birthday to Cheer him up and show him love. Instead we see that they are after his house and want to put him in a retirement home. Walt is old but he is not stupid, it is obvious they are inconsiderate and don’t really care about him. Later on Walt gets the results from the hospital. We can see him looking at the paper with a disappointed look on his face. He reaches out to his son and calls him. We see how the wife responds when she tells his son “He is your father.” The son does not want to talk to him. Unlike before when we see his son called only because he wanted information on tickets to a game. Now Walt needs him and the attitude is returned from his son. Walt wants to tell him but changes his mind when he is rushed off the phone. Walt sees how the boy next door is a good kid. He sees him help the old lady across the street with her groceries after she drops them on the floor. When Walt sees this he starts to feel differently about the boy. The boy needs a father figure his sister expressed in the scene when Walt saves her from some black guys that were harassing her. She continues to bring Walt into her family's life. Walt falls in love with the family and spends more and more time with them. He teaches the boy how to talk to other men before recommending him to a job. In the scene when he takes the boy to the barber shop he walks him through, step by step, how men talk and how to make good conversation. The boy later on shows him how much he learn in the scene when he takes him to the employer. The boy starts making small talk by saying how a mechanic charged him too much for a repair. The boy passed the test with an A+ when the employer reciprocated and shared a similar experience with the boy. He is immediately hired on the spot.
Through out the film, Walt is not in good health. We see him spite up blood. When the gangs shoot up the neighbors house he feels that the only way to help his new family is to make the ultimate sacrifice. He must feel his illness is so bad that it is better for him to go out like this, instead of withering away in a hospital or be stuck in an old folks home like his son originally wanted. That’s probably another reason why he decided not to tell anyone about his illness.
Before Walt does the deed, he needs to show the Padre his appreciation and gives him a fake confession. The reason why I call it a fake confession was because he doesn't tell him the real regrets he has. He tells the Padre how he doesn't have a good relationship with his sons, and how on one incident he cheated on his taxes. Walt just did it to show the Padre respect, to show he appreciated the kindness he had shown to his late wife. Walt started to like him and wanted the Padre to feel some satisfaction on finally doing what he’s been asking for through out the movie. It was his wife’s final wishes. The real confession happened later on when he locks the boy downstairs. In this scene I was excited to Mise En Scene. If you look at this scene carefully, it looks like a confession. The way the gate looks like perforations going in the same pattern as a confessional. The boy also was lower than Walt . It almost looked as if the boy was the priest knelling. A beautiful example of a moment we should of done a freeze frame on this shot. Walt starts to tell the boy how he regrets killing boys that looks just like him. The boy was not from Korea, but does resemble the look of his former enemy. Walt continues to tell the boy how bad he feels about that, and how that will never go away. This was a powerful scene that explains Walt’s bitterness and why he has issues with himself and his family. These same issues haunted him for a long time, and it was finally out in this real confession.
At the end when he approaches the house, he knows exactly what he is doing. We see him in the middle of the street. He deliberately does not want to be on their property so this way he is not considered a trespasser. He also does not want to step foot on their property, so the neighbors can see what is going on, and there can be lots of witnesses. Before he makes his fast move, we are reminded of a scene early on in the movie. He shoots the gang members one by one with his finger.This was like the way he did when he saved the girl from the black guys he called spooks.
The ending was the same as the beginning, a funeral. That’s a good way to frame out the movie, another reminder tying everything together. It also reminded us on how the grand kids were not sad at the grandmothers funeral. It was a good reminder, justifying why Walt does not leave anything to his grandchildren and sons.
I don’t agree with Walt’s reasoning, even though I do understand his point of view. I feel that he should of put effort into his own family. Walt is the one with the fucked up issues. I’m sure his sons had to deal with that their whole lives. I’m so glad I didn’t have a father like that growing up. Walt is such an asshole. This is one of the best realist style films I have seen
